Nietzsche’s Eternal Return, or How to Choose Freedom
Will you want your current life again and innumerable times again?
You’re alone in your bedroom in the middle of the night. Despite your best efforts, sleep has eluded you yet again. Your sheep count is in the thousands, and just when you decide to start counting backwards, you feel a tickle on your ear, a warm breath. You jump in fear. You know you’re alone, so who, or what, could this be?
The creature emerges from the darkness, touches your forehead lightly with its long, bony finger, paralyzing you and leaving you no room to move or scream. The only thing you can do is listen to the urgent message this creature, this demon, has been sent to deliver,
“This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence — even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!”
The demon has condemned you to the Eternal Return.
Nietzsche posed this thought experiment as a way to gauge whether we’re living life to the fullest. If you had to live your current life innumerable times over and over, would you be content to do it again? If you tremble in fear at the mere thought of it, some changes must be made.
Nietzsche wants to wake us up to the fact that our lives are ours to choose. Yes, we’re all burdened by responsibilities, and we’re all chained to certain obligations, but how many of those are of your choosing? If we take inventory of our chains, we’ll probably discover that we’ve chosen a very small percentage of them. Most of them have been thrust upon us by others, whether it be family, friends, religion, or moral values. We’ve never questioned these morals because that’s how things have been done and because what will people think if I don’t follow along. Nietzsche invites us to examine our morals and values under a personal light and away from the light of conventionality. After all, the demon came to you when you were alone. It is also alone that you must determine which values will shape your life without seeking external validation. After all, you’re the one condemned to live you life over and over again. No one else can save you from that burden.
The eternal return is not meant as a punishment, rather it’s an invitation to reflection. Nietzsche is trying to save us from the regrets that will inevitably plague us in our deathbed if we don’t start taking life in our own hands.
Far too often we place our life in the hands of others, and thus we reject any accountability for our mistakes. We erroneously believe that if others shape our life, that if others decide for us, we’ll never be accountable for our shortcomings. We’ll always be able to blame someone else for not being able to accomplish our goals and dreams. “Oh, had I been free to choose, my life will be all unicorns and candy…” The good news is that you ARE free to choose. The bad news is this freedom comes at a cost that very few people are willing to pay.
“Perhaps the hardest part of the eternal return is to own up to the tortures we have created for ourselves and those we create for others.” —John Kaag
Nietzsche describes freedom as “the will to be responsible for ourselves.” That’s it. No magic potions. Once you understand you set your own rules (and are responsible for the consequences) most of your chains will disappear. This, however, requires a revaluation of your values. Where do your values come from and why have you chosen to accept them?
Most people’s values come from family or religion, and most people have blindly accepted them. No questions asked. But we must remember that nothing holds intrinsic value. Things only hold the value we assign to them. How many things (and people) in your life do you hold as valuable because society tells you you should? Think about the person with the toxic family. Most of us were brought up to believe that family is sacred and you should never, ever leave them because, well, they’re family. No matter how toxic they are, no matter how much damage they inflict in your life, family is family and you must love them above all things. Lift the veil of reverence from family and examine it under cold, objective light. How much value are they adding to your life? If you had to live innumerable lives surrounded by this people again and again, will you be content to do so?
Take inventory of all things you hold valuable and examine them under your own perception, away from the limiting set of rules and values society and religion are so eager to impose. And finally, act on your decisions, well aware that your actions will have consequences, not only on yourself, but on others as well, and ask yourself, “Do I want this again and innumerable times again?”
