Apollonianism and Dionysianism In Current Political Society
... “The only way I am able to view Doric art and the Doric state is as a perpetual military encampment of the Apollonian forces” (Nietzsche 747). This Apollonian structure of society is now very easily compared with today’s United States Government, although it is not purely, by definition of Nietzsche, an Apollonian power. There is are illusions with which the government is fueled. These illusions can encompass those of art, as Nietzsche literally explains, or be magnified to include things such as broken election promises, embezzled funds, and vanquishing of rights which the general American populous may choose to overlook in illusory blindness. The plastic powers can be exhibited as the means of molding the minds of government supporters. There is also a figurative encampment of government forces at work today. Propaganda is encountered at very early ages in the American educational system, as well as through religious or other cultural means, and this propaganda is persistent through many means, the military being a prime example. This can also be referred to as “our inner world of fantasy”. There is a wealth of knowledge which the government does not wish the individual to contain, thus creating a world which could be described as fantasy. “Dionysus is the god of wine and drunkenness” (Jacobus 735). There are also many other qualities of the Dionysian which Nietzsche defines. The Dionysian creates art as a primordial man, in ecstatic display, rather than out of ambiguous, illusory means (Nietzsche 738). The Dionysiac rituals are laden with intoxication substances solely for the purpose of attempting to retreat to this godlike stature of the early beings which is choked by the restrictions of societal boundaries (Nietzsche 738). Man is no longer hindered by the rules and guidelines created by society when he is in this state, which can also be brought about by nature, by the arrival of spring for example (Nietzsche 738). “In order to comprehend this total emancipation of all the symbolic powers one must have reached the same measure of inner freedom those powers themselves were making manifest; which is to say that the votary of Dionysus could not be understood except by his own kind” (Nietzsche 741). The Dionysian is a freedom, ultimate freedom, fighter who does more than intoxicate himself to achieve this freedom. Those whom do not seek and achieve this freedom will not comprehend the goal, art, or thought process of the Dionysian, and he cannot achieve this state without first doing so internally. Just as any government is not a pure example of Apollonianism, no current nihilist or anarchist is a pure example of Dionysianism. Likewise, a common alcoholic is not a prime example of the Dionysiac. There are, however, individuals who manage to break through the barriers and constraints of the government, and society, to recapture the spirit of primordial man. For some it is experimentation with mind altering drugs, and for others perhaps moving to a commune outside of the grips of the government. The creation of ecstatic art can only be achieved and understood by these people who have achieved this internal ecstatic freedom. Since no state of anarchy exists in pure form, it is only these individuals who can be cited as the most contiguous example of present day Dionysians. Nietzsche refers to Apollonianism as “so ringed about with fortifications - an education so military and exacting - a polity so ruthlessly cruel - could endure only in a continual state of resistance against the titanic and barbaric menace of Dionysos” (Nietzsche 747). ...