A VENTUREIN A THEORY OF SOCIAL PRUDENCE I XoeuvaAos. 189. 0.3.65 éotl névtwv mAnopovi. 190. Zowtos. Kaotowv. GOtwv. XoeuvaAos.
WOVOLHNGS. Kagiov.
Xoeuvros.
t uM 191. tuys. Kaoiov. MAAKOVVTOV.
Xeepvros.
avdeayabias. Kagiwv.
TOAYNUATWV.
ioxadov.
Xoepthos. 192. prrotintac. Kagiwv. watns.
Xoeuvros. oteatnyias.
Kagiowv.
Paxns.
See Aristophanis Plutus, v. 189 ff.
CHREMYLOS. 1 ne 2 & an Allem bekommt man endlich Ueberdruss. mt An Liebe [at last one has too much of everything. Of love], KARION. Semmel [rolls], CHREMYLOS.
Musenkunst [the arts], KARION. und Zuckerwerk [and sweets]. CHREMYLOS. An Ehre [Of honor], KARION. Kuchen [cakes], CHREMYLOS.
Tapferkeit [bravery], KARION. und Feigenschnitt [and dried figs]. CHREMYLOS. An Ruhm [Of fame], KARION. an Rthrei [of scrambled eggs], CHREMYLOS. am Kommando [of authority], KARION. am Gemiis’ [of vegetables].
See Aristophanes, Plutos, in Droysen’s translation.?
People with experience maintain that proceeding from a basic principle is supposed to be very reasonable; I yield to them and proceed from the basic principle that all people are boring. Or is there anyone who would be boring enough to contradict me in this regard? This basic principle has to the highest degree the repelling force always required in the negative, which is ac- tually the principle of motion.? It is not merely repelling but infinitely repulsive, and whoever has the basic principle be- hind him must necessarily have infinite momentum for mak- ing discoveries. If, then, my thesis is true, a person needs only to ponder how corrupting boredom is for people, tem- pering his reflections more or less according to his desire to di- minish or increase his impetus, and if he wants to press the speed of the motion to the highest point, almost with danger to the locomotive, he needs only to say to himself: Boredom is the root of all evil. It is very curious that boredom, which itself has such a calm and sedate nature, can have such a capac- ity to initiate motion. The effect that boredom brings about is absolutely magical, but this effect is one not of attraction but of repulsion.
How corrupting boredom is, everyone recognizes also with regard to children. As long as children are having a good time, they are always good. This can be said in the strictest sense, for if they at times become unmanageable even while playing, it is really because they are beginning to be bored; boredom is al- ready coming on, but in a different way. Therefore, when se- lecting a nursemaid, one always considers essentially not only that she is sober, trustworthy, and good-natured but also takes into esthetic consideration whether she knows how to enter- tain children. Even if she had all the other excellent virtues, one would not hesitate to give her the sack if she lacked this qualification. Here, indeed, the principle is clearly acknowl- edged, but things go on so curiously in the world, habit and I 257 258 I 259 286 Either/Or, I boredom have gained the upper hand to such a degree, that justice is done to esthetics only in the conduct of the nurse- maid. It would be quite impossible to prevail if one wanted to demand a divorce because one’s wife is boring, or demand that a king be dethroned because he is boring to behold, or that a clergyman be exiled because he is boring to listen to, or that a cabinet minister be dismissed or a journalist be executed because he is frightfully boring.
Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings. Adam was bored because he was alone; therefore Eve was created.*+ Since that moment, boredom entered the world and grew in quantity in exact proportion to the growth of population. Adam was bored alone; then Adam and Eve were bored together; then Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel were bored en famille. After that, the population of the world in- creased and the nations were bored en masse. To amuse them- selves, they hit upon the notion of building a tower so high that it would reach the sky.> This notion is just as boring as the tower was high and is a terrible demonstration of how bore- dom had gained the upper hand. Then they were dispersed around the world, just as people now travel abroad, but they continued to be bored. And what consequences this boredom had: humankind stood tall and fell far, first through Eve, then from the Babylonian tower.
