Heroism from Nietzsche: How Suffering Makes You Beautiful

The ancient Greeks on modernity

To the ancient Greek aristocrats, danger & hardship was seen as a good thing. Even fear, was a deity they celebrated. It was infinite comfort and security that were seen as the true dangers. While they tried to live up to heroic mythical idealistic figures such as Achilles and Odysseus, we try to run from conflict and make life as seamless and easy as possible. Nietzsche, the free thinking 19th century philosopher saw this through crystal clear glass frames. And advocated avoiding falling into the notion of a such thing as an easy life. If you were given a life full of comfort and pleasure, versus a hard life of danger, beauty, and meaning which would you choose? One inevitably leads to dull, depth less misery. While the other makes the soul sing with vitality and growth.

Imagine if harry potter was never invited to Hogwarts, or Peter Parker was never bit by a radioactive spider. Would you want to read that story? Most likely not, it’d be boring as hell. And yet, that is the story most of us write for ourselves sub-consciously. We say we want a good life but aren’t willing to pay the price for it. Whenever uncertainty or suffering arises we run from it. Or cower in pain. When it gets difficult, we seek the easy path, and tend to let fear dictate our paths rather than courage. We want success without effort, adventure without danger. There is unlimited potential for greatness within every human that walks the Earth. Personified in the art tenet. But most will never realize it because they live for comfort, rather than victory.

Society tames the wolf into dog. And man is the most domesticated of them all. -Nietzsche

The shih tzu may be cute, but the wolf is majestic. -Kristian Bell

For believe me!-the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is: to live dangerously! -Friedrich Nietzsche

Life affirmation & denial

Bad things happen, getting sick, breaking a bone, losing someone or something. Maybe a pet dies, a partner leave you, someone you know is subject to broad injustices. These are inevitable, and apart of human existence, no one can change this. These are tragic, and no one can change this, no matter how hard they try.

But therein lies two types of people, life deniers and life affirmers. Life deniers negate the way nature, the way of strength. And pursue safety and comfort externally. They hate discomfort, suffering, & pain. They paint them as evil things, so they try to escape it, they try to fix it, all to no avail or disappointment. Nietzsche would ask, “what’s the purpose of civilization?” Is it to make everyone safe and pacified with pleasure? Or is it to produce higher types of men and women who can push the human species forward.

Life affirmation on the other hand, was Nietzsche’s solution to create the most robust person and civilization. Life affirmers do not seek to change nature’s way, they seek to thrive in it. They affirm the wild mysterious and marvelous ordeal of living as it is. They do not seek to escape suffering but overcome it. They revel in competition, and in conquering themselves. As a result of this approach build up their self-reliance, and internal resources. Rather than relying on external securities to protect them.

While life deniers become reliant on other people and institution for their well-being, life affirmers take full responsibility for themselves. Life affirmers live dangerously while others choose to stay safe in mediocrity. They choose resistance over ease, and because of this spirit of heroism, they become free.

Just like actors, we can’t change the script (reality, nature) but we can interpret it to our artistic acumen.

Heroic suffering, the Übermensch

Nietzsche said in the genealogy of morals quote:

He even seeks it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering. The meaninglessness of suffering, not suffering itself, was the curse that lay over mankind so far.

If you want to live an excellent life, you need to see suffering as a good thing. You must learn to embrace pain, discomfort, heart ache, fear, & emotional distress. And direct then towards your highest aim. Your highest form relies on the side of the highest resistance. You must learn to see such things, as positive things in life.

You live above suffering in a sense.

Without Bruce Wayne’s parents dying, there would be no Batman. In a scene from Batman Begins, we see Bruce commits to becoming a symbol of something greater, he crossed the side of his highest resistance. This is the way of the warrior. We must dedicate ourselves on a worthy ideal that inspires us, and bask ourselves in the aspiration to strive for such excellence in its fulfillment. The Übermensch is the highest aim of men in Nietzsche’s eyes. They fight to affirm their suffering and rise to overcome it. In this overcoming they grow deeper and more powerful than ever before. Nietzsche advised this path, the path of self-overcoming and rising into adversity. Oddly enough, suffering with honor and meaning tends to bring the most intense feelings of joy and connections with the profound world around you.

The internal shift to heroism amidst hardship and discomfort is the key to greatness.

This skill can only be taught by doing. It is always hard. The heroic call is difficult to answer but absolutely transformative. Most people let the weak voice in their heads win, they live as a slave beneath fear, resistance, and suffering. But the path of the warrior, Übermensch, will transmute darkness into light.

Strength is the solution to suffering, not safety. If you wish to live the good life, to thrive in excellence and beauty you must learn to channel the pain of life into deeper love, wisdom, and power. Heroes rise to the occasion in the ordeal of living.

And this is your call.

Thanks for reading

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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