Literature often uses themes of pessimism and a sense of historical tragedy. From Heraclitus to Heidegger, from Sophocles to Schopenhauer, the proponents of a tragic image of the world insist that the transitoriness of human existence can cope only through the heroic intensity of life. Tragic philosophy is incompatible with the Christian dogma of salvation, as well as many contemporary ideology of optimism emerging from the assumption that somewhere around the corner waiting for us, "bright future" and the existential fear can be overcome by accepting the concept of linear and progressive history. It is striking how often in our postmodern culture, avoiding references to death and dying. Processions and vigils, which until recently represented a respect for the posthumous communion between the dead and the living, get faster and faster into oblivion. In the cold, superracjonalnym society of today evokes the death of a shame, as if should no longer exist, though it could be delayed by deliberate "search for happiness." Among the population gathered around the TV is widespread belief that you can outsmart death set off in search of the elixir of eternal youth and cultivating the ideology of "good looks" - the belief, which became the exponent of social and political conduct.
Romanian-French essayist Emile Cioran suggests that awareness of existential futility is the only weapon against the theological and ideological delirium that for centuries have moved Europe. Born in Romania in 1911, the author that very early became convinced of the rightness of an old European saying, provided by the destination entity is subject to geographical location. From their region, once crossed by the Scythian and Sarmatian hordes, and has recently ruled by the secular change and political vampires Drakulów, Cioran took a typical "Balkan" sense of survival. The ancient Greeks despised the region of Europe, and when political circumstances forced them to leave him, preferred to seek a new homeland in Sicily or in Italy. Today, any, a place to escape, as in the case of Cioran, France. "Our epoch," Cioran writes, "will mark apatrydów romanticism. Already draws a picture of a world in which no one will have the rights of citizenship "(Cioran, 1952, p. 70). Like his exiled compatriots Eugène Ionesco, Ştefan Lupaşcu, Mircea Eliade and many others, Cioran very quickly realized that the sense of existential futility can be cured by faith in the cyclical concept of history that precludes any idea arrival of a new messiah, or the continuation of technological and economic progress.
Both political, aesthetic and existential perspective Cioran time being and is an attempt to restore przedsokratejskiej thoughts, pushed to the periphery of philosophical speculation, the legacy of Christianity and rationalism, and positivism. In his essays and aphorisms Cioran is trying to establish the foundation philosophy of life based on the total rejection of paradox of life in all its forms. Speculate on how to improve the human condition or "end of history" seems to him meaningless. "Future?" Writes Cioran. 'We have fun with it, if it suits you. I prefer to stick to present this incredible and unbelievable the past. With an incredible par excellence mierzcie to please ourselves "(Cioran, 1973, p. 181). Before a man will give up dreams of a futuristic society, it must first sink into the nothingness of being, finally restoring life into what essentially is: a working hypothesis. On one of his lithographs sixteenth century French painter immortalized J. Valverde, the man who personally obdarł with the skin. This is a stunning specimen in one hand holding the knife in the other, newly downloaded skin, like Cioran, who now teaches its readers how best to strip down to their political shell illusion. A man feels only fear on her skin, not on its skeleton. How would it be, asks Cioran, if the variety one could think of something unrelated to being? Is it not so that everything passes away from us cause persistent headaches? "I think about all I knew, and which no longer exists, because for a long time to rot trumiennym gunpowder, and for all protagonists of the rite of bodies - and fear '(Cioran, 1969, p. 62). Cioran
interesting feature is its way of tackling the existential nihilism with nihilism. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Cioran feel an aversion to the fashionable pessimism of intellectuals crying for the lost and prawiących havens of endless economic expansion. There is no doubt that this mood of pessimism artificial owes much to the contemporary literary discourse, but in fact it seems rather to reap the economic appetites frustrated, and less of what Cioran calls "metaphysical alienation." In opposition to existentialism JP Sartre, which focuses on the split between being and non-being, Cioran complains about the division between language and reality, recognizing including the source of problems in the full transfer of the vision of existential nothingness. The alienation popularized by contemporary writers, Cioran detects hip fracture "Paryzjanizmu" in an elegant way of masking the hot version of compromised faith. Perhaps it is through these critical approach Cioran never reap praise among his enemies and gained a reputation as 'reactionary'. Another label, a philosopher of nihilism, seems to be more relevant given the fact that Cioran is stubborn blasphemer having never quite naming of Christ, pray for us. Paul and the general Christian clergy, as well as its secular-Marxist successors freudowsko outright liars and masters of illusion. Compartmentalization Cioran hastily constructed in the intellectual and ideological categories leaves no room for appreciation of his complex temperament, while not reflecting the complex political philosophy. Every society, whether democratic or despotic, generally tries to silence those who embody the denial of his political sacred theology. According to Cioran, any system must be rejected for the simple reason that the systems glorify man as a superior being. Only in celebrating the not-being, and by the denial of life, according to Cioran, human existence becomes bearable. Its great advantage Cioran is as follows: "I am alive only because it is in my power to die when I'm encouraged, though not the idea of suicide, long ago I would have killed him." (Cioran, 1952, p. 85). These words indicate rejection of Cioran's philosophy of Sisyphus, as well as the moral pathos of living among the dung of Job. No other form of both biblical and derived from the world of modern democracy, would be willing to contemplate a similar way possible to escape the cycle of time. Cioran says, the greatest sense of happiness is attainable only if the person is aware that at any moment can end your life, only after that date may be the emergence of a "moral existence." It can therefore say that Cioran draws vitality from the continuous stream of useful ideas about death, thus nullifying any attempt at ethical or political commitment. Man should, writes Cioran, try for a change, function as a kind of saprophytic bacteria; or better yet, like some sort of amoeba from the Paleozoic era. Such original form of existence is much easier to survive the terror of being and time. The protoplasm or sub-species is more beautiful than all the philosophies of life. To emphasize this idea, Cioran adds: "Yes, I want to be a plant, even if I must take care excrement" (Cioran, 1952, p. 173).
Cioran could be presented as a disturber, or, as the French call it, 'Trouble fete', which offends his suicidal aphorisms bourgeois society, his words often shocking modern dreamers of socialism. Given his acceptance of the idea of death, as well as the rejection of all political doctrines, it is not strange that no longer feels Cioran ties with selfish love of life. Thus he sees no reason to think about life strategy, and should rather start thinking about the methodology of dying, or better yet - how is never born. "How great is the regression of humanity," writes Cioran, "the best proof that it is impossible to find people or tribe in which the birth from producing still mourning and lamentation "(Cioran, 1973, p. 8). Where are the holy days when Bogumiłowie Balkan and French Cathars in the birth of their children saw divine punishment? Today's generation to enjoy the city when their loved ones nearing the end of life, stuns and filled with horror and wonder at the vision of death. Rather than moan and complain when the world has come to their offspring, organize collective holidays:
"If the attachment is evil, its cause must be sought in the birth of scandal, because to be born it is attached. The purpose of neutralization should therefore be to remove all traces of the scandal, the worst and most reprehensible of all "(Cioran, 1973, p. 30).
Cioran's philosophy bears the clear mark of the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche and the impact of the Indian Upanishads. Although his usual pessimism is often reminiscent of the "Weltschmerz," Nietzsche, the classical language and its syntax is rarely tolerate raw romantic or lyrical narrative, or sentimental outbursts often found in the prose of a German philosopher. Rather than reaching deafening mood of despondency, by Cioran his perverse sense of humor is something that should never be expressed. A weakness cioranowej prose is probably the lack of thematic organization. Often, his aphorisms reads like a disconnected fragments of a deliberate musical masterpiece, the other time and his language is so tight that the reader has originated in a sense it.
reading prose Cioran lieth with being forced by the cold climate of the Apocalypse, denying the heritage of every detail of progress. True joy is in the not-being, according to Cioran, ie, in the belief that every act of creation naumyślny only perpetuates cosmic chaos. Continued consideration of the higher meaning of life is pointless. The whole story, either the written or mythical cacophony fades away the theological and ideological tautology. Everything is "éternel retour", a historic carousel, where those who today are at the top, tomorrow land on the bottom.