On the other hand, what was it that delayed the fall of Rome? It was panis [bread] and circenses [games].° What is being done in our day? Is consideration being given to any means of amusement? On the contrary, our doom is being ex- pedited. There is the idea of convening a consultative assem- bly. Can anything more boring be imagined, both for the hon- orable delegates as well as for one who will read and hear about them? The country’s financial situation is to be improved by economizing. Can anything more boring be imagined? 7In- stead of increasing the debt, they want to pay it off in install- ments. From what I know about the political situation, it Rotation of Crops 287 would be easy for Denmark to borrow fifteen million rix-dol- lars. Why does no one think of this? Now and then we hear that someone is a genius and does not pay his debts; why should a nation not do the same, provided there is agreement? Borrow fifteen million; use it not to pay off our debts but for public entertainment. Let us celebrate the millennium with fun and games. Just as there currently are boxes everywhere for contributions of money, there should be bowls everywhere filled with money. Everything would be free: the theater would be free, prostitutes would be free, rides to Deer Park® would be free, funerals would be free, one’s funeral eulogy would be free. I say ‘‘free,” for if money is always available, everything is free in a way.
No one would be allowed to own any property. An excep- tion should be made only for me. I shall set aside for myself one hundred rix-dollars a day deposited in a London bank, partly because I cannot manage on less, partly because I am the one who provided the idea, and finally because no one knows if | will not be able to think up a new idea when the fifteen mil- lion is exhausted.
°What would be the result of this prosperity? All the great would stream to Copenhagen: the greatest artists, actors, and dancers. Copenhagen would become another Athens. What would be the result? All the wealthy would settle in this city. Among others, the emperor of Persia and the king of England would undoubtedly also come here. Here is my second idea: kidnap the emperor. Someone may say that then there would be a revolution in Persia, a new emperor placed on the throne—it has frequently happened before—and the price of the old emperor would slump. In that case, my idea is that we should sell him to the Turks. They will undoubtedly know how to make money out of him.
In addition, there is yet another circumstance that our poli- ticians seem to ignore entirely. Denmark holds the balance of power in Europe. A more propitious position is inconceiva- ble. This I know from my own experience. I once held the bal- ance of power in a family. I could do as I wished. I never suf- fered, but the others always did.
260 288 Either/Or, I O may my words penetrate your ears, you who are in high places to counsel and control, you king’s men and men of the people, you wise and sensible citizens of all classes! You just watch out! Old Denmark is foundering—it is a matter of life and death; it is foundering on boredom, which is the most fatal of all. In olden days, whoever eulogized the deceased most handsomely became the king.'® In our age, the king ought to be the one who delivers the best witticism and the crown prince the one who provides the occasion for the best witti- cism.
But how you do carry me away, beautiful stirring enthusi- asm! Should I raise my voice this way in order to address my contemporaries, to initiate them into my wisdom? Not at all, for my wisdom is really not zum Gebrauch fiir Jedermann [for use by everyman], and it is always most prudent to be silent about rules of prudence. Therefore, I want no followers, but if someone were standing beside my deathbed and if I were sure it was all over for me, then in a fit of philanthropic delirium I might whisper my doctrine into his ear, not quite sure whether I would have done him a favor or not.'! There is so much talk about man’s being a social animal, '? but basically he is a beast of prey, something that can be ascertained not only by looking at his teeth. Therefore, all this chatter about sociality and com- munity is partly inherited hypocrisy and partly studied per- fidy.
All human beings, then, are boring. The very word indi- cates the possibility of a classification. The word “boring” can designate just as well a person who bores others as someone who bores himself. Those who bore others are the plebians, the crowd, the endless train of humanity in general; those who bore themselves are the chosen ones, the nobility. How re- markable it is that those who do not bore themselves generally bore others; those, however, who bore themselves entertain others. Generally, those who do not bore themselves are busy in the world in one way or another, but for that very reason they are, of all people, the most boring of all, the most un- bearable. '3Certainly this class of animals is not the fruit of man’s appetite and woman’s desire. Like all lower classes of Rotation of Crops 289 animals, it is distinguished by a high level of fecundity and propagates beyond belief. It is incomprehensible, too, that na- ture should need nine months to produce such creatures, which presumably could rather be produced by the score. The other class of human beings, the superior ones, are those who bore themselves. As noted above, they generally amuse others—at times in a certain external way the masses, in a deeper sense their co-initiates. The more thoroughly they bore themselves, the more potent the medium of diversion they of- fer others, also when the boredom reaches its maximum, since they either die of boredom (the passive category) or shoot themselves out of curiosity (the active category).
