On Alexandrian Malaise
By Varūtha
Published in 1872, The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music by Friedrich Nietzsche is one of those works mostly ignored today by political theorists and activists. For many reasons, this doesn’t exactly surprise me; the text is often viewed as being overly concerned with aesthetics, too metaphysical, apolitical, and even naïve. With a reputation such as this, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that it has mostly been ignored by those on the right, especially given the attempts to defile Nietzsche’s reputation after the Second World War. That being said, it’s my opinion that “The Birth of Tragedy” remains one of Nietzsche’s finest works, and there is much for the modern right to take from it.
Needless to say, people are right to assume that The Birth of Tragedy is primarily a work on aesthetics. The book, one of Nietzsche’s earliest, is focused on the development of Greek drama, and specifically Greek tragedy, typified by Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides, and its metaphysical correlations; it is perhaps best known for establishing the all too familiar aesthetic and spiritual Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy. However, there is much more to this work than one might glean at a glance, and the purpose of this essay is to explore some of the subtler ideas that have for some reason escaped our modern discourse. So, in this spirit, the first subject I’d like to discuss is the evolution of Greek civilization, from the “naïve” Apollonian age, to the “tragic” or Dionysian age, and the relevance of this evolution to our modern West, as seen by Nietzsche.
Let us start at the very beginning then, when the Greek peoples, at the very dawn of their culture, had to contest with the savage forces of nature and the neighboring barbarians. Like the Olympians themselves, the Greeks had to confront the pre-Greek world with a singular intensity, with its excessive and strange mysticism, its storms, and all its alienness. To even embark upon their journey of individuation, of establishing Western civilization, the Greeks had to confront Titanic forces. The horror that emerged from the tender and unique souls of the Greeks when confronted with these myriad influences imbued them with an inherent sense of terror, perhaps to be encapsulated in the now famous wisdom of Silenus – “It is best never to be born, and, if born, to die quickly.” Nietzsche had this to say about the means by which the ancient Hellenes were able to conquer these seemingly insurmountable forces:
This apotheosis of individuation, if it be at all conceived as imperative and laying down precepts, knows but one law of the individual, i.e., the observance of the boundaries of the individual, measure in the Hellenic sense. Apollo, as ethical deity, demands due proportion of his disciples, and, that this may be observed, he demands self-knowledge. And thus, parallel to the aesthetic necessity for beauty, there run the demands "know thyself" and "not too much," while presumption and undueness are regarded as the truly hostile demons of the non-Apollonian sphere, hence as characteristics of the pre-Apollonian age, that of the Titans, and of the extra- Apollonian world, that of the barbarians. Because of his Titan-like love for man, Prometheus had to be torn to pieces by vultures; because of his excessive wisdom, which solved the riddle of the Sphinx, Oedipus had to plunge into a bewildering vortex of monstrous crimes: thus did the Delphic god interpret the Grecian past.
In these words, we have the basic foundation of the Apollonian process of individuation: moderation, self-knowledge, and, to a degree, humility. Still, there is more to the birth of the Apollonian Greeks. For, within the Apollonian man was a deep longing, and it is perhaps this longing that would seduce him from his heroic state of naïve serenity. I speak here of the desire for immortality, embodied at first within the Olympians:
Now the Olympian magic mountain opens, as it were, to our view and shows to us its roots. The Greek knew and felt the terrors and horrors of existence: to be able to live at all, he had to interpose the shining dream-birth of the Olympian world between himself and them. The excessive distrust of the titanic powers of nature, the Moira throning inexorably over all knowledge, the vulture of the great philanthropist Prometheus, the terrible fate of the wise Oedipus, the family curse of the Atridae which drove Orestes to matricide ; in short, that entire philosophy of the sylvan god, with its mythical exemplars, which wrought the ruin of the melancholy Etruscans was again and again surmounted anew by the Greeks through the artistic middle world of the Olympians, or at least veiled and withdrawn from sight. To be able to live, the Greeks had, from direst necessity, to create these gods: which process we may perhaps picture to ourselves in this manner: that out of the original Titan thearchy of terror the Olympian thearchy of joy was evolved, by slow transitions, through the Apollonian impulse to beauty, even as roses break forth from thorny bushes. How else could this so sensitive people, so vehement in its desires, so singularly qualified for suffering, have endured existence, if it had not been exhibited to them in their gods, surrounded with a higher glory? The same impulse which calls art into being, as the complement and consummation of existence, seducing to a continuation of life, caused also the Olympian world to arise, in which the Hellenic "will" held up before itself a transfiguring mirror. Thus do the gods justify the life of man, in that they themselves live it the only satisfactory Theodicy! Existence under the bright sunshine of such gods is regarded as that which is desirable in itself, and the real grief of the Homeric men has reference to parting from it, especially to early parting: so that we might now say of them, with a reversion of the Silenian wisdom, that "to die early is worst of all for them, the second worst is some day to die at all."
