The suffering disorder

In “The Anti-Christ,” his groundbreaking and powerful assault upon “Mere Christianity” (as C.S. Lewis puts it), Friedrich Nietzsche, the great German philosopher, refers to pity as that great disease which makes suffering contagious. To the maudlin at heart, Herr Nietzsche’s notion of pity may seem cruel and barbaric–indeed, even totally outrageous and uncompassionate, perhaps even downright revolting.

Personally, I think Nietzsche raises a very valid and remarkably uplifting point–a point also raised by Ayn Rand, another notable Western philosopher, in her novel “The Fountainhead.” The point is that suffering is for the birds. It’s for animals. Human beings shouldn’t believe in suffering–or in pity, if it infects us with undue suffering.

To be sure, many cultures believe in suffering. In fact, these cultural adherents not only believe that it is perfectly normal and natural for man to suffer; they also–rather perversely–believe that it is quite noble to for him to suffer.

Suffering makes us better, they say–though I don’t think this is exactly what Herr Nietzsche had in mind when he declared, “from the military school of life,” that what does not kill us only makes us stronger.

Entire religions are built upon this foundation of human suffering. Fanatical cults peddle suffering as well. Exactly where does this universal, irrational suffering fixation come from? Why do people steadfastly insist upon celebrating and glorifying human suffering?

You see it in various religious seasons and traditions: people fasting, sacrificing–beating themselves with a horse whip, bearing huge wooden objects and the like. Enough already. It does not have to be this way.

The suffering fixation no doubt comes from certain historical traditions, which naturally stem from historical conditions. For decades and centuries, throughout the world, people suffered. They suffered regularly. They suffered from drought, famine and dreaded disease, for which there were no quick remedies.

As a result, then-prevailing economic and social realities were eventually codified into the culture and religion (e.g., Buddhism, Islam, and Catholicism). The creed of human suffering was eagerly embraced as a collective coping mechanism. So deeply ingrained was the suffering creed that even now, in modern nations–in an entirely new set of human circumstances–it is still widely embraced.

Nevertheless, it is still well worth noting that it was the West–its great Western thinkers–that made the greatest intellectual contribution to humanity. It was the West that first boldly and defiantly broached the revolutionary idea that it is not noble to suffer: that life was not meant for suffering–that it should be fully celebrated instead.
The idea probably first appeared on the scene at the advent of Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation and the Renaissance it thus enabled.

In any event, we still have Nietzsche and Rand to thank for our cultural and intellectual liberation, should we choose to accept it. Politically, we owe Thomas Jefferson some gratitude too–for “the pursuit of happiness,” which certainly goes against human suffering (and implies massive tax cuts).