Idleness, we are accustomed to say, is the root of all evil. To prevent this evil, work is recommended. But it is just as easy to see from the dreaded occasion as from the recommended remedy that this whole view is of very plebian extraction. Idleness as such is by no means a root of evil; on the contrary, it is a truly divine life, if one is not bored. To be sure, idleness may be the occasion of losing one’s property etc., but the no- ble nature does not fear such things but does indeed fear being bored. The Olympian gods were not bored; happy they lived in happy idleness. A female beauty who neither sews nor spins nor irons nor reads nor plays an instrument is happy in idle- ness, for she is not bored. Idleness, then, is so far from being the root of evil that it is rather the true good. Boredom is the root of evil; it is that which must be held off. Idleness is not the evil; indeed, it may be said that everyone who lacks a sense for it thereby shows that he has not raised himself to the human level. There is an indefatigable activity that shuts a person out of the world of spirit and places him in a class with the animals, which instinctively must always be in motion. There are peo- ple who have an extraordinary talent for transforming every- thing into a business operation, whose whole life is a business operation, who fall in love and are married, hear a joke, and admire a work of art with the same businesslike zeal with which they work at the office. The Latin proverb otium est pul- vinar diaboli [idleness is the devil’s pillow] is quite correct, but the devil does not find time to lay his head on this pillow if one 261 262 290 Either/Or, I is not bored. But since people believe that it is man’s destiny to work, the antithesis idleness/work is correct. | assume that it is man’s destiny to amuse himself, and therefore my antith- esis is no less correct.
Boredom is the demonic pantheism. It becomes evil itself if one continues in it as such; as soon as it is annulled, however, it is the true pantheism. But it is annulled only by amusing oneself—ergo, one ought to amuse oneself. To say that it is an- nulled by working betrays a lack of clarity, for idleness can certainly be canceled by work, since this is its opposite, but boredom cannot, as is seen in the fact that the busiest workers of all, those whirring insects with their bustling buzzing, are the most boring of all, and if they are not bored, it is because they do not know what boredom is—but then the boredom is not annulled.
Boredom is partly an immediate genius, partly an acquired immediacy. '*On the whole, the English nation is the model nation. The true genius of indolence is seldom encountered; it is not found in nature; it belongs to the world of spirit. At times one meets an English tourist who is an incarnation of this genius, a heavy, inert woodchuck whose total resource of language consists of a single monosyllable, an interjection’ with which he indicates his highest admiration and his deepest indifference, for admiration and indifference have become un- differentiated in the unity of boredom. No nation other than the English produces such oddities of nature; every individual belonging to another nation will always be a bit more lively, not so altogether stillborn. The only analogy I know is the apostle of empty enthusiasm, who likewise travels through life on an interjection, people who make a profession of being enthusiastic everywhere, who are present everywhere and, no matter whether what happens is something significant or in- significant, shout: Oh! or Ah! because the difference between what is important and unimportant is undifferentiated in the emptiness of blind, clamorous enthusiasm.
The boredom that comes later’® is usually a fruit of a mis- guided diversion. It seems doubtful that a remedy against boredom can give rise to boredom, but it can give rise to bore- Rotation of Crops 291 dom only insofar as it is used incorrectly. A mistaken, gener- ally eccentric diversion has boredom within itself, and thus it works its way up and manifests itself as immediacy. Just as a distinction is made between blind staggers and mad staggers in horses, but both kinds are called staggers, so also a distinction can be made between two kinds of boredom that nevertheless are both joined in the category of boredom.
Pantheism ordinarily implies the qualification of fullness; with boredom it is the reverse: it is built upon emptiness, but for this very reason it is a pantheistic qualification. '7Boredom rests upon the nothing that interlaces existence [Tilverelsen]; its dizziness is infinite, like that which comes from looking down into a bottomless abyss. That the eccentric diversion is based upon boredom is seen also in the fact that the diversion sounds without resonance, simply because in nothing there is not even enough to make an echo possible.
