“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How
shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest
and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our
knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean
ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to
invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves
not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” (Nietzsche)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) had already anticipated to
the human changes or what humans were going to experience during the twentieth
century.
God is dead is one of Nietzsche’s most famous quotes. It does
not mean that, in the first place, there existed a god and then he died, but he
means that every trace of human morality has died and we have killed it. There is
no god that could provide humans with a universal moral code.
During the twentieth century due to the industrial
revolution humans experience the transitory, the disposable, and for the first
time humans are afraid that they could be replaced by their own inventions. There
is no sense of belonging anymore leading humans to believe in totalitarian doctrines
(Nazism, communism, capitalism and every “ism”) that have led to monstrous actions
until today, thereby creating an empty human “being”.
These actions have
been possible because there is no god and as Dostoevsky states “if god does not
exist, everything is permitted”. (Danto)
Huxley and Orwell‘s illustrations have thoroughly
represented the human condition in the twentieth century and I reckon their
works as very accurate satires:
there is a character that fills the absence of a god (big brother) in “1984” and
in “Brave New World” humans fill their emptiness with Soma.
I do not know if both writers had taken into account what Nietzsche had anticipated ,but anyways they experienced the twentieth century in its finest, thereby representing their experiences in the aforementioned novels.
Still, having said that, I believe that lots of artists do react
to our god-less society, but they do it in different artistic ways. Here goes
another:
:)
Danto, Arthur. Nietzsche
As Philosopher. 1965.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The gay science. 1882.
I found your post really interesting, and made me wonder how the concept of religion has changed our society.
ResponderEliminarSince ancient time society have always influenced and affected by religion. Old civilization such as Azteca and Mayas even practiced rituals of human sacrifices to empower there gods and receive divine retribution. Going forward in human history we can see that many wars had happen using religion and their gods as an excuse. This shows how people have always been blinded by their spiritual believes, religion was used as method to control masses. But, as you mention we have been leaving the idea of a having a deity as the center of our lives and the necessity to win their favor by behaving as we have been told has been left behind and now we humans feel more in power of our own life. Therefore, the control of masses that religion provided was not as useful as it was before and necessity of creating a different method and more effective methods to control people and our society and because of that totalitarian regimen appeared as a reaction to our god-less society with the intention to maintain “control” over a society that has been freed from gods’ wrath.
I think the problem that happened in our society, is that we shifted from being a theocentric world where everything that the church, especially the Catholic church, said was the complete truth to be a world of relativism. Modernism was the time where everything was possible only if you could prove it and some beliefs, like religion, cannot be proven, you just feel them, believe in them, and trust in them. Therefore, for many, these societies that were based on a religious message were just a bunch of lies that should not be supported anymore.
ResponderEliminarNowadays nothing is certain, everything can or cannot be which leads the masses to feel afraid and to feel unprotected. As a consequence, they will follow whatever association, regime, religion that give them structure and support. It does not matter at what cost, as long as they feel protected and that their lives are in complete order.
Though I believe we have become less and less moral beings, there are still a few out there with their eyes open wide, seeing what it is going on in the world and looking for better ways to give the masses the protection they want at the same time with the physical and mental freedom they deserve.