Nietzsche's On the Use and Abuse of History for Life
19 March 2024
The central theme of On the Use and Abuse of History for Life is that history should serve life. Nietzsche argues that it is dangerous to become too obsessed with the past, to the point that we neglect the present and the future. Our capacity for happiness in the present depends on our ability to forget the past; it depends on "there being a line that divides the visible and clear from the vague and shadowy." To attain happiness, it helps to first develop an instinct for knowing when to remember, and when to forget.
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Nietzsche presents three ways of looking at the past. First is the monumental, which means looking at the past as a source of greatness. The past can serve as a wellspring of inspiration. History is filled with great men (and women), and we can learn about their lives, understand their motives, and apply those lessons in our own lives. It is also crucial that we study the greatness of the past thoughtfully and with great care. Historical events can be very complex, and reducing them to simple comparisons and generalisations can lead to a shallow understanding that misses the depth and nuances of those events.
The second method is the antiquarian, and it involves honouring and preserving the past. The past can reveal to us many things about ourselves (and our culture), such as our purpose, passions, opinions, foolishness, and bad habits. By looking to the past, we are able to discover lost parts of ourselves, and develop a better understanding of who we are. This applies not just at the individual level, but also at the societal or cultural level. Furthermore, the past keeps us grounded. We feel comfortable "living in the past" because we feel naturally related to it. We are able to understand it instinctually, even though it can be obscure at times. However, we should be wary of being too obsessed or protective about the past, for this will lead to a narrow and constricted vision of the present and the future. The past should be preserved, but changes should also be embraced.
The critical method involves looking to the past, and breaking those parts of it that are detrimental to our well being, in order to make way for life. It involves cultivating new habits to replace the old. By investigating our past thoroughly, we are able to identify and pick out those parts of it that no longer serve any helpful purpose, and dissolve them. It is also crucial that we don't become too critical of the past, because we are the product of our past, and if we are not careful we may end up condemning the whole of ourselves rather than just those parts that we want to break away from. Very often what results in such cases is a person who is critical of his or her past but is unable make any changes. Nevertheless, being critical is a good first step, for it reveals to us our errors and limitations, and creates the possibility of change. It also helps to be honest, because sometimes it is difficult to see through our own denials and deceits.
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Nietzsche advises against treating the past as a collection of facts to be known and archived away. Being too obsessed with pure intellectual abstractions can lead to a disconnect between our inward thoughts, feelings, and abstractions, and our outward appearances. We become unable to express ourselves genuinely because our senses have been dulled by our intellect. We become someone who
"does not dare any longer to trust himself but who involuntarily turns to history for his feeling and seeks advice by asking 'What should I feel here?'"
The result of such an attitude is a loss of authenticity, or a "weakened personality", to use Nietzsche's terms. Nietzsche suggests that the solution to the weakened personality is truthfulness. We need to be honest with ourselves about our fruitless obsession with historical abstraction, and to open ourselves up to the irrational, that is, to view the past less dryly, but more in a holistic, life-affirming way. Art is needed to imbue cold historical facts with life. It is more helpful to weave together the events of the past into a coherent narrative, interspersed with symbols that are rich with meanings. In this way, the past simultaneously informs and enriches. However, in Nietzsche does warn against overgeneralisation and oversimplification, of overloading events into grand narratives. There has to be a balance between the creative and the empirical. One cannot go too far in either direction.
Nietzsche also emphasises the need of maintaining a constructive stance when looking to the past. Subjecting anything to over-critical analysis will cause it to lose its vibrancy and become dead:
"It ceases to live when it is completely dissected and exists in pain and sickness, if we start to practice historical dissection on it."
Nietzsche cites religion as an example. He writes that religion was put through too much unfair criticism, and was rejected due to the historical inaccuracies and contradictions of its doctrines, which led to its eventual decline. It is possible that there is just no way to reconcile the two frameworks of science and religion, but the point is that we never considered what the values of religion are, or why it was established in the first place. This complete disregard for the practicality of faith has had dire consequences on modern societies.
In one passage, Nietzsche writes that a "suspension of disbelief" is necessary for life. Life needs an atmosphere of mystery around itself, "a secret circle of darkness", in order to thrive. All great things rely on some level of deception, of faith, to serve as a "protective veil" that shields them against the harshness of reality, in order to succceed. Thus, faith and idealisation are critical components if one is to use the past to serve life.
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Nietzsche questions the notion that everybody has the right to judge the past. The right to judge is applicable only to those who has the drive and the capacity to be just. The just man (or woman) is obsessed with seeking the truth, and is free from being distracted by boredom, resentment, and vanity. The just man is courageous, and is able to express his opinions and judgements strongly and firmly. He wills the truth, and spreads it, not to satisfy his own vanity, but to satisfy the needs of the community. Such a combination is rare, Nietzsche says.
