Insightful Observations

Rubens' Chained Prometheus

As professor Jung correctly remarked, to grasp the absurdity and unnaturalness of many of man’s moral codes as well as to see their historical and cultural relativity is insight worthy only of the highest of our geniuses, such as was Nietzsche.

Having said this, let me now try to interpret and elaborate a bit on some of these codes that I find interesting. I am going to divide this historical discourse into more parts, however, for it’s not fashionable in the contemporary blogosphere to post very long articles, which may make you prevent from reading them. It is a known fact that on the Internet there’s too much to do and never enough time, isn’t that correct my friends? Let the 21st century be the century of  distraction and of overloading with unnecessary information, but we shall leave this topic for another article.

1. On the Morals of Savage

What’s good for the savage?
To live and aim for the satisfaction of all primal needs by using his animal instincts, that is the need to quench his thirst, eat to fill his stomach and get energy, be in secure and warm environment, as well as have mate or mates to belong to a social body. Last, but not the least, to have sex to satisfy his libido and preserve species through procreation. Savage lives without a sense of purpose or reflection, guided purely by his desires and animal instincts. On this account he is thus a mere animal, yet in the later period he starts creating symbols to be able to convey meanings and get pleasure from better communication and playing. He also discovers his urge to dominate nature and environment and therefore starts to transform resources into primitive tools to become more productive. With the rise of his productivity, he acquires leisure and is then able to use this time to play and to amuse himself.

2. On the Morals of Ancient Greek

What’s good for the Ancient Greek?
He is a civilized man who draws meaning from Gods that have been created in a way to resemble real humans. These Gods are powerful, yet not perfect, which teaches man about his strengths and possibilities as well as about his weaknesses. His life is guided by the wisdom of learned and courageous persons of the past, which is transferred to him by the means of mythology, art, great literature, beautiful poetry and engaging philosophy. He therefore lives a life of virtue, mainly the one of excellence. Striving to become the ideal of a “well-rounded man”, he develops his skills in all important areas to use them throughout his life. He keeps his body physically fit and is very able in crafts, yet he can also hold a deep philosophical debate or abstract thinking. He leaves the routine and unimportant tasks to be done by slaves and participates in politics and education instead. Making important decisions about public issues whenever there’s the need to make some is his noble duty, yet he also derives a great pleasure from reading poetry and great literature in solitude to educate himself. Playing games for the sake of playing is his means of getting the magical child-like joy from life in adulthood  and this is considered as a highly virtuous way of spending one’s leisure. Doing nothing in excess is his way of ensuring that he gets the highest life quality by engaging in just the right amount of the pleasurable things, that is, the right amount of learning, the right amount of enjoying art, the right amount of participating in politics, the right amount of doing sports and also the right amount of enjoying his play.

His self-awareness has developed to such a high extent that he knows about his dark, Dionysian side, yet he is able to balance it with his civilized and virtuous Apollonian one and ensure that both are in harmony through exercising his willpower. He nurtures his light side by indulging in great art and poetry, by discussing philosophical issues and learning the wisdom that his ancestors have left him. To preserve the species and develop civilization, he procreates and passes on all his knowledge and wisdom, mainly morals, to his offspring in the form of imagination-stimulating myths and enjoyable stories. However, he must occasionally feed his dark side too in order to live a balanced life and maintain his sanity as well as his ability to stay happy and fulfilled. He thus organizes and participates in events that satisfy his primal needs, which were already mentioned previously in the part on savage. Sexual orgies, overeating at feasts, doing as well as seeing violence to get excited and loosing his identity in wild Dionysian rituals are the manifestations of his need to provide food for the dark and chaotic side of existence. After getting just the necessary amount of this uncivilized pleasure, he represses his wicked cravings back into the unconscious background of his psyche, for to be civilized is to live mainly in the Apollonian virtuous state of mind.

Ok, that’s it for today, stay tuned for next part, which is coming soon…!