Oscillatory Affirmation
Akshay Manhas
An Adversarial Synthesis
Schopenhauer (1818)
The Diagnosis
Life is a pendulum between suffering and boredom. Joy and sadness are felt only in transit.
Hegel (1807)
The Mechanism
Contradiction is not a flaw but the engine. Joy requires suffering to exist. Aufhebung.
Begin
↓
Boredom
Suffering
Joy
Sadness
(down)
(up)
The oscillation generates energy
The Oscillation Generates Energy
Not repression, but motion.
Psychic and emotional momentum.
Awareness of the Pattern
Opens a gap.
Not freedom FROM the oscillation.
Freedom to DIRECT the energy.
The Agent Chooses
Click a side
Life Affirmation
Energy into creative form.
Art
The purest conversion.
The oscillation as subject and material.
Interpersonal
Relationships, community.
Practical
Systems, institutions.
Nietzsche, Amor Fati, 1882
Camus, Sisyphus, 1942
Camus, Sisyphus, 1942
Life Negation
Energy turned against life.
Resentment.
Nihilism.
Destruction.
The energy does not
dissipate. It curdles.
dissipate. It curdles.
Nietzsche, Ressentiment, 1887
Choose a path
"One must still have chaos in oneself— Nietzsche, 1883
to give birth to a dancing star."