“The finest virtue of the great thinker is the magnanimity with which a man of knowledge he intrepidly often with some embarrassment, often with sublime mockery offers himself and his life as the supreme sacrifice.”[1]
One has to but agree that we haven't created the world - as we never can create one. The world around us is immensely greater than us. We can never wholly grasp or master it. We can only tryto understand. Even the person who thinks that the world exists only in his imagination or as far as he can perceive it with his senses, he is at the same time totally aware that there is much more to it, even if he cannot or does not want to prove it.
On the other hand we see through the history of humankind a clear attempt of a human being to conquer the world, to have absolute power over it, to stand on the top of the highest mountain seeing everything below like mere nothingness, a child's play, submissible to one's every whim or desire. In this world of his, as he sees it, there is no place for any pity for those tiny chessmen down below murmuring over some little difficulties which have no meaning what so ever in view of a greater plan hehas.
Thus, on the top of the highest mountain, stands the loneliest man, who in his chesty attempt to conquer the world has lost everything. In elevating himself above God, he has lost him, the world and everyone within. He has become a prisoner of himself. And somewhere far away, above the empty sky, or within his deepest self he hears a voice: "Why did you not use your free will for the purpose for which I gave it to you, that is, in order to do right?"[2]With his own choice he has condemned himself into the deepest misery of loosing his true self and dignity.
But let us go to the beginning whence did it all start with Nietzsche. "What did we do when we unchained this earth from its sun?"[3]asks he, the man who has made a haughty claim that we all are murderers of God. The world must have become silent at this terrible allegation, the sun and the stars must have lost their light and people their meaning. Or did this happen only in his mind?
And what is his answer to this terrible sight? "How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiestand mightiestof all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred gamesshall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too greatfor us? Must we ourselves not become godssimply to appearworthy of it?"[4]
How is he going to fill this emptiness he has created – claiming as he does, that he has killed the holiest? How can he appease the pain of losing the one who now seems to punish him so severely, that the unbearable pain seems to burst into a most bitter fury and revenge? There is no hope, no light for him now, but cruel emptiness and heartlesness of a loneliest man. "Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?"[5]
But from whence starts the tragedy in his overcomingof this suffering, the human suffering we all experience in our lives through loss of our loved ones, of our health, of success or even friends as figuratively depicted in the character of Job? We are going to argue that the very roots of this tragedy lie in elevating oneself over God and becoming god himself. "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil"[6]But there is also a price one has to pay for transgressing the very limits he has as a simple human being. "For those who exalt themselves will be humbled."[7]And we shall try to see why, letting Augustine to take our hand and lead us through this troublesome task.
"The fool has said in his heart, There is no God(Ps. 52,18),"[8]says Augustine through the words of a psalmist. And elsewhere develops the deeper meaning of this: "For not even have certain sacrilegious and abominable philosophers, who entertain perverse and false notions of God, dared to say,There is no God.They are corrupt, and become abominable in their affections: that is, while they love this world and love not God; these are the affections whichcorruptthe soul, and so blindit, that the fool can even say, in his heart,There is no God. For as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.(Romans 1:28)"[9]
So what exactly is Augustine trying to say here? He says that in denying the existence of God, or rather not retaining God in one's knowledge, one looses true knowledge and capability of understanding. His mind becomes corrupted by poison that will ultimately also cloud his reason and make his heart cold and evil. But one could ask: how can it be? If there is no God, how can the mind be corrupted in believing in mere invention of man? But let me prove that in factNietzsche doesbelieve in God.
Firstly, how can someone kill a mere thought, someone or something that does not exist, or rather in whose existence he does not believe? Wouldn't it be a nonsense? How can one sing a requiemto nothingness? "It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo."[10]This very act of going into a church and singing a song there to someone is a proof that one believes there really has been someone to sing it for, even if the person is now dead or even if this act happened in his mind. It is indeed a confirmation that there wassomething, which used to be greatest of all, which had a spiritual dominion over men and their beliefs – this is just gone for himnow. And certainly not only for him, but for many. This is also a confirmation that times have become evil. People have lost their spirituality and become more and more like beasts. "Once the spirit was God, then he became man, and now he even becomes rabble."[11]
And if there really was a God, how could one possibly kill him? How can one kill a spirit which is invisible, omnipresent and eternal? What could a mosquito do to an elephant? His attempt to kill him seems rather similar to the ridiculous attempt of Don Quixoteto fight the windmills, that he imagined to be giants. If God wasn't immune to such foolish attack, how could he be a God in the first place? "God owes nothing to any man, for he gives everything gratuitously."[12]And not only has a man no reason to demand from him anything, he never even was a owner of himself - nor could he be one – because of the simple fact that he cannot keep his being in existence by his own strength: "For without him you would be nothing, and from him you derive such existence as you have; but on condition that, unless you turn to him, you must pay him back the existence you have from him, and become, not indeed nothing, but miserable."[13]
In all honesty we can say, that Nietzsche was miserable. He had lost his father in a most tender age, he had been rejected by his loved one, step by step he was losing his spiritual and physical health. He is in despairand wants to overcome it, buthe doesn't make a leap of faith like Kierkegaard. But a leap he surely makes. Or rather it is a desperate jump, an escape, a flight far away from this world, filled with only suffering, decomposition and decay. But don't be mistaken here - this is the same escape that his "preachers of death" were making, those who preach the renunciation of life, those who also seek to overcome the world and suffering by going beyond, into the "afterlife". And whether their afterlife is a bit similar to his reaching beyondgood and evil, we shall surely find out.
