1) Compare and contrast the strategies of detachment used by Siddhartha and Ernst Jünger. Why is detachment a necessity? What are the strategies of detachment used by Siddhartha and Jünger? Who has the better strategy and why?
Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is not correct to say it is a belief in nothing because it has a system of belief with a secret desire to destroy life. According to Professor Mudaco’s notes on nihilism, paradoxically, nihilism is not just an urge to destroy, but has a creative aspect provided that what is created is something new and not just releasing the old(Mudaco, Aug.26). Fredrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), a German nihilist saw nihilism as a kind of spiritual sickness that was diagnosed in Christianity and by extension of most western culture, which was based on Christian values. Nihilism is rooted in the incompatibility between Christian morals and our own natural instincts( Repression) which builds up pressure and tension that manifests’ itself in different ways such as Dancing mania, Expressionism and detachment. Detachment was a common practice used by the German people to further trace the roots, or go beyond beliefs of traditional society to find meaning in the world.
Detachment was a necessity, in that; it allowed one to experience the randomness of life in the eastern world. The German people thought that traditional values were meaningless and outdated. This was when they started to seek for a new leader that would change old values to create new values. Thus, Mudaco states “Germans were forced to confront a sense of nihilistic meaninglessness in the world brought on by dehumanizing technological rationality that seemingly crushed humanity rather than elevating it. The possibilities of authentic experience and man’s place in the universe were other areas of concern as German’s struggled to find sense of meaning in a world that has seemingly lost all meaning( Mudaco, Aug. 26). In the book “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse describes a world in which people struggle to find the spiritual meaning of life when the only way to learn is by questioning the traditional teachings in the West. Siddhartha search to find meaning relates to what was going on in Germany in the 1920s. In a sense, during the 1920s, like Siddhartha, the people of Germany felt that it was not making any sense to believe in the God they were being told to believe in. The people in Germany witnessed a lot of cruel things happening in their culture, and started asking how God can allow things like the war take place. Siddhartha was raised to believe in a higher power, but felt that was not enough because no one was able to tell him anything that he did not already know. The war that was going on in Germany made a lot of people to start questioning things they felt did not make sense, Siddhartha remarks “In deep meditation, there is the possibility to put time out of existence, to see all life which was, is, and will be as if it was simultaneous, and there everything is good, everything is perfect, everything is Braham” Hence, Siddhartha detachment was to turn towards eastern religion and at the same time reject western religion. Siddhartha, rejects conservative views of priest, monks and throws himself into the sensuous world of appearance “The purpose and the essential properties were not somewhere behind the things, they were in them, in everything” This statement clarifies Professor Mudaco’s remark that there is a strong interest in Eastern religion and Philosophy that stems from a disenchantment with western religion (Mudao, Sep.9)
In the book, “On Pain” by Ernst Junger was written in 1934, the first year of Hitler’s dictatorship. Basically, Hitler was an advocate for the devil, through the opportunity of attaining immeasurable powers. During the time, Hitler was an opportunistic leader who took advantage of the fall of Weimer republic to rise to power. During this period, the German people needed a leader that would restore pride to German people especially after the shameful defeat in WW1. Hitler, instead of uniting the people, decided to take the path of division and destruction; he promoted anti-Semiticism and anti-communism. Hitler was very manipulative to the German people. It was so easy to manipulate people into believing anything. The German people wanted honey but Hitler gave them a poison of destruction. Hitler represented change in values; changing the old values to create new values. He knew German people wanted change. The German people wanted to get rid of old values and Hitler helped them break away from old traditions and replace them with new traditions, new values, in the process, he brought them terror and destruction. Junger focuses on the growth of technology in the creation of a mechanical society where individuals have become unconscious workers that find pleasure in the submission to the machines. Junger believes that reliance on a world of machine and technology in avoiding pain is very useless and that for one to experience the world in its full pleasure we must go back to traditional ways of doing things “it is a matter of maintaining complete control over life, so that at any hour of the day it can serve a higher calling. The central question concerning, the rank of present values can be answered by determining to what extent the body can be treated as an object (Junger, p.17). Junger believes for one to become part of the world and have full liberty, one must master pain “treating pain as an object. Master pain and not avoid it” Pain is what makes life real and valuable. The avoidance of pain through technology does not confront reality but instead hides pain “Pain’s disregard for our system of values greatly increases its hold on life…Our children’s tales close with passages about heroes who, after having overcome many danger, live out their lives in peace and happiness”(Junger, p.4) Therefore, the existence of pain contradicts the dominant values of liberal society which holds out the myth that good will always triumph over evil (Mudaco, Oct.14).