"I do not forgive myself that I am born. It is as if I were slipping into the world defiled mystery, betrayed to some great undertaking, he committed an extremely serious error "(Cioran, 1973, p. 23).
does not mean that Cioran is completely insensitive to the physical and mental suffering. Aware of the possibility of cosmic catastrophe, neurotically convinced that some other predator may at any time deprive him of his carefully prepared the privilege of death evokes visions of her persistently deathbed. Is not this a noble method for mitigating the existing impossibility of being?
"To overcome the panic, or persistent anxiety, there is no better measure than to imagine your own funeral. The method really effective, any available. To avoid having to use it too often during the day, it would be best to experience its benefits immediately after getting out of bed. Or they resort to it only in exceptional moments, as did Pope Innocent XI, who, obstalowawszy a picture of him on his deathbed, throwing a look at him every time when he had taken an important decision "(Cioran, 1973, p. 156) .
the beginning, you may be tempted to declare that Cioran gladly wallows in their own neuroses and morbid ideas as if they were to him an inspiration for his literary creativity. His disgust with life for him is so refreshing that it suggests that "it is not easy to earn some extra newrozy, the one who succeeds, possession of a fortune, which multiplies all - both successes and failures" (Cioran, 1952, p. 59) Yes direct description of his emotional spasms forced him to admit that success is as difficult for him to lift as defeat. Both przyprawiają him a headache.
sublime sense of futility about everything connected with life, goes hand in hand with the pessimistic approach to the highs Cioran and fall of states and empires. His vision of the circulation of historical time points corsi e ricorsi Vic, and his cynicism about human nature inspired by the "biology" Spengler's history. Everything is the carousel, each of the system is doomed to fall at a time when it appears on the stage of history. You can search the gloomy prophecies of troubling announcement Cioran and the stoic Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who gave Noricum heard the gallop of horses barbaric, and which is recognized by the mist Pannonia approaching destruction of the Roman Empire. Though today there are other actors, the scenery is the same, millions of new barbarians launches an assault on the gates of Europe - will soon claimed his what is in the middle:
"Regardless of what will be the world of the future, people will play in the West, a role similar to that of the Roman Empire played Graeculi. Wanted and also despised by the new conqueror, to impress him, his intelligence will grow only juggling, make a mask from the past '(Cioran, 1956, p. 32).
time has come to prosperous Europe packed up and left, passing the historic scene of the peoples of the more masculine. Civilization becomes decadent when it acknowledges its freedom for granted, its a catastrophe is imminent when it becomes too tolerant of every uncouth visitor. However, although the political tornado lurking on the horizon, Cioran, like Marcus Aurelius, intends to die with class. His sense of tragedy taught him ars moriendi strategies, preparing him well to face any surprises, regardless of their magnitude. Winners and their victims, heroes and mercenaries - do not they take part in the carnival sequence of history, moaning and wailing over their fate when they land on the bottom, and revenge in moments when you are on top? Two thousand years of history are nothing Uniate trifle in comparison with eternity. According to Cioran, we are witnessing the formation of a caricature of civilization, the creator of helping those who wish to destroy it. History does not make sense, why try to give it meaning, or to expect after the last outbreak of the theophany is merely acting on their own detriment delusion. For Cioran, the more the truth is hidden in the occult sciences than in all philosophies that attempt to give meaning to life. The man will be finally free when you take away from the finality of their jacket and determinism, and realize that life is merely the accidental error, born of a stunning, astral coincidence. Proof? You do not need much to see that history is in fact for the classification of the police, "because what else describes a historian, if not the concept of a gendarme, which over the centuries, the construction of a people?" (Cioran, 1952, p. 147). Effectively mobilize the masses for the sake of some vague ideas, to sensitize them to the smell of blood - this is a road to political success. Is not it so that the same crowd, which carried on their shoulders the ideas of the French Revolution in the name of equality and fraternity, a few years later dźwigały emperor's new look - the emperor in whose name the barefoot running from Paris to Moscow, from Jena to Dubrovnik? According to Cioran, when the public lack of political utopia is no longer any hope, with the result that there is no place for life. Without utopia, writes Cioran, people would be forced to commit suicide by utopia commit murder. Today
already run out of stock at utopia. Their place was taken by mass democracy. Without democracy, life is devoid of meaning; but democracy itself in itself is devoid of life. Ultimately, says Cioran, if not for a young madman of Galilee, the world would be today a very boring place. Unfortunately, how many of these lunatics on the world today comes with its own ideological and theological theories! "Society is ill-equipped," writes Cioran, "is not nothing compared opętańców przedsiębierze who do not die young '(Cioran, 1952, p. 152). Probably wszelcy prophets and seers policy should be immediately killed, because "when the mob sticks to a myth, expect the carnage, or what else Worse, the new religion "(Cioran, 1952, p. 154).
