Page 14 - GALIET WHIM WILL AND WOE: The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche IV

Galiet & Galiet
Nietzsche is similarly concerned in what way the end of tragedy, the disappearance of the Dionysian spirit and the emergence of the Socratic spirit, are related to the surprising degeneration in Grecian humanism.20 Indeed, too much reason, virtue and order is just as stifling as too much passion, vice and chaos. The lofty, Apollonian ideals inculcated during Perikles’ Athens perish once despair, moral decline and relativism flourish during the Peloponnesian War. HistoryfurthershowsSocraticmantobeimpotentinannihilatingtragedy, and what is worse, to be inclined to genocide in pursuit of his self-serving rational ideology. This constitutes the tragedy of Tragedy, how the inhuman, paradoxically, moves individuals towards the human. Only in horrid misery, injustice and oppression are humans fully united and capable to commiserate with one another or with God. However, in luxurious, neo-liberal nations, humans commiserate with a paid therapist or the mall. They are valued only if they function as efficient mechanic or electronic products in relation to industry and capital. Either way, history agrees with Nietzsche in that humans experience metaphysical comfort only in the tragic; however, this too might be an illusion. Genuine metaphysical comfort belongs more to contemplation of one’s mind, spirit and body and to compassionate and kind actions than to exile and tragedy. However, for tragic nations and times, Nietzsche’s tonic 3⁄4 courage 3⁄4 surely surpasses victimization and resignation. Indeed, loving one’s destiny seems the only remedy left against adversity and despair. Undoubtedly, valiant survival and overcoming of horror are awe-inspiring: they transform mortals into epic heroes, and occasionally, into Eleusian immortals.
Asphodels.
20 When logos prevails in Socratic man, then the beauty and passion of mythos as poetry (in the grand sense) disappears.
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