In embodiment of Nietzsche three way paths which involves inherency, materialism and aestheticism; Siddhartha seemed to pose all these skills and is the better strategist. In Inherency, Siddhartha came to an understanding that the world was created by OM: the perfection, which in modern times means an omnipotent God. He found this Om: perfection in the river “Already, he could no longer tell the many voices apart, not the ones of children from those of men, they all belonged together, the lamentation of yearning and the laughter of the knowledgeable one, the scream of rage and mourning of the dying ones, everything was intertwined and connected, entangled a thousand times. And everything together, all voices, all goals, all yearning, all suffering, all pleasure, all that was good and evil, all of this together was the world. All of it together was the flow of events, was the muse of life. And, when Siddhartha was listening attentively to this river…”(Hesse, P.61). In materialism, Siddhartha had abandoned his father’s religion in search of true meaning of life. He wanted to free himself from worldly things, to experience from scratch the direction of life because he believed he could never learn from teachers “ A goal stood before Siddhartha, a single goal: to become empty, empty of thirst, empty of joy and sorrow” (Hesse, P.8). In aestheticism, Siddhartha rejected the teachings of priest, monks and concluded that in order for him to learn about the world, he must learn about himself.
2) Discuss the relationship between nihilism and changing attitudes on sexuality. In what ways did traditional values place prohibitions on sexuality? Why did these prohibitions lose their power after the first World War? Using The Blue Angel and Dream Story as a reference discuss the new attitudes towards sexuality that developed during the 1920s and early 1930s
After World War I, soldiers were disillusioned and there was a great existence of human suffering. The end of World War I shaped the attitudes and thoughts of soldier’s going home. A rhetoric that was used during this time was connoted: The lost generation. This generation began to question their parent’s generations. During the enlightenment, the lack of certainty, direction and purpose led many people to venture in search of deeper meaning and truth of living. Many expatriate expressed their resentment towards the materialism pursuit during the era. In general, WW I brought major changes to the women in the work force. Sexual revolution brought with it changing ideas about women. The idea of free love surfaced among women- a social movement that rejected marriage.
The 1920s saw a restless culture, led by American’s youth rebelling against the moral restrictions of past generations. The young college students challenged traditional notions of proper behavior. Young people ventured off to Jazz clubs, smoked and drank illegal liquor. In the movie, “Blue Angel” Professor Raff, a very intellectual individual tried to indulge into the mind of his students on the importance of morals, etiquettes and avoiding irrational lifestyle. These students were part of lost generation seeking to see what was in the outside world. Professor Raff‘s student began going to night clubs and indulging themselves in what was known as the Jazz age. The Jazz age involved with influential music was often associated with lose morals and defiled social codes of the time. Professor Raff students were also encapsulated with the flapper. Flappers were the women of the sexual revolution era. During the Sexual Revolution, the social Movement - Free love, involved promiscuity that allowed sexual partners rights to a relationship without commitment or marriage. In the 1930, during the great depression there was a huge failing economy. Women workers were still cheaper and certain fields of work were closed to men. men found themselves unemployed. women's lives were less disrupted by the depression than their husbands. Because of this, women became the center of stability in the family. As women rights increased, so did social freedom.As women rights increased, so did social freedoms.The image of the short-haired, short-skirted, independent-minded and sexually liberated ‘Flapper’ woman, who lived life to the fullest. The flapper represented everything modern in the 1920s. With this new image of woman, a sexual revolution followed as attitudes towards sex changes and birth control became widely acceptable and available. In the movie “Blue Angel” Professor Rath lost his respect by being entrapped with his lust and free love in the ‘Flapper’, the ‘Flapper’ made him loose his sense of integrity, respect and moral. A major theme that surfaces in the movie “Blue Angel” is the weakness of the intellectuals “Mann’s story deals with their inability to share in the sensual pleasures of the world resulting from bookish and scholarly lifestyles. It suggests a division in people between mental and physical, the mind and body, that is incomplete but often times attempts to cross over into the other realm is destructive for these characters. In other words Rath might kind of resemble this guy” (Mudaco, Sep. 23)
This idea in the weakness of intellectuals also ties into the book “Dream Story” Edgar Allan Poe both couples Dr. Fridolin and Albertina both fantasize about sexual encounters. It seems that professionals in the modern age are enclosed into “irrational’ behavior and have ignored their morals. The Sexual mores of bourgeois society and its attachment to materialism but also showing the openness of this society for those who are educated. (Mudaco, Sep.9). Such behavior displayed by Dr. Fridolin of being jealous of his wife fantasy and wanting to do the real things makes society seem very despicable. Basically, the idea of elite’s citizens drawn in a world of sex and desire. Nihilism calls into question traditional value-monogamy, and the institutions of marriage have been inverted into new ideal of modern times that are rooted in ‘sickness’. The idea that the morality of the monks and nuns (Christianity) regarding sex is just a surface appearance or something for lower classes to follow while the elites who outwardly approve of and sanction these values freely ignore them in their private lives (Mudaco, Oct.4)