Cioran Though reluctant to utopia is undeniable, it is far from deriding the importance of creativity. Nothing may be a more despicable than the empty cliche of modernity embodying the quest for happiness with a calm, pleasure seeking society.
stripped of secrecy, disenchanted, neutered and unable to foresee the coming storm in modern day society is doomed to spiritual exhaustion and a slow death. It is not able to believe in anything except the future of humanity alleged vampire. If society really wants to maintain its biological health, "says Cioran, the most vital task is to learn and take care of his" profound failure "has to prepare an account of their ability to sow destruction. Is not that ilk Balkan Cioran, among which lay the vampires again today dance to the rhythm of the slaughterhouse, they brought into the world of a group of individuals prepared for the coming disasters? In this area of Europe, forever tormented by political shocks and real earthquakes, a new history - history, which is likely to reward his people for past suffering.
"Whatever was their [the Balkans] past and regardless of their level of civilization, but they all have more biological resources, which in vain to seek in the West. Tortured, expropriated, mired in a nameless martyrdom, torn between a sense of confusion and rebellion, may receive compensation in the future for so many transitions, humiliation, and even so much cowardice "(Cioran, 1960, p. 47).
Is not this the best picture anonymous "Eastern" Europe, which, according to Cioran, who is now ready to accelerate the course of world history? Death of Communism in Eastern Europe is likely to launch a back story for the whole of Europe. "Better half" of Europe, the one who wallows in air-conditioned lounges and aseptic, devoid of able-bodied ideology, is no longer capable of hatred and suffering, and therefore the leadership. According to Cioran consolidates society in times of danger, in peace time and the atrophy is: "Where srożą the peace, safety and comfort abound psychosis. ... I'm from a country which - the effect that he knew no luck - only one analyst issued a "(Cioran, 1952, p. 150). Crude manners new cannibal Eastern Europe, not the "peace and love", designate the path of future history. Those who have had a hell, is likely to outlive those who have known only the cozy atmosphere of a secular paradise.
These words are aimed Cioran la Doulce decadent France, where an afternoon chatting about someone's sexual impotence and obesity are becoming the main occupation in the ranking of your daily life. Unable to resist the coming conquerors Western Europe deserves, according to Cioran, the punished, as once the ancien régime aristocrats who on the eve of the French Revolution, laughed at by itself, glorifying the image of the noble savage. How many of these well-minded French aristocrats were aware of the fact that this bon sauvage would soon push their heads through the streets of Paris? "If in the future," writes Cioran, "humanity will have to start from scratch, will use its own waste, Mongols, and scum from all the world '(Cioran, 1952, p. 83). Europe hides his stupidity in the face of imminent disaster. Europe? "Rot nicely fragrant, perfumed corpse" (Cioran, 1973, p. 171).