So he goes under, and he goes beyondinto his promised land. And in doing this he uses the means that sound sofamiliar: "Hold holy your highest hope!"[14]And what is this hope? "Your love of lifeshall be love of your highest hope; and your highest hope shall be the highest thought of life." He is not the first one to speak about life. "I am the way and the truth and the life."[15]So spoke the God who was dead for him now. And he goes even further in imitating him: "Your highest thought, however, you should receive as a commandfrom me – and it is: man is something that shall be overcome."[16]So Zarathustra, the ancient "prophet and founder of the religion of the Iranian peoples", becomes a new idol, new god to fill the empty place in Nietzsche's heart, in his longing for "afterlife" in the world were God is dead for him. And as we can see, this new god and king is also giving commands, very precise precepts how one has to live.
This new god has also his own version of the "Sermon on the Mount": "Here Zarathustra fell silent for a while and looked lovingly at his disciples. Then he continued to speak thus, and the tone of his voice had changed: Remain faithfulto the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth. Thus I beg and beseechyou. Do not let them fly away from earthly thingsand beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earththe virtue that flew away, as I do—back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a humanmeaning."
He uses the same language as was used by God, who was dead for him now. The new god has also disciples, friends, whom he is beseeching to remain faithful. He also speaks about virtues, meaning and love. His words are full of comfort for those who have suffered, who have so long been without any hope: "Wake and listen, you that are lonely! From the future come winds with secret wing-beats; and good tidings are proclaimed to delicate ears."[17]Do we not hear a familiar thought behind those words? "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."[18]And what's more, this new god is not just promising to comfort the lonely - he is also promising salvationto his chosen people: "You that are lonely today, you that are withdrawing, you shall one day be the people: out of you who have chosen yourselves, there shall grow a chosen people—and out of them, the overman. Verily, the earth shall yet become a site of recovery. And even now a new fragrance surrounds it, bringing salvation - and a new hope."[19]
These are strong words. We cannot but ask ourselves whence do they come, why should one have faithin them? And who is really Zarathustra? Have we ever seen him? Has there ever been a man claiming to have seem him? Or is he just a beautiful pipe dream in the mind of Nietzsche?
But let us look more closely what this new god has to say. And we discover something really strange: "Verily, I counsel you, go awayfrom me and resistZarathustra! And even better: be ashamedof him! Perhaps he deceivedyou." What do we hear? Do we hear hesitation behind the words of this creatorof the new god? Does he feel that the weight of responsibility is weighing him down, or do we even hear a remorse caused by his bad conscience? "You rever me; but what ifyour reverence tumbles one day? Beware lest a statue slay you." Perhaps he isaware of the fact that he has created only a false god, an empty illusion after all. "You say you believe in Zarathustra? But what matters Zarathustra? You are my believers—but what matter all believers? You had not yet sought yourselves: and you found me. Thus do all believers; therefore all faith amounts to so little. Now I bid you lose me -"[20]Doesn't this sound like the farewell speach of Christ? "But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."[21]
There is so much sadness in the words of this new idol. How could such a sadness and loneliness ever help those who are sad and lonely? "Terrible it is to be alone with the judge and avenger of one's own law. Thus is a star thrown out into the void and into the icy breath of solitude. (---) And you will cry. "I am alone!""[22]Doesn't this remind us the words said to an ancient creature, fallen like a star from high above down to the lowest? "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!For thou hast said in thine heart, I willascendinto heaven, I willexaltmy throne above the stars of God: I will sitalso upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:I will ascendabove the heights of the clouds; I willbe like the most High." The will to power? Doesn't this sound like the will to power of Nietsche? "Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."[23]For those who exalt themselves will be humbled...