The pure historian, that is, one who looks to the past not to serve the present but for its own sake, cannot be just. They are knowledgeable, able to argue convincingly using their knowledge, but their arguments do not arouse actions. Instead, they "lull us to sleep." Justice "never has anything pleasant, knows no attractive feelings, but is hard and terrifying." A person who is tolerant is not capable of being just. He ignores what cannot be denied because it makes him uncomfortable. He glosses over painful truths with a smile. He belives that the absence of hate automatically implies the presence of justice. No, says Nietzsche; such tolerating person is weak, and is in no position to judge the past.
One should be selective about the historical writings that he chooses to read. A good historical work is one that expresses something that is universal, and that is relevant to all times and places. The true historian understands this, and knows how to express the universal eloquently, in a form so succinct that it can be understood by all. The reader, blessed with such a work, is able to grasp the universal immediately, and see it reflected in the particular, in his own life. Nietzsche claims that such a work can only be written by one who has experienced life deeply, and has reflected on it intensely.
The right to judge the past is reserved for those who have the capacity to engage with, and understand the present. One should not judge the past unless one has made a real effort to understand it, and one cannot understand the past until one has experienced and understood the present. Only then will he be able to extract meaningful lessons from history, lessons that are relevant to his time. Furthermore, Nietzsche writes that "only the man who builds the future has a right to judge the past."
"In order to look ahead, set yourselves an important goal, and at the same time control that voluptuous analytical drive with which you now lay waste the present and render almost impossible all tranquillity, all peaceful growth and maturing. Draw around yourself the fence of a large and extensive hope, an optimistic striving. Create in yourselves a picture to which the future is to correspond, and forget the myth that you are epigones. You have enough to plan and to invent when you imagine that future life for yourselves. But in considering history do not ask that she show you the “How?” and the “With what?” If, however, you live your life in the history of great men, then you will learn from history the highest command: to become mature and to flee away from that paralyzing and prohibiting upbringing of the age, which sees advantages for itself in not allowing you to become mature, in order to rule and exploit you, the immature. And when you ask after biographies, then do not ask for those with the refrain “Mr. So-and-so and His Age” but for those whose title page must read “A Fighter Against His Age.” Fill your souls with Plutarch, and dare to believe in yourselves when you have faith in his heroes."
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Nietzsche criticises against modern capitalist socities and their obsession increasing with collective utility and productivity. Modern societies bombard its youngsters with too much information prematurely, rushing them through education so that they become prime and ready to join the workforce as soon as possible. Nietzsche argues that such methods are detrimental because they block the young from having a meaningful engagement with the world. Societies rob the young of its opportunity to engage with the activities of life, of develoment and maturing. The result is a generation of apathic and lost souls. These lonely souls are unable to make sense of the sheer volume of information that bombards them. They become paralysed by doubt, incapable of believing in any viewpoint or having an opinion because they see too much. Lacking any stable intellectual or cultural ground to stand on, the youngsters stops engaging with the world completely, and withdraws from it.
We are able to see the effects of this in the field of academia. Young people, pressured into becoming useful before they are mature, end up adopting the methods and attitudes of the nearest mentor, and produce works that are mediocre, derivate, and unoriginal. The modern academic enterprise have been subjugated to economic imperatives and efficiency. Scholars become increasingly concerned with the quantity of academic output rather than quality. Productivity becomes prioritised over genuine understanding. The result is a non-stop churning out of incoherent and shallow scholarly work that are "cobbled together" inconsiderately, rather than "built" with thought and care. Modern scholars are overwhelmed by the demand to produce more, leading to a loss of harmony and depth in their work.
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Nietzsche ends his essay on a hopeful note. Yes, modernity is ill because of an excess of history. Nevertheless, he trusts that the vigour of the youth will succceed in its demand that "human beings above all learn to live and to use history only in the service of the life which he has learned." It's not going to be easy: the new generation must "taste the truth drop by drop, as if sampling a bitter and powerful medicine." He or she has no reference point from which to learn from because there is none. Despite this, Nietzsche declares that the youth is strong, and more than capable to unleash and liberate the force of life that lies within. He reminds us again of the power of forgetting, maintaining stubbornly his stance of the passion and the irrational, of his position against pure intellectual abstractions. Is life to rule knowledge, or is knowledge to rule over life? The answer is clear:
"Life is the higher, the ruling power, for knowledge which destroyed life would in the process have destroyed itself."