There are two sorts of freedoms: existential and physical. (Okay it's possible there are more, less, or none... let me know in the comments your thoughts!) The latter is easier to define because I take it to be freedom as we usually conceive of it, the ability to manifest a particular subjective will. Existential freedom on the other hand though it appears more abstract, may represent the simple possibility of a first freedom: the ability to negate one's freedom. I wouldn't call it a quietiude, but maybe an 'understanding' is the better descriptor here.
So there's this lovely book called "Fatelessness" by Kertész, which explores what it means to live without fate through the lens of Georg, a teenage Hungarian boy who finds himself in Auschwitz. Georg maintains a very “matter of fact” disposition despite all of the horrors that he witnesses. He accepts his situation in the camps, and without trying to find meaning in it, he finds happiness. “Naturally” they were given numbers because it was more efficient; “naturally” the fittest were sent to this line and the weaker to the other, “naturally” he would choose to work and would want to take pride in that work. He was young and accepted whatever life threw at him. Even Auschwitz became boring for him though, despite the horror and the uncertainty, Georg felt boredom. Boredom signifies a resignation into one’s situation. It means that there is no excitement whether terrible or great; what an impossible situation, but true!
In an interview when asked about experiencing moments of happiness in the concentration camp, Kertész replies that “You cannot imagine what it's like to be allowed to lie in the camp's hospital, or to have a ten minute break from indescribable labor. To be very close to death is also a kind of happiness. Just surviving becomes the greatest freedom of all.” In the concentration camp Georg encounters "the Muselmans", those who should be dead but keep living. There is something about just looking at these people that seems to drain the life force out him. The largest transformation that Georg underwent was his change into a Muselman and it occurred without much of his own notice. While in this state he was numb to the world around him and became focused on only his own continued existence. The experience of almost dying left Georg with happiness and also the desire for nothing more than to continue living in the “beautiful concentration camp.”Georg’s final transformation occurs after he is liberated from the camp. Physically he is barely recognizable to himself. While trying to go back to his home, people questioned Georg about what had happened to him and what horrors he had witnessed in the camps, to which Georg replies that “in a concentration camp they were natural" and upon further reflection Georg concludes that the next instance he is asked about his time in the camp he will speak about “the happiness of the concentration camps.”
Nietzsche spoke of the world’s absurdity in a distinct way. According to him human beings are primarily concerned in doing what is in the best interest to protect the species. Acts of evil are particular to humanity because we have come to believe that those horrible things lend to the preservation of the species. Yet, humanity no longer needs to worry about its further propagation because it has no natural enemies, perhaps other than itself and here is the “comedy of existence;” we are constantly attempting to find meaning in things in which there is none to find. Nietzsche argues that we must abandon our “faith in life” and laugh at ourselves and our existence. He believes that the universe is random and chaotic the antithesis of machinery. What will “free” us from these matrices of purposes that we have created for ourselves is not just the mere acceptance of the absurd, but an embracement of it.
So getting to the point of this whole shpiel...............
Embracing absurdity or in other words, the harsh indifference of the universe towards us, is to “become who you are.” Amor Fati, one must love her fate; it is the acceptance of the world, of its imperfections as well as its beauty. One must love the world for what it is and for the life that you have had; this does not mean react with indifference or rather a defeatist attitude, because it is necessary that “human being attain satisfaction with themselves.” Yet, embracing reality is not easy for us. “Time itself is a circle,” and we must endure all that we have endured once more. The eternal reoccurrence is the making indifferent the potential and the actual; taking that which has taken place and that which has not taken place and making them indifferent to each other. We should accept and even embrace the eternal return and thus also the absurdity of existence.
Life is absurd. It is absolutely random and when we are born we are without a fate. We want our lives to mean something, to have all of the bad things that have happened to us to ultimately have a purpose, or at least have had them been ours. As was explicated by Nietzsche, life is so random and rare we have to create matrices of purpose in order to try and understand our own existence. We are stuck in an eternal return, which is hard to accept. When Georg was on the cusp of life, when he was a muselman, he underwent the transition from simply understanding his fate, to embracing it. We are born without fate and it is only when we are on the cusp of life that we are able to say “that was the fate that I had lived.”
Georg’s story is illuminating because it wasn’t a story about the Holocaust; rather it’s a story about our own lives as well. However, Georg is not a superior being in the sense of Nietzsche’s ubermench; rather, he embodies an anti-hypocritical existence. One lives ant-hypocritically when one gives up on false hopes and takes up who he really is. It is to be what one already is and has been. If one takes the concept of eternal return seriously then Georg is forever going to experience what he experienced in the camps like anyone else.
Auschwitz then can be looked at as the radical figure for what we experience every day. Auschwitz is oppression, it is a prison. There are various forces that will always oppress or imprison us. Gender, capitalism, or the patriarchy are all aspects which we live under and many believe to be inherently oppressive. Yet, we live our lives almost completely unaware of these intuitions because to us “that’s just life.” Much like who lived under Nazi Germany thought that was just his life; we too exist under the same, less radical mentality. Kertész has said that “nothing has happened since Auschwitz that could reverse or refute Auschwitz. In my writings the Holocaust could never be present in the past tense.” The Holocaust wasn’t an isolated event between the Germans and Jews, but rather as a greater picture of the human condition.
One of humankind’s greatest strengths and also weaknesses is our ability to live under suffering. Humanity is a resilient species; we are able to continue living when there is no biological reason for us to continue doing so. Humanity has endured so many wrongdoings for the sole reason that we are able to endure them. We cope by finding meaning in our suffering, “everything happens for a reason,” but is what we are doing just attaching a random purpose to these events and declaring that they are meaning? Would we be better off if we freed ourselves from the matrixes of purpose that we create? Kertész and Nietzsche both believe that humankind would do better for itself if it were to embrace the absurdity in life. We have to understand that life is random as it is precious and that it can be taken away just as quickly as it was given. Auschwitz exemplifies this; small choices that were made meant either life or death for Georg. Perhaps if more people started to view the world and their lives in this way we could spend more time enjoying the happy moments of life, understanding that they are gifts, rather than trying to make sense of the chaos around us. Maybe we can look towards the future and not the past.