Now, if boredom, as discussed above, is the root of all evil, what then is more natural than to seek to conquer it? But here, as everywhere, it is primarily a matter of calm deliberation, lest, demonically possessed by boredom in an attempt to es- cape it, one works one’s way into it. All who are bored cry out for change. In this, I totally agree with them, except that it is a question of acting according to principle.
My deviation from popular opinion is adequately expressed by the phrase “rotation of crops.” There might seem to be an ambiguity in this phrase, and if I were to find room in this phrase for a designation of the ordinary method I would have to say that rotation of crops consists in continually changing the soil. But the farmer does not use the expression in this way. For a moment, however, I will use it in this way to dis- cuss the rotation of crops that depends upon the boundless in- finity of change, its extensive dimension.
This rotation of crops is the vulgar, inartistic rotation and is based on an illusion. One is weary of living in the country and moves to the city; one is weary of one’s native land and goes abroad; one is europamiide [weary of Europe] and goes to America etc.; one indulges in the fanatical hope of an endless journey from star to star. Or there is another direction, but still 263 264 292 Either/Or, I extensive. One is weary of eating on porcelain and eats on sil- ver; wearying of that, one eats on gold; one burns down half of Rome’? in order to visualize the Trojan conflagration. This method cancels itself and is the spurious infinity.2° What, after all, did Nero achieve? No, then the emperor Antoninus was wiser; he says: &va6i@vai oor eeotiw ide mad te nOdyyata, as édeac: év todtw yao 16 dva6Lovar (Bibdtov Z., 6.) [You can begin a new life. Only see things afresh as you used to see them. In this consists the new life (Book VII, 2)].7!
The method I propose does not consist in changing the soil but, like proper crop rotation, consists in changing the method of cultivation and the kinds of crops. Here at once is the prin- ciple of limitation, the sole saving principle in the world. The more a person limits himself, the more resourceful he be- comes. A solitary prisoner for life is extremely resourceful; to him a spider can be a source of great amusement. Think of our school days; we were at an age when there was no esthetic con- sideration in the choosing of our teachers, and therefore they were often very boring—how resourceful we were then!” What fun we had catching a fly, keeping it prisoner under a nutshell, and watching it run around with it! What delight in cutting a hole in the desk, confining a fly in it, and peeking at it through a piece of paper! How entertaining it can be to listen to the monotonous dripping from the roof! >What a meticu- lous observer one becomes, detecting every little sound or movement. Here is the extreme boundary of that principle that seeks relief not through extensity but through intensity.
The more resourceful one can be in changing the method of cultivation, the better, but every particular change still falls under the universal rule of the relation between recollecting and forgetting. It is in these two currents that all life moves, and therefore it is a matter of having them properly under one’s control. Not until hope has been thrown overboard does one begin to live artistically; as long as a person hopes, he cannot limit himself. It is indeed beautiful to see a person put out to sea with the fair wind of hope; one may utilize the chance to let oneself be towed along, but one ought never have it on board Rotation of Crops 293 one’s craft, least of all as pilot, for it is an untrustworthy ship- master. For this reason, too, hope was one of Prometheus’s dubious gifts; instead of giving human beings the foreknowl- edge of the immortals, he gave them hope.
*To forget—this is the desire of all people, and when they encounter something unpleasant, they always say: If only I could forget! But to forget is an art that must be practiced in advance. To be able to forget always depends upon how one remembers, but how one remembers depends upon how one experiences actuality. The person who runs aground with the speed of hope will recollect in such a way that he will be una- ble to forget. Thus nil admirari [marvel at nothing]*® is the proper wisdom of life. No part of life ought to have so much meaning for a person that he cannot forget it any moment he wants to; on the other hand, every single part of life ought to have so much meaning for a person that he can remember it at any moment. The age that remembers best is also the most forgetful: namely, childhood. The more poetically one re- members, the more easily one forgets, for to remember poet- ically is actually only an expression for forgetting. When I re- member poetically, my experience has already undergone the change of having lost everything painful. In order to be able to recollect in this way, one must be very much aware of how one lives, especially of how one enjoys. If one enjoys indis- criminately to the very end, if one continually takes the utmost that enjoyment can give, one will be unable either to recollect or to forget. That is, one has nothing else to recollect than a satiation that one only wishes to forget but that now torments with an involuntary recollection. Therefore, if a person no- tices that enjoyment or a part of life is carrying him away too forcefully, he stops for a moment and recollects. There is no better way to give a distaste for going on too long. From the beginning, one curbs the enjoyment and does not hoist full sail for any decision; one indulges with a certain mistrust. Only then is it possible to give the lie to the proverb that says that one cannot eat one’s cake and have it, too. It is true that the police forbid carrying secret weapons, and yet there is no weapon as dangerous as the art of being able to recollect. It is 265 266 294 Either/Or, I a singular feeling when in the midst of enjoyment one looks at it in order to recollect it.