To the sides of the pit... Deep down to the place where there is no light, no hope and no returning. Zarathustra says: "I must descend to the depths, as you do in the evening when you go by the sea and still bring light to the underworld, you overrich star."[24]Bringing light to the underworld? Isn't this also the attribute of the fallen angel, to bring light? There are also other common metaphors between this fallen angel and Zarathustra. I will ascendabove the heights of the clouds, said the haughty angel.Zarathustra also speaks of the clouds: "I no longer feel as you do: this cloudwhich I see beneathme, this blackness and gravity at which I laugh – this is your thundercloud. You look upwhen you feel the need for elevation. And I look downbecause I am elevated.Whoamong you can laugh and be elevated at the same time? Whoever climbs the highest mountains laughs at all tragic plays and tragic seriousness."[25]Who indeed? But how long can he laugh? How long can a gravely ill man laugh at everything that was till now considered sacred? For those who exalt themselves will be humbled...
And isn't this laughter evil and arrogant? Isn't this a laughter of a person who considers himself aboveall others? Is Zarathustra really above good and evil, or is he just disguising his evil intentions behind relativism as we all too often see happening in our own time? Is there really escape from the realm of good and evil? Is there something beyond the realm of possible? Or is it just the same game Nietzsche continues, only choosing the opposite hero and a protagonist for himself? Zarathustra continues: "Brave, unconcerned, mocking, violent– thus wisdom wants us."[26]And this new wisdom is surely not the one Augustine is talking about. This new wisdom insists on becoming mocking and violent. It has chosen a new idol - the fallen angel - and identifies itself with its malice.
This fills us with bafflement and incredulity as to whence comes the needfor evil in the first place, whence comes this desire toexalt a throne above the stars of God? Let us listen again to Augustine: "Whence then did the thought come into his mind to attempt things which made of a good angel a devil?"[27]Is it really possible for this new god to take the place of God, who is supposed to be "dead" now? Is it possible to elevate oneself to such unimaginable heights from whence it must be all the more too painful to fall the higher one has ascended? "But if the mind, being immediately conscious of itself, takes pleasure in itself to the extent of perversely imitatingGod, wanting to enjoy its own power, the greater it wants to be the less it becomes. Prideis the beginning of all sin, and the beginning of man's pride is a revoltfrom God (Eccl. 10:12-13)." For those who exalt themselves will be humbled...
But this imitating wasn't enough for the fallen star. He also wanted to have "friends" and disciples, because in the bitterness of his heart there was just one desire: to mock the one whom he could never directly conquer, to mock God the Creator through his creatures: "To the devil's pride was added malevolent envy, so that he persuaded man to show the same pride as had proved the devil's damnation." He knows that he is damned, that there is no hope, that he has lost everything – but in revenge he wants to drag with himself as many as possible, stealing them from God. Is thisa new life? Is thisa salvation or promised land? Is it really possible to overcome the realm of possible? "It is the envythat has destroyed me."[28]
So the new idol doesn't want to give up. And Nietzsce is stubborn also. Man cannot live without hope and faith, especially a man who suffered as much as he did. In spite of all hesitations or remorse he may have had, he puts all his love, all his hope and all his faith in Zarathustra: "And onlywhen ye have all denied me, will I return unto you. Verily, with other eyes, my brethren, shall I then seek my lost ones; with another loveshall I then love you. And once again shall ye have become friends unto me, and children of one hope: then will I be with you for the third time, to celebrate the great noontide with you."[29]Isn't this similar to the words of Christ before leaving his disciples? "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."[30]And he continues: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live."[31]
And how is Zarathustra coming back? "A warlikeage is about to begin, an age which, above all, will give honour to valour once again. For this age shall prepare the way for one yet higher, and it shall gather the strength which this higher age will need one day – this age which is to carry heroisminto the pursuit of knowledge and wage wars for the sake of thoughts and their consequences."[32]Doesn't this sound like the "Brave New World" of the National Socialism or Communism? Haven't these ideologies waged wars for the sake of thoughts and their consequences? "Men who have their own festivals, their own weekdays, their own periods of mourning, who are accustomed to commandwith assurance and are no less ready to obeywhen necessary." Didn't both Communism and National Socialism create a new state religion, to which all its subjects had to be obedient, with all it's new heroes, "saints", holydays and even weekdays?
There is nothing beyond the realm of possibility. It is the same opium they are offering to people in which they accused the old religion of. Only now everything is turned upside down. "Be robbersand conquerors, as long as you cannot be rulers and owners, you lovers of knowledge! At long last the pursuit of knowledge will reach out for its due: it will want to ruleand own, and you with it!" Weren't the real consequences of revolution to rob, to take away the property and power from the ruling class and to create thus a new aristocracy from the members of a sole ruling party?
