War and Higher Culture - Friedrich Nietzsche

               

In the beginning, man lived in a state of war of all against all, constantly in an environment of uncertainty and anxiety. In this primitive state of existence every individual of the tribe had to contribute in order to sustain the existence of the group, the art forms expressed in these societies were very primitive since it reflects the aspirations of individuals whose main desire was to survive. But as Nietzsche noted no individual striving for existence can become an artist (Nietzsche (1911), 4). The explanation for this statement is the following, according to Nietzsche the Will of culture seeks to express itself through the art of the individuals of a higher caliber, called the genius, if one is concerned with matters other than singularly being the vehicle of culture then the art expressed is not the expression of culture but of a base desire. No art that is not the expression of higher culture is justified since the art would be serving the purpose of existence, which from Nietzsche’s point of view, has no value in itself and therefore any activity that serves existence is thereby unjustified (Nietzsche (1911), 3).

In order for there to be artists which can become the vehicle of culture, this class of individuals must be idle, this must be the case for several reasons. Firstly, as stated earlier, individuals who are concerned with existence as the primary concern of life must subordinate all of their activities to this superordinate desire. This means that any art produced by the individual concerned about existing must be an expression of the desire to exist, which is undignified, rather than of the Will of culture. Secondly, the reason being is that the idle suffers more than those who are not. Nietzsche states: the caste of the idle is more capable of suffering and suffers more, its enjoyment of existence is less, its task heavier (Nietzsche (1966), 162), this makes intuitive sense especially considering the peculiar state of modernity which the over abundance of material prosperity has caused a form of widespread depression that permeates all of society.

The fact that culture needs a class of idle individuals to express the will means that culture also needs a class of slaves which supports the idle class, Nietzsche states that: Culture rests upon a terrible basis. In order that there may be a broad, deep, fruitful soil for the development of art, the enormous majority must, in service of a minority be slavishly subjected to life’s struggle, to a greater degree than their own wants necessitate (Nietzsche (1911), 6).

War therefore serves several purposes, in the first place, War is the method by which Nature can establish the State (Nietzsche (1911), 10) thereby establishing a fixed pyramid like social hierarchy where the he division of society into a class of slaves and idle is systematically enforced. Not only that but War also serves the second purpose, that of invigorating the passions which is the essence of culture (Nietzsche (1966), 176), Nietzsche’s asserts that In general history seems to furnish the following instructions regarding the production of the genius: mistreat and torment men (Nietzsche (1966), 111). This also goes back to the point of creating an idle class which is precisely to make them suffer more because this is how the will of the genius flares up. Lastly war divides life into two epochs, peace and war, as was stated in the beginning, primitive man lives in a constant state of anxiety and of violence, these energies are cultivated but since there is never a prolonged time of peace those energies are never channeled in an artistic manner. Therefore, War fought by the State divides period of violence whereby the passions can be cultivated as well as providing a time of peace in which the genius can sprout forth out of the fertile soil of blood (Nietzsche (1911), 13).

From what Nietzsche has stated so far in the Greek State as well as his aphorisms in Human all too human, I agree with the central premise that suffering and passions are the most effective methods of establishing higher art. Whether this is the expression of some real thing called the Will of culture would require further reflection and research, but at a first glance something I have noticed regarding what has been said is that our material abundancy as well as general state of peace has left society emotionally numb in the sense that our emotions never fluctuate the much from the equilibrium and this could be attributable to what Nietzsche regards as a consequence of a lack of war. Now the question is whether our comfort is justifiable for the lack of higher culture, which evidently for Nietzsche, or at least his position regarding the Greeks at the time of writing the essay, is not. That being said I doubt Nietzsche would think very highly of modern warfare since it has been highly rationalized, the passion in warfare is continually being removed in favor of more efficient mechanisms of conducting warfare, the proof of this assertations lays in the mere existence of bomber drones as well as the development of nuclear weapons which has largely eliminated the viability of direct combat.

 

Bibliography

Nietzsche, F., & Schacht, R. (1996). Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits (2nd ed., Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) (R. Hollingdale, Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511812057

Nietzsche, F. (1911). Early Greek Philosophy & Other Essays (O. Levy, Ed.).