We have here then the very birth of European civilization, and a hint even as to its telos – that being immortality. However, though we have in Homer the archetype of the naïve or Apollonian lyric poet, the Dionysian influences of the non-Greek world were ultimately internalized as well. Being, as they were, a race of supreme will and sensitivity, they had to assimilate these energies in a civilized way, as if to tame them. This Dionysian divide, between “barbaric” Dionysianism and “civilized” Dionysianism, are essential to understanding the Greek view of this metaphysical plane. The Greeks sought to keep this Dionysic pessimism at a distance; however, as their civilization progressed, the creative force of Dionysian truths, of certain transcendental truths, eventually manifested in the forms of mystery cults, such as those of Dionysus himself and Orpheus, and, in the aesthetic sphere, in the tragic era of Greek drama, represented by the works of Sophocles and Aeschylus amongst others. The “pessimistic” view (perhaps more accurately called the “skeptical” view) therefore came into its own within the Greek cultural sphere.
Being typified by music and tragedy, the Dionysian arts now seemed to reign supreme for a time, taking their place amongst the arts of the Greeks. The desire to experience the primordial absolute now seemed to dominate the spirit of the ancient Hellenes, for better or for worse. Yet, despite this, there was, deep within the Greek soul, perhaps stemming even from the aforementioned telos, a new spirit emerging within the Greek polis – this was the spirt of Socrates, or what Nietzsche would refer to as the Alexandrian phase of Greek civilization. From the great spirit of Socrates emerges our scientific culture, with its dedication to reason, its philistinism, its shallow skepticism, and all else. However, while there is much that is beautiful and noble to this way of life, it is perhaps just a stepping stone on a path to something greater. Nietzsche had the following to say about the topic:
Our whole modern world is entangled in the meshes of Alexandrine culture, and recognises as its ideal the theorist equipped with the most potent means of knowledge, and labouring in the service of science, of whom the archetype and progenitor is Socrates. All our educational methods have originally this ideal in view: every other form of existence must struggle onwards wearisomely beside it, as something tolerated, but not intended. In an almost alarming manner the cultured maff was here found for a long time only in the form of the scholar: even our poetical arts have been forced to evolve from learned imitations, and in the main effect of the rhyme we still recognise the origin of our poetic form from artistic experiments with a non-native and thoroughly learned language.
Taking these previous excerpts into consideration, let us then sketch out the trajectory of European civilization up to the period of Socratic (or “Alexandrian”) spiritual hegemony:
Apollonian Dionysian Alexandrian
Following this train of thought, at the risk of sounding perhaps a little Hegelian, one could go so far as to say that the Alexandrian spirit, embodied first by Socrates and crystallized during the Hellenistic period, with its single-minded focus on science, mathematics, formalism, and similar things, was a requisite of the telos of the Hellenic spirit. It was perhaps through the Alexandrian scientific spirit that the broader Hellenic spirit was to truly make itself immortal, not just through machinery and organization, but through conquest and the many diverse narratives that would emerge from a society so immersed in rationality as such. For, even though the Dionysian and Apollonian elements had been terribly suppressed, to the point of atrophy, they were still present, although in degenerative forms throughout the Hellenistic and Roman periods. One could ask himself, if not for a series of sociological debacles, if the Alexandrian period, despite its utter ham-handedness and superficiality, would give way once again to the profound and philosophical spirit such as the one that preceded it, which is what Nietzsche implied.
