Thoughts out of Season Part I by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
page 65 of 189 (34%)
page 65 of 189 (34%)
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vicious attitude of mind, and one full of scornful irony towards the
indescribable sufferings of humanity. When a philosopher like Strauss is able to frame it into a system, it becomes more than a vicious attitude of mind--it is then an imbecile gospel of comfort for the "I" or for the "We," and can only provoke indignation. Who could read the following psychological avowal, for instance, without indignation, seeing that it is obviously but an offshoot from this vicious gospel of comfort?--"Beethoven remarked that he could never have composed a text like Figaro or Don Juan. Life had not been so profuse of its snubs to him that he could treat it so gaily, or deal so lightly with the foibles of men" (p. 430). In order, however, to adduce the most striking instance of this dissolute vulgarity of sentiment, let it suffice, here, to observe that Strauss knows no other means of accounting for the terribly serious negative instinct and the movement of ascetic sanctification which characterised the first century of the Christian era, than by supposing the existence of a previous period of surfeit in the matter of all kinds of sexual indulgence, which of itself brought about a state of revulsion and disgust. "The Persians call it bidamag buden, The Germans say 'Katzenjammer.'"[9]* [Footnote * : Remorse for the previous night's excesses.--Translator's note.] Strauss quotes this himself, and is not ashamed. As for us, we turn aside for a moment, that we may overcome our loathing. |
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