Even if God does have His Hell, what better way is there to live?

In Friedrich Nietzsche’s magnum opus, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he writes contemptuously of both compassion as a value and those who are compassionate towards others. As any reader of the book who is familiar with biblical scripture will note, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra is an inversion of the values espoused in the New Testament, particularly Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.

Nietzsche’s disdainful approach towards compassion goes beyond scoffing and mockery to make a case against it in view of the pain that it inevitably brings to the compassionate.

As dark as Zarathustra is, this passage strikes me as one of the darkest in the parable Of the Compassionate:

“Thus spoke the Devil to me once: ‘Even God has his hell: it is his love for man.’

“And I lately heard him say these words: ‘God is dead; God has died of his pity for man.’”

Whereas caring for others beyond the energy, health and resources that we have available may be debilitating, that is not what Nietzsche’s getting at. He is writing in favour of a hardness that jettisons compassion altogether. (It’s also worth noting that the biblical instruction isn’t to love thy neighbour at the expense of oneself; it’s to love thy neighbour as thyself, which ensures sustainability.)

The Appeal of Hardness

Later in Zarathustra (Of Old and New Law-Tables, 29), Nietzsche writes again in favour of hardness as the book’s main protagonist, Zarathustra, admonishes his followers: “Become hard!”

Becoming hard can be appealing, especially in the face of uncertainty, danger and potential heartache. It can be particularly appealing to leaders who find themselves in riskier, more vulnerable positions than most.

In their book Leadership on the Line, Heifetz and Linsky identify specific ways in which leaders can numb, or harden, themselves over the course of their duties. Innocence gives way to cynicism; curiosity gives way to arrogance; and compassion gives way to callousness. But they also note an inherent limitation of these poor substitutes:

“Cynicism, arrogance, and callousness may be the safest ways to live, but they also suffocate the very aliveness we strive to protect.”

How can one who has chosen hardness in these ways build and maintain relationships of trust? What would life be without relationships of trust, which often rely on some degree of vulnerability and compassion?

In practice, hardness is little more than pseudo-imperviousness; everyone is touched by something at some point. No one who is without feeling and compassion can be well equipped to serve others and therefore achieve a form of success that’s both meaningful and lasting.

The substitutes outlined by Heifetz and Linsky may serve to protect today, but how will they affect tomorrow? 

The Challenge and Promise of Keeping an Open Heart

As we experience the challenges and horrors that are sometimes present in life, it can be difficult to maintain an open heart. It is tempting to both harden and numb oneself in protecting against the pain that inevitably comes in life.

But pain can be a great teacher. Pain can direct us on our unique curriculum of learning, ensuring that we seriously engage with the path ahead. Numbing and hardening rob us of those opportunities to learn, grow and find meaningful, lasting fulfilment in our lives, however. 

It is written in the book of Matthew in the New Testament that because of an abundance of iniquity (evil, wrongdoing) the love of many shall wax cold.

We are certainly seeing an abundance of iniquity today as the horrors of (Putin’s) Russia’s assault on Ukraine are all too evident.

How will we respond to this and other challenges that may be closer to home?

Will we choose hardness or numbness?

Or will we choose to serve who and how we can within our circumstances and means?

If maintaining an open heart, choosing compassion and living a fulfilling, meaningful life through serving others means experiencing what Nietzsche writes of as God’s hell at times, then that is surely preferable to many possible alternatives.

There are certainly much worse forms of hell to experience than God’s.