Nietzsche and Asceticism - Literature review Example

Your Nietzsche and Asceticism The essay On the Genealogy of Morals by Nietzsche was written in the late 1800s and continues to be significant in this day and age. This literature attempts to explain the feebleness of humanity, especially with regards to appreciation of life. The essay, especially the third part, talks about asceticism and how it dominates the modern life of those times (up to now, in fact). For Nietzsche, asceticism is for the “sick” people, because it defeats the purpose of living. However, it is paradoxical in nature too, because asceticism wills the people to live with nothing to live for. Before interpreting the essay, one should also put it into context. This essay was written when Nietzsche himself was sick. He was a medical orderly in the Franco-Prussian War and he contracted several diseases during his duty. As his health declined, his works became more prolific, probably because he had more time to think. It is worthwhile to note that Nietzsche was the father of “nihilism”. With Germany unified at his time, it was understandable that his nation was quite optimistic about science and knowledge and their future. Nietzsche prophetically noted that the German’s fanatic optimism, nationalism and religiosity (Christianity; most were Anti-Semitic) would lead the nation to war. Nietzsche was never a believer of absolutes. He has a quote, “You have your way. I have my way. As for the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist”. On the Genealogy of Morals is an essay the traces the “origin” or “genealogy” of these morals. It is a critique of the modern people’s moral judgments and it is made up of three essays, using the genealogical method which examines the origin of some of these moral beliefs and the quality of life that the modern man leads. The Genealogy of Morals calls for suspension of certain beliefs in certain truths, and as this is a critique for morals, it calls for the reader to suspend some of the assumptions that he has pertaining to morals. For Nietzsche, some things have different meanings at different times and The Genealogy of Morals attempts to explain certain things the evolution certain things have undergone, especially morals. In a society, for instance, morals are treated as something sacred by virtue of values and religion. However, these morals are never absolute as their meanings are dynamic and may change depending on a situation. Hence, Nietzsche does not believe on reality because it may change any moment, as they are only socially constructed (and society is also quite dynamic). So to solve this problem about words and social constructs, Nietzsche looks beyond the words and looks at the meanings and implications of the words and the actions people make, as it adopts over time. Looking from that perspective, Nietzsche finds will and a force. He also found out that existence (or living) is a struggle of wills, usually with the goal of getting power over another person. This way of living is defines the modern existence, with the purpose of overcoming the other person in order to feel superior. To achieve meaning, there should be something that dominates it, or at least precedes it, so that it can be interpreted well. However, since the dominators can change over time, meaning also changes, like the word “good”. Before it was used on the blond beast (who was there to destroy and reform), but now is dominated by the will of the sick ascetics. But then again, belief in this words is nothing unless one is dominated by this will. As nothing is absolute, one can achieve defining words and life by gaining different experiences and perspectives. For Nietzsche, this is the right way to learn meaning. There is no absolute, there is no constant and everything will matter according to one’s perspective. Nietzsche questions morality by presenting this idea. Morals are not absolute. They were never given by God but rather it is a socially constructed set of ideas that have evolved just like the humans have evolved. It would be forever dominated by wills and will forever evolve. Nothing is sacred or absolute, nothing is perhaps true. The only constant is the love for power. The third essay is entitled “What do Ascetic Ideals Mean?” This is the last essay in the series, and it confronts asceticism, or according to Nietzsche, a dangerous sickness. Asceticism is quite powerful as it influences a lot of people. Actually, most people leading the contemporary life are leading the ascetic way. Asceticism is a principled way of life which usually calls for self-denial (Microsoft Encarta). For Nietzsche, asceticism is the continuation of a sick will. Paradoxically, it is strong but it is for the weak. Nietzsche calls the ascetics sick people. For Nietzsche, asceticism exemplifies itself when the modern man realizes that he would still be an animal even after the “civilized” nature he has accomplished. That the modern man would continue to struggle against his own animalistic nature and would continuously see his own self as a vile and sinful earthy being. This conflict would never be resolved but man would continue to subdue it, hence, the self denial. Because of this, Nietzsche said, “man would rather will nothingness than not will” at all. Going back to the subject of morals, Nietzsche figured that morality is born because of man’s resentment towards anything powerful (because he wants to be the powerful one) and healthy. Because of this, Nietzsche concluded that our internal (societal) struggle for power would turn man’s aggressiveness unto him as well, and this impossible problem is what will be the start of man’s demise. His concern about the sick being the greatest danger to the healthy is voiced in the third essay. This is about the pervasiveness of asceticism in the modern life. Asceticism is not necessarily a bad thing. It is one of the universal laws of nature as it is present in almost every culture. Asceticism is a paradox though, as it preaches the will to stop willing; it is the will to mastering life itself. In other words, Nietzsche explains it as “life opposing life.” As humans are curious creatures, we continue to experiment and explore and we continually find flaws and gifts in our nature. As he knows more, he continues to want more power over himself, nature and the divine. Because of such struggle, men are so self absorbed with their own constructs so much that they are sick, thus, asceticism. At first, asceticism