Unfortunately, as we all know, this was not to be the case, to the detriment of all. One can argue endlessly about reasons as to why, but the degeneration of the Roman religion eventually gave way to other, Orientalizing influences. The most prominent of these various barbaric cults, which included the cults of Mithras and Isis, among others, was without a doubt Christianity. Though, doubtlessly the most sublime of all these exogenous influences, owing to its emotional intensity, born from the bosom of the Hebraic race in its pure, innocent and Mediterranean form – a race with a peculiar affinity for both metaphysics and drama – it was also arguably that which had the most intrinsic antipathy towards the burgeoning scientific spirit of Europe. So, it was with this religion, based on the intuitions of those oppressed by the machinations of the great men of Rome, that enabled the shift from Alexandrianism to something else: an Orientalizing Dark Age.
Nietzsche believed that this period of gloomy Orientalization was just a brief and strange reprieve within the context of the Greco-Roman tradition, which encompasses the Italic, Greek, and Germanic civilizations. Once the post-Roman civilizations had developed, once again, the thirst for knowledge and control of their surroundings, during a period now known as the Renaissance, the Alexandrian period of Western civilization was resumed, leaving us once again with the same spiritual ills which afflicted our noble Roman predecessors:
Even in such circumstances this metaphysical impulse still endeavours to create for itself a form of apotheosis (weakened, no doubt) in the Socratism of science urging to life: but on its lower stage this same impulse led only to a feverish search, which gradually merged into a pandemonium of myths and superstitions accumulated from all quarters: in the midst of which, nevertheless, the Hellene sat with a yearning heart till he contrived, as Graeculus, to mask his fever with Greek cheerfulness and Greek levity, or to narcotise himself completely with some gloomy Oriental superstition. We have approached this condition in the most striking manner since the reawakening of the Alexandro - Roman antiquity in the fifteenth century, after a long, not easily describable, interlude. On the heights there is the same exuberant love of knowledge, the same insatiate happiness of the discoverer, the same stupendous secularisation, and, together with these, a homeless roving about, an eager intrusion at foreign tables, a frivolous deification of the present or a dull senseless estrangement, all sub speci sæculi, of the present time: which same symptoms lead one to confer the same defect at the heart of this culture, the annihilation of myth.
Here then we have the broad outline of the Alexandrian civilizational crisis in modern times. The cold, calculating, utilitarian and practical Alexandrian culture necessarily leaves a psychic and spiritual void, which more often than not manifests as some form of superstition if not an outright gloomy and Oriental worldview – regarding this aspect, I’ll leave the reader to fill in the blanks as to the analogues of our own era. Furthermore, Nietzsche had this to say regarding the progress of modern man, and where he may be heading:
Let us recollect furthermore how Kant and Schopenhauer made it possible for the spirit of German philosophy streaming from the same sources to annihilate the satisfied delight in existence of scientific Socratism by the delimitation of the boundaries thereof; how through this delimitation an infinitely profounder and more serious view of ethical problems and of art was inaugurated, which we may unhesitatingly designate as Dionysian wisdom comprised in concepts. To what then does the mystery of this oneness of German music and philosophy point, if not to a new form of existence, concerning the substance of which we can only inform ourselves presentiently from Hellenic analogies? For to us who stand on the boundary line between two different forms of existence, the Hellenic prototype retains the immeasurable value, that therein all these transitions and struggles are imprinted in a classically instructive form: except that we, as it were, experience analogically in reverse order the chief epochs of the Hellenic genius, and seem now, for instance, to pass backwards from the Alexandrine age to the period of tragedy.
