Nietzsche and Zapffe: Beauty, Suffering, and the Nature of Genius 

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"No one has ever written, painted, sculpted, modeled, built, or invented except literally to get out of hell." Antonin Artaud.

"Art is the only salvation from the horror of existence."

Most people binge on Netflix...I binge on Academy of ideas

I have been intimately familiar with my darker side since i was about 12, and in my search to understand it, i have discovered an inexplicable beauty to life it's self, giving me an extreme passion for studying biology, philosophy, sociology, and psychology etc. in order to better understand life. Sometimes i can hardly hold back tears just thinking about the magnificent beauty of life and existence, while other times i look at the more cynical side of life with utter disgust.

Thank you for taking your time and posting these videos. Know that they're extremely valuable to me. You're so succinct and clear with your writing and explanations on the topics you choose to cover. Thanks a ton.

I love hearing things that I know intuitively and powerfully formed into words, something I am rarely able to do with any efficacy. Miguel de Unamuno hit the nail on the head with that last one

Ive always felt this but never put it into words so clearly.

These ideas remind me of the passage "With great wisdom comes great sorrow"

you're pretty much my favourite youtuber right now. The topics and contents excite the plasticity of my brain and gives me much insight to the struggles of my daily life. at least now i know im not going mental

An artist must suffer for his art Great artists suffer for the people. (Marvin Gaye) The artist is not a 'Sunday child' for whom everything immediately succeeds. He does not have the right to live without duty. The task that is assigned to him is painful, it is a heavy cross for him to bear. (Wassily Kandinsky) You sir are a artist

This is an incredible video. Ive just discovered Zapffe and Ligotti after doing much spiritual seeking along nonduality, etc. And, I have learned the necessity of dropping all of it and seeing the deep emptiness of life. Coming into contact with this emptiness left me unable to access the repressive mechanisms so many use. I also see why I have regulated this deep feeling with art and music. I achieve these deep states of Rausch for so many years and never knew it has been described! In the suffering there is great joy. Certain music and art has left me with this melancholy joy that I am so drawn to. On the verge of tears.

That was inspiring and stimulating, thank you.

Thank you from my soul and mind great man. You are very, very intelligent and have a higher purpose to make us all our highest potential. I am not in a good financial state presently, however your material is gold and I have found after food and rent your material is the priority and deserve rewards for your diligent and inspirational work. You condense insights from the geniuses of psychology and philosophy and break it down in to quite simple and integrated relatively brief discourses. No doubt you have studied the field extensively, qualified or not it doesn't matter as you provide the material in a simple and easy to understand format. What you provide would cost me tens of thousands in study fees and at least 4 years of my life! It is inspirational that you see the potential in all of us to be great and give everyone free access to life changing education that to be honest some of it must be taught in secondary education to improve the future of humanity. A lot of people once given an opportunity take it and use it for good. Fortunately, the 21 st century has given the world these opportunities due to technology and people such as good yourself using it for the betterment of civilisation. Keep up the fantastic work!

The most important way of limiting the contents of consciousness is goal-setting.

Thank you for this video. It's beautifully made and truly resonated with me. Lately, I've been suffering a lot from existential despair. At times it's maddening, especially because I struggle to find anyone who understands what I'm going through. But I connected with this on a deep level and it provided some comfort. Thank you.

Makes so much sense, aligns with my experience. People figured this shit out like 500 years ago damn.

This was such an intensely succinct and insightful video. No glamour, no hype, no effects. Just a well constructed feast on the hard truths. Makes the distraction of RU-vid and the internet somewhat redeemable. Bravo!

What a great video! I really enjoyed this framing of the topics here, I would recommend Thomas Liggotti's book, 'The Conspiracy Against The Human Race', as a more rigidly pessimistic and modern treatment of Zapffe's work, and philisophical-pessimism in general. But while personally, I might treat the Ligottian take on Zapffe as more honest (to the logical conclusion of his world-view at least), I love having multiple viewpoints, and that at least 25k people are intellectually curious enough to look this up, gives me some 'hope'!!

Amazing video, timing, cadence, explanations, quotes -- a perfectly coherent video on very complex ideas. Can't wait to see more!

I love the fact you have a manuscript of your work. A certain compassionate disposition you hold to education towards the masses. Tank you.

This truly is a masterpeice. Very well put together and very resonant. Keep up the great work!

