Chapter 31 twenty

Let us hope that one day an incorruptible judge will decide in what age and in whom the German spirit has hitherto tried most hard to learn from the Greeks.If we are to feel fully confident that this honor is due to the incomparably noble Enlightenment of Goethe, Schiller, and Winckelmann, it must be added that since that time, following the immediate influence of the Enlightenment, in the same article The march to culture and the Greeks along the way was inexplicably waning.In order not to doubt the German spirit at all, should we not draw from it the following conclusion: In all crucial respects, these warriors also failed to reach the heart of the Greek spirit, to create a lasting bond of love between German and Greek cultures?To discover this shortcoming by accident, then, may cause sincere people to feel discouraged, and wonder whether, after such pioneers, they can go further on this cultural road than them, and whether they can finally achieve their goals.So, we see, from that time on, people have had doubts and confusion in judging the value of the Greeks to culture.A condescending tone of pity can be heard in all sorts of academic and non-academic camps.Elsewhere, useless pretty words are said, with "Greek harmony," "Greek beauty," "Greek joy," and the like.Even in those groups which are supposed to honor German culture by striving to draw from Greek sources, and in the circle of teachers in institutions of higher education, at best they have learned to satisfy themselves with the Greeks hastily and easily, often to the point of skepticism. Abandon the Greek ideal, or altogether distort the real purpose of all classical studies.Anyone in those circles who has not spent his energy in a laborious life of careful collation of ancient texts or tedious exegetical texts may wish to master the Greek classics "historically" alongside the other classics, but always in the light of today's educated His method of compiling history still carries such a condescending air.Therefore, since the true cultural power of the higher academic institutions has never been so low as it is in the present age, and since the "journalist", the paper-slave enslaved by time, has triumphed over the senior teachers on all cultural issues, the latter have to accept the The metamorphosis experienced, now also adopts the reporter’s language style, with the reporter’s "easy and elegant", fluttering like an educated butterfly-then, the contemporary educated people, witnessing that kind of only In what painful turmoil must a phenomenon that can be understood by analogy with the deepest roots of the Greek spirit hitherto unexplained witness the revival of the Dionysian spirit and the rebirth of tragedy?There has never been another age of art in which so-called culture and real art have been so alienated and opposed to each other as we are witnessing in our own time.We understand why such a feeble culture hates true art; for it fears that the latter will pronounce its doom.But the whole Socratic-Alexandrian type, having reached such a debilitating extreme, like contemporary culture, should not linger on!If heroes like Goethe and Schiller still can't open the magic door leading to the magic mountain of Greece, if they explore with their courage, they can only end up looking in the distance, just like Goethe's Iphigenia separated from the desolate Tauris. What, then, can the posterity of these heroes hope for, unless the door of magic is suddenly and automatically opened to them from an entirely different side hitherto untouched by all cultural endeavors—in the mystery of the revival of tragic music? in the sound.

No one should try to destroy our faith in the coming resurrection of the Greek spirit, because with this faith we can hope to renew and purify the German spirit with the holy fire of music.What else should we expect, amidst the cultural desolation of today, to evoke any comforting anticipation for the future?In vain we search for a strong root, a corner of fertile land, but everywhere is dust, gravel, dead branches, and rotten wood.Here, if a desperate lonely man had to choose a symbol for himself, he could not choose a better symbol than Dürer's knight with death and the devil. Companion interference, although hopeless, still alone, with a horse and puppies, embarked on a terrifying journey.Our Schopenhauer is such a knight described by Dürer, he is hopeless, but still seeks the truth.There is no one like him now.

And yet how suddenly the desert of modern sluggish culture, which we have just so darkly described, is transformed when touched by the magic of Dionysus!A hurricane sweeps over all decayed, rotten, broken, and withered things, dragging them into a cloud of scarlet dust, and carrying them to the sky like a goshawk.Our eyes look blankly for what has disappeared, and we see something rising as if from a sinking place of golden light, so lush and verdant, so full of life, so full of emotion.Tragedy sits in the midst of this overflowing life, pain, and joy, and in the midst of sublime joy hears a distant melancholy song of the Mother of All, whose names are: Illusion, Will, Pain. —Yes, my friend, believe with me in the Dionysian life, in the rebirth of tragedy.The age of the Socrates is over, please put on the crown of ivy, hold the staff of Dionysus, and don't be surprised if tigers and leopards lie flatteringly on your knees.Now please be bold and be a tragic figure, because you will be saved.Ye escort the Dionysian procession from India to Greece!Prepare for a tough fight, but trust your God to work miracles!