Nietzsche on the Religion of Coziness

Many in our world attempt to avoid discomfort at all costs. Even those who understand the role of suffering in human life generally hope to keep their discomfort to a minimum. After all, why go through pain when it could be easily avoided? Nietzsche criticizes this way of life, explaining that happiness and misfortune—pleasure and suffering—come together.

To live a good life is not to live a life with maximal pleasure then, for Nietzsche. It is to live a life that not just accepts with resignation but actively embraces all that comes: pleasure, pain, turmoil, triumph. The problem, as Nietzsche sees it, is that the world’s religions, especially Christianity, deny this, framing suffering as inevitable but evil, and positing a future where it will finally be eliminated altogether. To yearn for an end to suffering, for Nietzsche, is to hate life itself.

Even for the many who accept the inevitability of suffering and the impossibility of its total avoidance, it is often the case that when presented with two potential paths forward, the one involving less suffering will be the more attractive option.

‍

[.alt-blockquote]"Should you adherents to this religion [of compassion] really have the same attitude towards yourselves that you have towards your fellow men; should you refuse to let your suffering lie on you even for an hour and instead constantly prevent all possible misfortune ahead of time; should you experience suffering and displeasure as evil, hateful, serving of annihilation, as a defect of existence, then you have besides your religion of pity also another religion in your hearts; and the latter is perhaps the mother of the former—the religion of snug coziness. Oh, how little do you know of the happiness of man, you comfortable and good-natured ones! For happiness and misfortune (Glück and Unglück) are two siblings and twins who either grow up together or-as with you-remain small together!"[.alt-blockquote]

[.alt-blockquote-attribution]— Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, (pp. 191-92)[.alt-blockquote-attribution]

‍

Questions

• Do you think the experience of pleasure requires the experience of pain?
• If suffering is a condition for pleasure, what does this mean for the way we should see the value of both suffering and pleasure - does it mean they are equally important and equally good?
• If suffering is indeed necessary for happiness and a good life, how should we respond to suffering—both our own and that of others? Should we actively seek it out for ourselves? For others? How?
• If suffering and pain are essential aspects of a good life, does that mean that pity and compassion are immoral?
• How should you appreciate suffering when you experience it? What practices might we adopt to support ourselves in the embrace of suffering?
• Even if we embrace suffering as an inherent feature of the good life, this doesn’t mean comfort is always a bad thing. How do you know when its time to challenge your comfort?
• Do you catch yourself submitting to the “religion of snug coziness”? In what circumstances?

Context

• Friedrich Nietzsche's The Gay Science
• "When Life Hurts..." in Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most

Pairs Well With

• The idea of the growth mindset
• An idea that suffering can, in certain circumstances, make one stronger

Pairs Poorly With

• Utilitarianism (hedonic)
• Stoicism