denies life, or the pleasures that entail when one is living; however, when you look at its implications (looking beyond), asceticism is a way of life affirming life by means of the hardships given by the struggle men put themselves into. It’s as if one is saying, “I am suffering, therefore, I live.” It says “yes” to life on the pedestal of hardships. For asceticism to be successful, an affirmation of the hardship is needed. However, even if one acknowledges his torments and struggles, it would go unnoticed because they are sufferings to which we have to endure, as required by living on Earth. And because of this outlook, life becomes something nauseous and this becomes the sickness, and the people who fall victims to the sickness are those who are weak. However, this sickness must be cured, and the only available people who are to nurse these sick people are the healthy people and these healthy people have the risk of being infected with the sickness itself. It is dangerous. Therefore, the one who tends should be sick himself too but should be strong to lead the sick people. This sickness is dangerous especially to the healthy people, or in his words, the strong people. For him, the invalids are the greatest danger to the men, not the predatory or evil men (66). According to him, Sick people are the greatest danger for healthy people. For strong people disaster does not come from the strongest, but from the weakest (66). These invalids, or sick people are those who are oppressed and broken; they are the weakest and they undermine life and they poison life and let us question our trust in life. These invalids breed contempt for life, letting men believe that he was born to fail, subjecting him to losing even before the battle started, using sweet deceit that poisons the human spirit and breeds anger. This is how the ascetic rises into power: by suffering life and seeing it as a misfortune, and they bring down everyone they can to partake with their own self loathing. This brings them power, and the strong ones get sick, in behalf of their beliefs. Nietzsche calling this a sickness is quite appropriate since it is, like a sickness, contagious. It creates a false sense of morality, or a new set of rules pertaining to society and these rules are propagated by the invalids, convincing the strong that they are the cause of their own suffering, making the strong hate themselves as well. Because the strong men are not as “good” as they think themselves to be, because the strong men are the cause of other people’s suffering, the strong men become victims of a false sense of guilt, making them sacrifice their own beliefs in order to “pay up” for their own mistakes as preached by these sick, suffering men. This is what causes the strong to get infected as well; and the only way to prevent getting infected is to avoid these invalids and avoid the morals and the moralizing. The sickness stems from the fact that these people are jealous and oppressed and they blame everyone but themselves for their misfortune. This is the profile of a sick man. Like personifications of reproach (67), they go about preaching about justice and atonement. Their goal is revenge on the people who live well and to do this, they turn the strong into something like them, which are vile and “moral”. Nietzsche, clearly abhors this diseased men and he deliver scathing lines about those with moralizing sentiments that mean to break most people’s spirits. All of Nietzsche’s sentiments are correct. He may have used harsh words but all of his observations are correct and quite relevant up to this day. His observations about certain people, about morals and moralizing is apt. One can be reminded of those people who continually preach about religion and its teachings on how to live well. These rules confine people and they limit people’s capacities as a human being capable of much greater goals. However, the rules which are only socially constructed and invented are just instruments used by the sick to control and propagate the other people’s lives that do not share their own lifestyle. They are limiting people. Another thing that comes to mind is the self-denial that the ascetics propagate. Because of this, people fail to recognize their real strengths but continue to notice other people’s weaknesses, and these weaknesses are the ones they use to bring these people down to their level. When they do bring these people down, they actually revel on the fact that they have exercised their power over another and this sense of fulfillment fuels the sickness and it bolsters it so that it would continue that power trip, and it would also continue the vengeful behavior because they can see that it works. Basically, the sickness thing is the flaw of the human nature, as asceticism is. This is because humans are innately incapable of being contented. The humans are prone to jealousy and other human emotions, and this is the core of it. Because of jealousy, one forces another person down to show power over the other “privileged” person, forcing them to believe that privilege is not the answer to happiness, or worse, happiness does not exist at all. Jealousy therefore breeds vengeance and contempt and this is the root of the sickness. Simply put, it is crab mentality. The way crabs behave when they escape a basket is how people behave when they are in a pit of poverty and hardship. Crabs and people pull the others from top (those nearing escape already), hence, bringing them back to the floor again. For crabs, it is an unconscious action but for humans, it is a deliberate action which came from jealousy and vengeance. It’s like, “either you’re reaching the top with me, or suffer in the pit with me”. It is fueled by the competition to be better than most, to be better than how nature intended us to be. However, this competitive nature would bring us, ultimately, doom because instead of fighting outside forces that threaten human life (quality of life), the battle is within ourselves, which can never be helpful in any way, only destructive, making ourselves dangerous to ourselves. References: "Asceticism." Microsoft Encarta. 2009. CD-ROM. Gane, Laurence. “Introducing Nietzsche: A Graphic Guide”. London: Totem Books. 2005. Print. Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals. ClassicAuthors.net. 2005. Web. August 19, 2011. Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Portable Nietzsche. Trans. Walter Kauffman. New York: Penguin Books, 1977. Print. Read More