50 Ancient Ideals
says Nietz sche, “for work is a form of entertainment. But one is
careful lest the entertainment be too harrowing” (Thus Spoke
Zarathustra, 18).
When the goals of the Self are the only goals a culture makes
available, spirited men and women will address them with the energy
that they would have applied to the aspirations of the Soul. The
result is lives that are massively frustrating and not a little ridiculous.
People become heroically dedicated to middle- class ends— getting
a promotion, getting a raise, taking immeasurably interest ing vaca-
tions, getting their children into the right colleges, fi nding the best
retirement spot, fattening their portfolios. Lives without courage,
contemplation, compassion, and imagination are lives sapped of
signifi cant meaning. In such lives, the Self cannot transcend itself.
But the Self seems to hunger for such transcendence. There is an
allure to the states of the Soul. How do we now deal with it? Cul-
ture throws up an array of what we might call substitute satisfac-
tions. Culture, we might even speculate, may be dominated by
the fabrication of Soul. We will not go to war, no not us. But we
will play war in our video games; we will watch it on the screens—
large, small, and microscopic. We’ll become oafi shly obsessed with
spor t s , a sa fe si mu lacr u m of w a r. We w i l l read a bout heroism, i mag i ne
it, pine for it. We will dream of Hector and Achilles but fear the
dream.
There is much to be wary of in the warrior ideal. One legitimately
fears that the aspiring hero will turn into the brute, the sadist, the
killing machine. One fears that the hero will not always pause long
enough to ponder whether his cause is just. But these are not the
main worries that keep the culture of Self disposed against heroic
ideals. Self respects the will to live more than anything: one must
live long; one must live well. Self fears the life of the hero. For the
hero, through the force brilliant in his soul, is someone who is
always ready to die.