This was such a good one. Just the other day I was thinking to myself that existence is toxic. Nothing particularly bad is happening to me at this stage of my life -- I just always feel burdened with violences and injustices going on around me, even though they don't happen in my neighborhood. Also, I have been contemplating getting into visual arts lately; I was really surprised by the Nietzsche quotes on art. I wasn't finding a place for art in terms of my greater questions but the Nietzsche quotes have really moved me toward taking the plunge into art.

I finally have an insight in my 'disease' from which i struggled for 17 years, that began after my creative life ended because i needed to know about the darkness. Time to pick up the brushes again! Thank you.

Your channel is seriously one that should be followed by more people! Thank you

00:16 Is the pain of living an end in itself and as bad as it seems? Or, is our suffering a necessary means to a valuable end? The significance of anything is context dependent. Apparently, the wisdom of Silenus holds a materialistic view of life that assumes consciousness is a function of the brain and ends with death. If I believed that to be true, I would have ended it forty years ago. But what if matter does not lie at the base of reality? What if consciousness is fundamental and survives its physical host and the context in which it dwelled? What would death bring then? Would I find myself having returned to my essence or, transformed into something else? If so, would that be good, or bad for me? Consider Sāi Wēng’s horse, a Chinese proverb that expresses this idea very well. Sāi Wēng raised horses for a living. One day, his prized stallion ran away. After hearing of this, his neighbors felt sorry and came to comfort him. But the horse breeder simply asked, “How could I know this is not a good thing for me?” Eventually, the wayward stud returned with three beautiful mares. The neighbors came over again and congratulated Sāi Wēng on his good fortune. But he only said, “How could I know this is not a bad thing for me?” The next day, his son went out for a ride on one of the new horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors once again expressed their condolences but Sāi Wēng replied, “How could I know this is not a good thing for me?” Shortly after, the Emperor’s army arrived at the village to conscript all able-bodied men for war. Because of his injury, Sāi Wēng’s son was left behind. Once again the neighbors congratulated him on his good fortune. His response was, “How can I know this is not a bad thing for me?” If I’m no more than a mindlessly determined instance of a supposed Big Bang, an organic machine, whose death will result in oblivion, and I’ve suffered my insanity these past six plus decades in vain, then that’s bad for me and I want to die now. But I don’t know that to be true. Perhaps the truth is, my life is an illusion; an intensely immersive virtual reality experience, generated in an advanced, high-tech civilization. Could it be, my life's purpose is merely to serve as a hedonic reset, a remedy for excess, for something akin to a Roman Orgy; purging after a binge of overeating so I can resume feasting? Have I been overdoing VR fantasies, indulging myself in every possible way and have, at last, become jaded and bored with it all? Could this life be tantamount to shoving a finger down my throat? Is it that I must now suffer a negative VR experience of figuratively vomiting the consequence of my previous overindulgence, so I can begin again to indulge myself anew? Or, is this life the result of something else? Did I commit a crime in that future world and this is my just and lawful punishment? Maybe I’m completely innocent and being victimized by a cruel power. I have no way of knowing; not until the full context of my life experience is known; if that’s even possible. Maybe my life, is but the dream of a privileged and arrogant child, occurring in the span of five minutes between snooze alarms, that hopefully, will teach him the importance of compassion and humility. If so, when I die in this life, I will awaken as that schoolboy and return to being a sheltered kid, surrounded by love, and no longer an aging, mentally ill recluse, treading water and waiting for the uncertain consequence of death. With a valuable lesson learned, perhaps this life/hallucination will not have been suffered in vain. But then, what would Sāi Wēng say?

This is the best video on RU-vid. Thus explains my life and my feelings for the past five years.

Your videos are fantastic, my day is made so much better when I come home from work and find that you've posted another.

These videos are, for lack of adequate language, exceptionally well done and enormously helpful. The narrative has been perfectly woven into the fabric comprised of the best thinking of many brilliant minds. Thank you.

Imagine listening to Wagner on your deck overlooking a Swiss Alpine Lake with a glass of wine, a big fat spliff and talking about life with Nietzche.

First video I've seen and am already so glad I stumbled across this channel.

Great video, explained aspects of me to myself. Always such beautiful artwork accompanying these. Thanks for the effort.

This was truly great. Of the caliber that one wonders why this isn't taught / explained to kids when they're about 6. I sure would have preferred to have it explained to me as beautifully as this...

Simply addicted to this channel after just finding it today. Connecting the Great thinkers in a pedagogical manner. Many thanks!

This whole script is like poetry. I love these videos.

A very insightful video. Not something I expect to find on RU-vid.

Beautiful conclusion.

This particular video hit close to home.

Good job with the videos. Hope you keep making them

Such videos provide me a glimpse of what my personal being will take me. Thank you for this.

