Adena--The High Priestess of Pity

Ah, what is it about pity that makes me cringe at the very mention of the word? Nietzsche famously derided and rejected Christianity as the "religion of pity." (For what is more pitiful [that is, full of pity] than "The meek shall inherit the Earth?" Indeed, God sacrificed his very own son so as to save the world from itself. This can easily be interpreted as the most extreme act of one who is awash with feelings of pity for those below.) Indeed, Nietzsche saw the feeling of pity--perfected in Christianity--as the epitome of nihilism, of weakness, of degeneration, of anti-nature. Why? His reasoning involved a two-step process, in which everyone associated with the feeling is rendered weak--both the one who pities, and the one who is being pitied.

Nietzsche claimed that pity has the effect of multiplying suffering, and robbing us of our vitality. That is, the one being pitied is already in a state of suffering. But the one who then pities places himself in a position where he contemplates that the other's position could very well be his own, and hences suffers along with the one being pitied. So suffering becomes endemic, and as such, creates a feeling that the world inhabited by the sufferers is somehow unworthy of them. For after all, what is suffering if not the feeling that one does not deserve such a state of being? And out of this suffering is born the will to Truth--which is simply the will to death, the will to otherworldiness, the will to escape the everyday for something more magical, more spiritual, more deserving of the one who suffers. In Christianity, the will to Truth is manifested in the Kingdom of God, which posits that our current state of being is merely a transitory, flawed, and ultimately disposable life, and that the Real Good Life lies above, and beyond.

The second effect of pity is to place weakness on a pedestal for worship. Pity "preserves whatever is ripe for destruction," Nietzsche says. How so? The one who pities gives strength and support to the one who is so weak as to be overwhelmed by life, so weak as to be unable to live without being condemned by life. In this sense, pity is also--as Nietzsche so cleverly puts it--anti-evolutionary. The one who pities actively strives to maintain the botched life, and as such is inherently nihilistic, for he implicitly despises all that is life-affirming, strong, and full of health. Instead of affirming the strong, they affirm the weak--that is, they affirm what must be overcome.

Yes, pity is a most serious allegation. To describe someone as one who pities is to reveal a deep-seated disgust with their values, and how they have chosen to live their lives. It is to declare their lives worthy of disposal. It is to declare them utter nihilists. It is to kill them with words.

And what is the Irony of all Ironies? A Christian who labels a Jew and an atheist as people of pity.

Pot: "Kettle, thou art black!"