When an individual has perfected himself in the art of for- getting and the art of recollecting in this way, he is then able to play shuttlecock with all existence.
A person’s resiliency can actually be measured by his power to forget. He who cannot forget will never amount to much. Whether or not a Lethe?’ wells up anywhere, I do not know, but this I do know—that this art can be developed. But it by no means consists in the traceless disappearance of the partic- ular impression, because forgetfulness is not identical with the art of being able to forget. What little understanding people generally have of this art is readily seen, for they usually want to forget only the unpleasant, not the pleasant. This betrays a total one-sidedness. Indeed, forgetting is the right expression for the proper assimilation that reduces experience to a sound- ing board. The reason nature is so great is that it has forgotten that it was chaos, but this thought can appear at any time. Since forgetting is usually thought of in relation to the un- pleasant, it is generally conceived of as a wild force that stifles. But forgetting, on the contrary, is a quiet pursuit, and it ought to be related to the pleasant just as much as to the unpleasant. Furthermore, the pleasant as a bygone, specifically as a by- gone, has an intrinsic unpleasantness with which it can awaken a sense of loss; this unpleasantness is canceled by forgetting. The unpleasant has a sting—everyone admits that. This, too, is removed by forgetting. But if one behaves as many do who dabble in the art of forgetting, who brush the unpleasant away entirely, one will soon see what good that is. In an unguarded moment, it often surprises a person with the full force of the sudden. This is completely at odds with the well-ordered pat- tern in an intelligent head. No misfortune, no adversity is so unfriendly, so deaf that it cannot be flattered a little; even Cerberus” accepted honey cakes, and it is not only young maidens one beguiles. One talks around it and thereby de- prives it of its sharpness and by no means wishes to forget it— but forgets it in order to recollect it. Indeed, even with remi- niscences of such a kind that one would think eternal forget- Rotation of Crops 295 fulness would be the only means against them, one allows oneself such cunning, and the fakery is successful for the ad- ept. Forgetting is the scissors with which one snips away what cannot be used, but, please note, under the maximal supervi- sion of recollection. In this way, forgetting and recollecting are identical, and the artistically achieved identity is the Archi- medean point with which one lifts the whole world.”” When we speak of writing something in the book of oblivion, we are indeed suggesting that it is forgotten and yet at the same time is preserved.
*The art of recollecting and forgetting will also prevent a person from foundering in any particular relationship in life— and assures him complete suspension.
“Guard, then, against friendship. How is a friend defined? A friend is not what philosophy calls the necessary other*? but the superfluous third. What are the rituals of friendship? One drinks dus; one opens an artery, mingles one’s blood with the friend’s. Just when this moment arrives is difficult to deter- mine, but it proclaims itself in a mysterious way; one feels it and can no longer say De to the other. Once this feeling is pres~ ent, it can never turn out that one has made a mistake such as Gert Westphaler made when he drank dus with the execu- tioner.** —What are the sure signs of friendship? Antiquity answers: idem velle, idem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia [agree- ment in likes and dislikes, this and this only is what constitutes true friendship]** —and is also extremely boring. What is the meaning of friendship? Mutual assistance with counsel and ac- tion. Two friends form a close alliance in order to be every- thing to each other, even though no human being can be any- thing for another human being except to be in his way. *°Well, we can help each other with money, help each other into and out of our coats, be each other’s humble servants, gather for a sincere New Year’s congratulation, also for weddings, births, and funerals.