At this point, we have Nietzsche at what is perhaps his most Hegelian; he outlines here what could be seen as his sketch of how modern European man should progress, spiritually and socially, if he is to ultimately fulfill his telos – that is to say, becoming like the Olympian Gods themselves. If man is to once again become Apollonian, to become immortal, perhaps even physically, and yet to live a life of beauty and meaning, he must first pass through the tragic dimension – that is to say, the dark night of the soul. He must learn to want to live forever to truly unlock the superhuman dimension of his unconscious mind. So, at this point, we can outline the ideal evolution of the European peoples thusly:
Apollonian Dionysian Alexandrian Christian Dark Age Alexandrian Dionysian Apollonian
Whether or not the reader actively accepts Nietzsche’s scheme, I think he should appreciate how the aforementioned thesis lines up with historical facts and our own contemporary predicaments. The Alexandrine age has provided us with little more than a decaying pantheon of science, and has once more, through its inherent vacuity, exposed itself to Oriental subversion. A rebirth of tragedy, of those feelings and ideas once thought unthinkable, is the only way to transcend this dour age of pedantry and cataloguing. If the art of living is indeed the highest art, modern man could very easily be accused of philistinism. The intrinsic myopia of our society now threatens to thrust us once more into a Dark Age, this time predicated on another set of equally naïve principles.
I’m afraid that, due to historical circumstances, we are perhaps further from this goal than we’ve ever been. It would seem that the closest the Western world ever came to realizing a new and profound mythos was during the existential struggles of the Second World War. However, due to the suppression of the classical feeling by liberal interlopers and their Plutonic allies, this progressive trend was unfairly strangled in its crib. So, instead of lofty spirits, extended life-spans, fine art, and interplanetary civilization, we are instead left with decay, weakness, and a smiling woman of an indistinct race informing us that we should buy a certain form of allergy medication, which is almost certainly carcinogenic. In short, what we gained was the phony “joy” of the slave, of the Graeculus, of hip-hop and its derivatives and the Last Man who smiles as his spirit is crushed, and perhaps does not even have the wisdom to realize that his spirit is being crushed.
At this point, the tragic realm is so far from us as if to be an absurd fixation; we are Alexandrian and slowly being narcotized at that. To even remain Alexandrian, which is probably the inherent and biological goal of most forms of reactionary liberalism (deemed “fascism” by most in the press), is a noble aim given the present circumstances. Europeans, both in Europe and abroad, are a race that is rapidly losing the sensitivity necessary for any sort of higher culture, and perhaps even losing, through variegated forms of miscegenation, the ability to maintain the continuum of European culture itself. I will go so far as to say that this decade and the next will ultimately determine whether the crisis of the European culture is going to resolve itself in an acceptable manner. We are called now, as were the heroes of yore, to venture into the depths of the unconscious to revive that within us which still longs to breathe the rarified air of Olympus. If we fail in this regard, we have only to look forward to an eternal winter, which is already within view!
To touch upon some issues that may be of concern to the reader, let me state that I don’t necessarily see Nietzsche’s sketch of European civilization as being incompatible with Oswald Spengler’s, at least when it comes to the general scheme. It could very well be that civilizations develop according to an organic cycle, as Spengler theorized, but that, due to certain genetic, environmental, and subconscious archetypal similarities, there is a Greco-Roman metaphysical continuum, a “glow” if you will, that connects the Hellenic, Italic, and Germanic civilizations. A new form of hermeneutics may be necessary to truly parse the trajectory of these developments, but this is a matter I’ll leave unaddressed in this piece. Furthermore, despite the fact that The Birth of Tragedy is an early work, and one that shows the influence of German Idealism, I do believe that Nietzsche maintained the central ideas of the text until his final days.
Let me then implore the reader to consider those hauntological feelings that have given way to the present situation. There seem to be, to my surprise, some smoldering embers which our adversaries had overlooked! Had these not revealed themselves, not only would I not be writing this piece, but…never mind. If there are, perhaps, some men left with the inherent powers of perception to embrace the Weltgeist with the passion of Isolde in her Liebestod, who can still feel the subtle vibrations of our planet and perceive with acuity the fading glow of the sublime, well, perhaps there is some degree of hope. I write then for this sort of Western man, likely dead by his own hand, who may have the eyes to truly see and the ears to truly hear, for those men who by necessity go beyond mere formalism and technocratic metrics. That said, if such a fire still burns, time will surely tell; I’m afraid I must end my piece here. For the edification of the reader, let me conclude with an aphorism from The Will to Power:
The Revolution made Napoleon possible: that is its justification. For the sake of a similar prize one would have to desire the anarchical collapse of our entire civilization.