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Schopenhauer

 

 

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Schopenhauer and the hero, risking one's life for another at the sudden realization of oneness with all  

 


from the book, “The Power Of Myth,”
a discussion with Dr. Joseph Campbell 

 

Campbell: There is a magnificent essay by Schopenhauer in which he asks, how is it that a human being can so participate in the peril or pain of another that, without thought, spontaneously, he sacrifices his own life to the other? How can it happen that what we normally think of as the first law of nature and self-preservation is suddenly dissolved?

[Dr. Campbell then tells a story, one of seemingly countless, of someone who risked his life to save a stranger.]

Schopenhauer’s answer is that such a psychological crisis [that of, being compelled to abandon self-preservation] represents a breakthrough of a metaphysical realization, which is that you and that [one in danger, to be rescued] are one, that you are two aspects of the way we experience forms under the conditions of time and space. Our true reality is in our identity and unity with all life.

This is a metaphysical truth which may become spontaneously realized under circumstances of crisis. For it is, according to Schopenhauer, the truth of your life. The hero is the one who has given his physical life to some order of realization of that truth. The concept of “love your neighbor” is to put you in tune with this fact. But whether you love your neighbor or not, when, the realization grabs you, you may risk your life [even for those you don’t know]. Schopenhauer declares that in small ways you can see this happening every day, all the time, moving life in the world, people doing selfless things to and for each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

E. It's commonly stated, and with the gravest authenticity, that fighting men during war forge a strong bond among themselves, the strength of which is unknown to the rest of society.

K. It’s somewhat strange, isn’t it. The average person in society, well fed, with a roof against the rain, often will act in a selfish manner toward fellow human being. But soldiers, facing privation and death each day, will create bonds of brotherhood, exemplifying the greatest acts of heroic service.

E. I was watching the 1986 movie Platoon about Vietnam.

K. Did you like it?

E. It’s really not a movie you watch for entertainment. It revealed the horrors and atrocities of that war. Vietnam vets have said that the portrayal was extremely and brutally accurate. And then I watched a documentary on the making of the movie. It was really something. I don’t think this had ever been done before. The actors didn’t really know what they were getting themselves into.

K. What do you mean, Elenchus.

E. The film was shot in the hinterland jungles of the Philippines. For three months they were cut off from the main cities and towns. Two or three of the young actors were somewhat well known in Hollywood but the couple dozen or so of the others were “unknowns,” had never been in a movie. They thought it would be a 9-5 job with American-style living accommodations during off hours. But director Oliver Stone, a real Vietnam vet, had a different idea. He wanted raw realism and no Polyanna faces. He wanted his guys not be actors but to feel the real heat and trauma of trying to stay alive in dystopian conditions of war.

K. This is rather more than driving to a movie set each morning in your sports car.

E. Stone hired a real Marine commander (retired) to whip these guys into shape. And we’re not talking about just aerobic exercises, but to live as real soldiers: no showers, no clean clothes, no good food, sparse clean water for stretches of time; no phone calls, stinging red jungle ants crawling down your back, slithering cobras in the brush, trudging miles in 110 degree heat. As the weeks of film shooting wore on, the men no longer saw themselves as actors but as actual soldiers, learning to survive in forbidding conditions. You’ll want to see the documentary for the full report.

K. This is incredible.

E. But here’s why I’m bringing all this to our attention. And it has to do with “Schopenhauer’s hero.” When these guys got back to the States, they were not the same.

K. They had been through an ordeal.

E. It felt like returning from a real war. And those who went through this gauntlet of pain, to restate, did not see themselves as actors. Now they were brothers, called themselves brothers, and, if they could, met regularly, like family. Decades later, they were still close and stayed in touch. All of them said they’d never gone through anything like it. It changed them.

K. Elenchus, say more about the “Schopenhauer hero” factor.

E. It’s too bad, isn’t it. Why do we have to go through the horrors of war, or even a very convincing simulated one, in order to experience the brotherhood of man?

K. (silence)

E. It’s very sad, very dismaying, that so many of us treat each other so shabbily, so selfishly. And why do we do this? Are we not all brothers and sisters? Why do we live in a dark cloud of illusion, unaware that we all share a connection?

K. Schopenhauer seemed to be saying that, in times of great duress, the common barriers that divide people suddenly break down. Now the ego’s lie that we’re all separate is exposed. All of a sudden we naturally find ourselves willing to lay down one’s life to help another. We’re all brothers and sisters after all.

 

 

Editor's last word:

So realistic, so gripping, the movie won four Oscars.

But we are not required to enter the horrific in order to viscerally perceive the brotherhood and sisterhood of man. It's an optional route.

What we need is to break down ego-barriers. See more discussion here and here.