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ECONOMIC
GRAFITTI
Nietzsche
Century
A
death anniversary tribute to a troubled philosopher
By
Kaushik Basu
August
25 passed uneventfully. There were notices here and there, in a British
newspaper, in a German magazine. Yet 100 years ago on this very day, one
of the greatest philosophers of the last millennium died. For a few years
prior to his death he had become a celebrity. His books were selling in
tens of thousands. His writings were being analysed, worshipped and vilified.
The only person who did not know of his fame was Friedrich Nietzsche himself,
because for the last 11 years of his life he had been bedridden, stricken
with insanity and paralysis.
 Since
his death, the Nietzsche legend has continued to grow, and though his
thought may not be the stuff of popular media, there has been an unbelievably
large amount of writing on him, on his work and on his influence on the
world of politics. The last is ironical, because he detested politicians,
political parties and ideology. Nevertheless, a variety of politicians,
many of them with completely contrary views, have claimed allegiance to
his philosophy.
It is not
difficult to fathom why this is so. Nietzsche did not write with the precision
of an analytical philosopher. He had instead a rabble-rousing style, full
of lyricism, and delightful in ambiguity.
What made
Nietzsche so attractive as a philosopher was his passion. Plagued by migraine,
poor health and spurts of insanity, living like a nomad in cheap apartments
in European cities, he poured out his thoughts in books, pamphlets and
letters. He wrote prodigiously, fearlessly trampling on conventional thought,
almost as if he knew the end was near and so he had to put out in a hurry
whatever he had to tell the world.
Nietzsche
had many passions that failed him. He loved the music of Wagner and admired
him, but eventually fell out with him. He was deeply attached to his sister
since childhood but later grew distant because he had no sympathy for
her and her husband's anti-semitism. He was very critical of the Germans'
treatment of Jews; it is therefore ironical that the Nazis later claimed
to draw inspiration from Nietzsche's philosophy. He was brought up in
a religious family but came to denounce Christianity. Yet, he admired
Jesus. "In truth," he once wrote, "there was only one Christian
and he died on the cross."
Through
all these ups and downs, one enduring influence on Nietzsche's thinking
was Vedanta philosophy and the Upanishads. He had read these early in
his life and his interest was reinforced through his admiration for Schopenhauer.
Though he later outgrew this infatuation, he remained close to his schoolmate,
Paul Deussen, one of the best known interpreters of Indian thought at
that time. In many of Nietzsche's passages there are allusions to "maya".
Thus he wrote about the world being "transitory, seductive, illusory".
Despite
the power of his intellect, the insightful aphorisms that litter his work,
his famous books, notably Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spake Zarathustra,
it is undeniable that his tragic life fuelled interest in Nietzsche.
Green
Valley And The Appalling Snow: He was born on October 15, 1844. Four
years later, his father became mentally ill and, a year later, died. He
was brought up in a house consisting of a doting mother, a grandmother,
two maiden aunts and his sister. In school and later on in college in
Bonn he was recognised for his prodigious mental capacity. At the precocious
age of 24 he was appointed professor of philology in Basel and three years
later he had published his first book.
Everything
seemed glorious and green. But all the while into his "green valley"
was drifting "the apalling snow". He lived throughout in the
fear that his father's mental illness would also afflict him. His father's
ailment was perhaps not hereditary. Nietzsche's own mental illness was
possibly due to syphilis, picked up during one of his two encounters with
prostitutes. This was the greater pity because he had lived a near celibate
life. When he did fall in love with Wagner's wife, Cosima, he could not
get himself to admit this to her and almost not to himself. There is pathos
in Nietzsche's entry in the asylum book, written in a state of delirium,
that he was brought there by his "wife, Cosima Wagner".
Nietzsche
became convinced that he would die in 1880 at the age of 36 just like
his father. He retired from his work in 1879, citing poor health. When
1880 passed without event, he got a new lease of life and his classic,
Zarathustra, was written in a last flash of enthusiasm.
The irreversible
mental breakdown occurred on a cold January morning in 1889, when he collapsed
on a street in Turin, clutching desperately on to the neck of a mare.
Within days he lost his sanity completely and for 11 long years would
be looked after by his mother and, after her death, by his sister, as
he slid "gentle into the dark night".
(The
author is professor of economics at Cornell University.)
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