Is thisthe promised land? Is thisthe new beautiful life, the earthly paradise? "So? You distrust me? You are angry with me, you beautiful monsters?"[33]Yes, we have seen too much violence and destruction in the 20thcentury, the age of the "Brave New World". "Verily, even now nothing is left of the world but green dusk and green lightning flashes. Carry on as you please, you pranksters; roar with delight and malice – or dive again, pouring your emeralds into the deepest depths, and cast your endless white manes of foam and spray over them – everything suits me." This is a rather devilish picture. The world as was known since was truly destroyed, it was blown up with the dynamite of new ideas, of a new religion, new merciless god. You can no longer be sure whether these words were written by a prophet or a madman having hallucinations. "From beneath came the suggestion of the serpent,"[34]says Augustine.
"How, if some day or night a demonwere to sneak after you into your loneliest lonelinessand say to you, "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything immeasurably small or great in your life must return to you--all in the same succession and sequence--even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned over and over, and you with it, a dust grain of dust." Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teethand curse the demonwho spoke thus? Or did you once experience a tremendous momentwhen you would have answered him, "You are a god, and never have I heard anything more godly." If this thought were to gain possession of you, it would changeyou, as you are, or perhaps crushyou."[35]
This description looks pretty like spiritual hell. Isn't this the very tragedy of a corrupted mind described by Augustine? Didn't this devilish haughty lustfor power destroy Nietzsche in the end? We see a man trying to overcome his sufferings. It is indeed a painful sight as must have been the one of Job. It is brave and noble to struggle against pain, to have courage. But it isn't brave to no longer believe in goodness, what ever its origins may be. A desperate angst, resentiment, rebellion against the faith of one's ancestors will ultimately destroy the person. He cannot undo the world, unless he is undoing himself. So there is just a wreck of a human left, stripped of his true dignity and meaning. We have a sacrifice, we have a man who offers himself and his life as the supreme sacrifice –yes, but to whom and for what purpose? How can this new god, this new religion Nietzsche created, help anyone, if it didn't help himself? How can a blind man lead a blind? His sacrifice seems rather a Hegelian "Holy Friday without Resurrection". It is suffering without hope, darkness without light, world without sun and man without God.
But let us not end with such pessimistic conclusions. We have proved that the attempt to reach beyond the realm of possibility is mere illusion. But being a mere illusion it can also destroy a human being. The evil doesn't have a power or substance of its own, like said Augustine – it is only robbing these from goodness. The devil cannot be more than an ape of God. Even the once highest and brightest of angels has everything only from its Creator. And even in the most tragic of stories there is still beauty and justice, because it shows the necessity for true knowledge and wisdom which is only found in truth - and not in illusion. It is only found inthe way and the truth and the life.[36]
"Now that the blood of Christ is shed for us, after unspeakable toils and miseries, lets cleave to our liberator with such love, let us be so enraptured with his brightness, that nothing coming to our experience from the lower realms may rob us of our vision of the higher things. And if any suggestion springing from a desire for the inferior should deflect our purpose, the eternal damnation and torments of the devil will recall us to the true path. Such is the beauty of justice, such the pleasure of the eternal light, that is, of unchangeable truth and wisdom, that, even if we could not abide in it more than the space of a single day, for that day alone innumerable years of this life full of delights and abundance of temporal goods would be rightly and deservedly despised."[37]
[2] Augustine, On Free Will, Book II, 3.
[7]Matthew 23, 12.
[8]Augustine,On Free Will, Book II, 3.
[9]Augustine,Exposition on Psalm 14.
[11]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On reading and writing.
[12]Augustine,On Free Will, Book III.
[13]Augustine,On Free Will, Book III.
[14]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On reading and writing.
[15]John 14:6
[16]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On war and warriors.
[17]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On the gift-giving virtue.
[18]Matthew 11:28.
[19]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On the gift-giving virtue.
[20]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On the gift-giving virtue, 3.
[21]John 16:17.
[22]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On the way of the creator.
[23]Isaiah 14:12-15.
[24]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, Zarathustra's Prologue.
[25]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On reading and writing.
[26]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On reading and writing.
[27]Augustine,On Free Will, Book III.
[28]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On the tree on the mountainside.
[29]Thus Spoke Zarathustra: First Part, On the gift-giving virtue.
[30]John 14:2,3.
[31]John 14:18,19.
[32]The Gay Science, 283.
[33]The Gay Science, 310.
[34]Augustine,On time and eternity, Book III.
[35]The Gay Science, 310.
[36]John 14:6.
[37]Augustine,On time and eternity, Book III.
