Time is a flat circle
What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and 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 unutterably small or great in your life will have to 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 upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!"
Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus?... Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?
This fragment is taken from Nietzsche's book "The Gay Science"
Before Nietzsche, Schopenauher also declared the absurdity of life by declaring it's endless repetition. For him, the ultimate nature of reality was the will, a blind assertive drive to live and satisfy desires.
In Schopenhauer’s philosophy, pessimism is a function of wisdom, it is not bound to mood or to great misfortune. Even if one does not experience deep trauma, that does not alter the global absurdity pointed by Schopenhauer.
Both of them agreed that the driving will generate constant conflict with no salvation or resolution ultimately.
In the popular series true detective this philosophy was called forth as the protagonist Rust Cohle says "Time is a flat circle. Everything we have done or will do we will do over and over and over again forever" as a statement of pessimism and absurdity implying all those terrible things that have happened to us humans will never end.
Each one of us is bound to experience them again and again throughout eternity.
In the end it all goes down to the question if life is worth even without some grandiose meaning attached to it.
The answer is different for everyone and (hopefully) his own privilage.
Thank you for your time.
Upvote & Follow: @theokritos
Funny enough I often ask myself the question "If I had to live this life all over again will I look forward to this next decision I'm about to make" and it often helps provide an anchoring point for my choices, I personally think that I've been lucky enough to experience so many different facets of life and I'm really only 31, so really if a demon had to today tell me that I'd relive this same life from the start with no change I'd ask him if he would be kind enough to help me remember, so I could literally just sit there in the corner of my mind and watch my life play out as if I were re-watching my favorite movie, except this movie would last several lifetimes. Time being a flat circle is an entertaining thought.
Thanks for your article, I looked at some of your previous stuff too and I like your perspective on things, I look forward to more.
One more thing, did you read Nietzsche's book "The Gay Science" and if so do you recommend it?
Hey man, thanks for the comment. I think that you must have had a really awesome life to not be scared to live it all again. I guess you could say we are the lucky ones :)
I have not read the book only quotes from it but if you want to read Nietzsche I can recommend two awesome books I have read. "Beyond good and evil" and "twilight of the idols"
great, I'm in the mood of a little more philosophical reading these days, thanks for the recomendation, I've added it to my amazon books wishlist, there's my summer holiday reading sorted.
Great man, looking forward to interacting with you again in our future posts .
I think Rustin Cohle saw part of the truth, but colored it with his grief and pessimism. Life cannot be analyzed objectively, because no one can see and examine all of it. What we can do is choose, either consciously or unconsciously, to be happy or sad, to have meaning or not have it, to live with enthusiasm or to live in despair.
That's not on life, but on us:)
My thoughts exactly. Life can only be analyzed subjectively as a phenomenon but we are bound to think objectively because of our emotions. It all goes down to personal choice at a certain point.
nice article , thanks for sharing and I like your perspective on things... I am now a follower of yours. Lets see if we can teach eacho ther things
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