Excellent video, please keep up the good work!

I've experianced Rausch... it's beautiful. It makes me feel so happy when art looks amazing

wow...unbelievable sense of clarity...

Great stuff, really enjoyed this

Nice one! For the ones more brave or more loony - i recommend the book "The conspiracy against the human race"! Worth reading when it comes to analysing Zapffes ideas.

I think this might the best RU-vid channel I've ever come across. I can't believe it's not more popular.

What a great channel I just found! Thanks a lot!! Greets from Brazil

Thank you so much for such great content.

Your videos are truly inspirational.... thank you so much

Really beautiful work, thanks for making these. 🤟🤟

Absolutely stunning! If only I was capable of putting it to words.....

Thankyou for such a useful and poetic introduction to this line of thinking.

love your stuff. good word and surely a good amount of effort too. you contribute to a better understand of the world and a better world in general. we all evolve. thank you. 💚

So, I somehow find relief in these videos. Thank you.

I love those sublime paintings. I wish to know the source..

this is one of the best videos I've seen

I absolutely love this channel.

I love this video and the ideology it brings. It goes to show more of what people should understand to obtain more from their everyday lives

VERY awesome video! Subscribed

Beautifully articulated! 👌

'Thank you for those artworks Academy of Ideas! I would like to say that Rausch' might as well be translated as 'flow' (Mihály Csíkszentmihályi) like in a rushing brook and that life as being inseparable from suffering and the law of impermanence are hallmarks of eastern philosophies like taoism and buddhism as well. Thank you for creating those loopholes in this matrix of distraction transforming it thus into the abyss smiling back.

I had watched this before...and watched and re-watched many of your videos. They can take on different meaning based on life experience. I have been trying to live a path towards Enlightenment, whatever that may mean to some. It was only about a month ago I truly experienced that moment of the "despair of the tragic sense of life"...the futility. Ending one's life seemed the only logical next step. I didn't. I won't. Never will. But I crossed that bridge. It was a very profound moment. Keep up the good work.

Thank you for the the video.

Fantastic thank you for these; great voice & presentation. Bright Blessings.

These are the best videos on RU-vid

Great stuff my man!

thats true. i really dont know what would i do without music...

Thank you! That was a great video!

brilliant effort Sir! mad respect to you...even if these concepts don't rid you of the quagmire that existence actually is they sure place you in a good position to deal with them in a better way...

wow this is amazing. good video

Really really grateful for your content - thank you

Great video!!

A very powerful video, always insightful. I believe you have touched upon this theme in other videos, consciousness as a disease, existential crisis and meaning ... however I would ask you expand upon this dialogue. Do repressional mechanisms alone limit the content of consciousness? Is limiting consciousness a survival mechanism? Is suffering representative of conscious existence? Is there a transcendent experience, a transformation that realizes a greater truth? I really enjoy this topic ... and your great insights, perhaps you could make a part II to this video.

Excellent series

This video made me Rausch so hard.

Such great content!

amazing video. much appreciated.

Monstrously good video.

I loooove this channel.

Fantastic. Thanks.

This is the best! Thanks

I indeed suffer periodically from the inadequacy of repression mechanisms, and occasionally experience Rausch after intense suffering. usually manifests in poetic writings of adventure in the deep understanding and consciousness of profound ideas

Damn that was good

Your channel is helping me a lot. At least I hope so... Everything is relatively ok, but I'm going through such a meaningless pain, despair, and obsessive thoughts. It feels unbearable sometimes.

Rausch is flow of insightful concepts of your mind..creativity becomes your default thought process for a good bit

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. ♥️♥️♥️

Great, great content

bravo! excellent video.

That quote by the wisdom of silenus is too funny it just changed my life😂😂😂😂😂

Thankyou.

Thank God for Nietzsche. I no longer feel alone. ☺

Wow this really struck a chord with me. Life would be so much much easier if I lived in a constant zombie like state not trying expand my consciousness and awareness. But would I be happier? I don't know.

"Anguish is the price we pay for love." Queen Elisabeth II "And the lovers lie abed. With all thier griefs in their arms," Dylan Thomas

To quote the drummer and lyricist Neil Peart from the band Rausch, "One must put up barriers to keep oneself intact."

Love this

Great video. Great topic.

man these are good

I always assumed, not that depression results in creativity, but that creative mind tends to depression. It takes imagination and ability to envision things to get depressed.

This video changed my life

Make yourself happy first and always ,before you can face the world. In the end you only have you to rely on.