37But just because one stays clear of friendship, one will not for that reason live without contact with people. On the con- trary, these relationships can take a deeper turn now and then, provided that one always—even though keeping the same 268 296 Either/Or, I pace for a time—has enough reserve speed to run away from them. It may be thought that such conduct leaves unpleasant recollections, that the unpleasantness consists in the diminish- ing of a relationship from having been something to being nothing. This, however, is a misunderstanding. The unpleas- antness is indeed a piquant ingredient in the perverseness of life. Moreover, the same relationship can regain significance in another way. One should be careful never to run aground and to that end always to have forgetting in mind. The experi- enced farmer lets his land lie fallow now and then; the theory of social prudence recommends the same thing. Everything will surely come again but in a different way; what has once been taken into the rotation process remains there but is varied by the method of cultivation. Therefore, one quite consis- tently hopes to meet one’s old friends and acquaintances in a better world but does not share the crowd’s fear that they may have changed so much that one could not recognize them again. One fears, instead, that they may be altogether un- changed. It is unbelievable what even the most insignificant person can gain by such sensible cultivation.
38Never become involved in marriage. Married people pledge love for each other throughout eternity. °°Well, now, that is easy enough but does not mean very much, for if one is finished with time one is probably finished with eternity. If, instead of saying “‘throughout eternity,” the couple would say “until Easter, until next May Day,” then what they say would make some sense, for then they would be saying something and also something they perhaps could carry out. What hap- pens in marriage? First, one of them detects after a short time that something is wrong, and then the other one complains and screams: Faithlessness! Faithlessness! After a while, the other one comes to the same conclusion and a state of neutral- ity is inaugurated through a balancing of accounts by mutual faithlessness, to their common satisfaction and gratification. But it is too late now, anyway, because a divorce involves all kinds of huge problems.
Since marriage is like that, it is not strange that attempts are made in many ways to shore it up with moral props. If a man Rotation of Crops 297 wants to be separated from his wife, the cry goes up: He is a mean fellow, a scoundrel, etc. How ridiculous, and what an indirect assault upon marriage! Either marriage has intrinsic reality ( Realitet], and then he is adequately punished by losing it, or it has no reality, and then it is unreasonable to vilify him because he is wiser than others. If someone became weary of his money and threw it out the window, no one would say he is a mean fellow, for either money has reality, and then he is adequately punished by not having it anymore, or it has no reality, and then, of course, he is indeed wise.
“One must always guard against contracting a life relation- ship by which one can become many. That is why even friend- ship is dangerous, marriage even more so. They do say that marriage partners become one, but this is very obscure and mysterious talk. If an individual is many, he has lost his free- dom and cannot order his riding boots when he wishes, cannot knock about according to whim. Ifhe has a wife, it is difficult; if he has a wife and perhaps children, it is formidable; if he has a wife and children, it is impossible. Admittedly, there is the example of a gypsy woman who carried her husband on her back*! throughout life, but for one thing this is a great rarity and, for another, it is very tiring in the long run—for the hus- band. Moreover, through marriage one falls into a very deadly continuity with custom, and custom is like the wind and weather, something completely indeterminable. To the best of my knowledge, it is the custom in Japan for the husbands also to be confined during childbirth. Perhaps the time is coming when Europe will import the customs of foreign lands.
“Even friendship is dangerous; marriage is still more dan- gerous, for the woman is and will be the man’s ruination as soon as he contracts a continuing relationship with her. Take a young man, spirited as an Arabian horse; let him marry and he is lost. At the outset, the woman is proud, then she is weak, then she swoons, then he swoons, then the whole family swoons. A woman’s love is only pretense and weakness.
Just because one does not become involved in marriage, one’s life need not for that reason be devoid of the erotic. The erotic, too, ought to have infinity—but a poetic infinity that 269 270 298 Either/Or, I can just as well be limited to one hour as to a month. When two people fall in love with each other and sense that they are destined for each other, it is a question of having the courage to break it off, for by continuing there 1s only everything to lose, nothing to gain. It seems to be a paradox, and indeed it is, for the feelings, not for the understanding. In this domain it is primarily a matter of being able to use moods; if a person can do that, an inexhaustible variation of combinations can be achieved.