Despite the impending storm Cioran consolation in saying that there is at least the last heir to the missing "end of history." Tomorrow, when we start a real apocalypse, when it finally will become a colossal danger of shape, then even the word "sorrow" disappear from our dictionaries. "My vision for the future is so precise that if I had children, strangle them immediately "(Cioran, 1973, p. 173).
After reading one of cioranowych works can not be denied that the author is essentially a satirist who pokes fun of contemporary existential thrill stupid masses. Someone might be tempted to declare that Cioran elegant handbook of suicide for those who like him, carefully devalued the value of life. But, writes Cioran, commit suicide, those who can not play optimism, ie, those whose joy and happiness flew into pieces. Like him, prudent pessimists "Do not have to live, why would they also die?" (Cioran, 1952, p. 106). Striking ambivalence in the work of Cioran is the apocalyptic announcement on the one hand, and enthusiastic evocations of the other horrors. Cioran believes that violence and destruction are the main components of history, because a world without violence, has no right to continue. Strangely, however, is why Cioran as opposed to the world based on peace, since, according to his logic, the world would contribute to accelerate its own, so much desired by the destruction, helping him to plunge into nothingness. Of course, Cioran never moralize about the need for violence, stresses, rather, in conformity with the canons of his beloved predecessor reactionary Joseph de Nicolo Machiavelli Maistre'ai that "authority, not the truth, make a right." Thus, the credibility of the political lies determines the degree of political justice. Even if it were to agree here with Cioran, the farmers would like it to that authority, at least in his perception, fed only the hideous being, from which he longs to be free? That I do not know. Cioran admits however, that despite its aversion to violence, everyone (including him) is an integral part of it, and that anyone has ever considered how to bake someone alive, or how to chop someone's head:
"We believe that the evil in our society comes from old people, I came up with the liquidation of all citizens who are over forty, this threshold sclerosis and mummification, bend, after which - as happy to believe - each individual is an insult to the nation and a burden to the community ... Not rated highly interested in its content and they called me a cannibal ... Will my project was worthy of condemnation? Expressed just what every man attached to his country's wish with all my heart: to ferret out half of his countrymen "(Cioran, 1960, p. 9-10).
Cioran Literary elitism is unsurpassed in modern literature and for this reason he often appears as a torment for modern and sentimental ears focused on a lullaby of eternal earthly or spiritual bliss. Cioran hatred for the present and future, and his lack of respect for life will will further antagonize the apostles of modernity who never gets tired of empty promises to sing "just here and now." His perverse sense of humor is so devastating that it can not be taken literally, especially when the author describes himself.
linguistic formalism Cioran and his impeccable choice of words, despite some similarities with the contemporary authors of the same caliber elitarystycznego, make it sometimes hard to keep up with him. It remains to wonder whether words such as 'abulia', 'schizophrenia', 'apathy' accurately describe the neurotic, etc., for which he believes.
If we could summarize the image Cioran in one short paragraph, it would reveal him as an author who in modern glorification of the intellect sees the spiritual foundations of the gulag and the disfigurement of the world. According to Cioran task of every man is a sink in the school of existential futility, futility because it is not hopeless, but the reward for those who wish to recover from a virus epidemic, life and hope. This picture is probably best describes himself, a man setting out to as a fanatic without convictions, abandoned the case in space, zerkającego nostalgically hurried toward his disappearance.
be free is to give up forever the idea of reward and do not expect anything more from men and gods, to renounce not only this world and worlds, as such, but salvation itself, the very idea of breaking the chain among chains (Le mauvais demiurge, p. . 88).
Tomislav Sunic
Translated by: Richard Chytrowski
first Cioran, E. (1952). Syllogisms bitterness (I. Kania, crowd.). New York: Aletheia.
second Cioran, E. (1956). The temptation of existence (K. Jarosz, crowd.). New York: KR.
third Cioran, E. (1960). History and Utopia (M. Bienczyk, crowd.). New York: Aletheia.
4th Cioran, E. (1969). Evil Demiurge (I. Kania, crowd.). New York: Aletheia.
second Cioran, E. (1973). About niegododności birth (I. Kania, crowd.). New York: Aletheia.
