1st May 2023
What's that you say? The sun is shining, spring is sprung and life is full of light and joy? Sounds like you need another dose of existentialism to bring you back to earth, then!
And there's no one quite like Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) to burst the balloon of our naïve optimism. With his piercing prose, iconoclastic analysis of Western society, and bonkers moustache, he has been challenging every generation since to think again about the very nature of mankind*, morality, meaning (and moustaches). I have been spending much of the past week with him (for my MA in Existential Coaching) and thinking about what wisdom he might have for us today.
One of his most famous quotes is "God is dead." While that might sound triumphant, almost gleeful - in fact he sees it as a real problem for humanity. With the secularisation of society, the moral guidance and certainty of purpose that had guided mankind for centuries was gone - and what was in its place? Nothing: no morality, no meaning, perhaps even no hope.
Of course, as a true existentialist, he puts the responsibility squarely on our shoulders. If there are no answers at the back of the book of life, then it is up to us to write them for ourselves**. We need to thoughtfully and robustly challenge and refine our values, our goals, and our purpose in life - a struggle that he likens to a lion slaying a dragon.
But there's good news: if we can successfully do this, then it makes us strong. He writes: "He who has a 'why' to live for can bear almost any 'how'." Purpose gives us resilience and tenacity. This is picked up in Victor Frankl's extraordinary book, "Man's Search for Meaning". Frankl was a survivor of German extermination camps in the Second World War, and went on to become a hugely respected and influential psychotherapist. In the book, he describes how - even in the unspeakable depths of mankind's darkest atrocities - it was possible to find meaning through love, nature, art, and even humour: "spiritual freedom" that cannot be taken away, and can give us the "why" we need to keep going.
Thankfully, Frankl's is not a situation any of us will have to bear - but it is a reminder to us to continue to question "why" we are doing what we are doing. I didn't really do that for much of my career - I went from one job to the next because they sounded interesting, or worthwhile, or even well-paid - but rarely because they aligned with my fundamental values.
I've been working on it, and I think I have got a bit of a better idea now - my "why?" is helping other people to discover theirs.
What is your "why?"
* I'm afraid this rather archaic, even sexist, term is more than appropriate for Nietzsche. He did not have much time for women - and to be fair, it seems they had even less time for him (I don’t think the moustache can have helped).
** This isn't just for atheists either - Søren Kierkegaard, an extremely devout (if odd) Christian philosopher argues much the same.
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