Watching Disney movies when we’re young, teaches us that good always prevails and that
we all live happily ever after.
But when we’re confronted with the real world, we see that this mechanism isn’t
always in effect.
Looking at all the suffering, the injustice, the treatment of animals, the way we treat
each other, violence, war, poverty, grief, the silent desperation that many people find
themselves stuck in, we can conclude that the reality of life is not all rosy.
And sometimes, after exposing ourselves to the media, but also when we notice the anguish
that’s going on in our own personal environments, it’s difficult to not be moved by the adversity
that we encounter.
As a consequence of the acute awareness of this pain and suffering, we feel a deep sadness
and melancholia.
This mental state is also known as Weltschmerz, which is, obviously, a German word.
So, what does Weltschmerz mean?
Where does it come from?
And what can we do about it?
A prince named Siddhartha Gautama lived a very sheltered life.
He was destined to become either a spiritual man or a powerful king.
His father insisted that his son would rule the kingdom someday, so he tried everything
to steer him into that direction.
He also knew that exposing his son to the world’s suffering could severely change
his course; as the portal to a spiritual journey is the confrontation with a harsh reality.
Because then he’d find out that there’s more to life than endless feasting, beautiful
women, material wealth and power.
Despite his father's efforts to make his life as pleasurable as possible, Siddhartha experienced
a nagging sense of weariness.
So, he decided to escape the palace and explore the outside world.
After the confrontation with many types of suffering, like illness, poverty, and death,
the veil of blissful ignorance was lifted.
He returned to the palace, and while laying awake in bed alongside his wife and children,
another form of weariness kicked in; one concerning the pain of the world.
We could say that, for the first time in his life, he experienced Weltschmerz.
German Romantic novelist Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, or in short ‘Jean Paul’, first
coined the term Weltschmerz.
It describes the sadness we feel about the state of the world and its inadequacies.
And also our personal inadequacies as humans that reflect the current state of affairs.
It can be literally translated as ‘world pain’.
However, ‘world-weariness’ would be a more accurate depiction.
In the essay called Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry, Wilhelm Alfred Braun describes
it like this and I quote:
Weltschmerz may be defined as the poetic expression of an abnormal sensitiveness of the feelings
to the moral and physical evils and misery of existence—a condition which may or may
not be based upon a reasoned conviction that the sum of human misery is greater than the
sum of human happiness.
End quote.
Weltschmerz is different from what the Germans and several other European peoples, including
the Dutch, call Angst, which is a type of anxiety that we may experience when we overthink
and worry about life in general, our own condition, or nothing specific.
Existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard described Angst as a consequence of the infinite
possibilities we have as human beings, as we are not bound by instincts like animals.
He described it as the ‘dizziness of freedom’.
Even though Angst is not the same is Weltschmerz, it could very well be a part of it, as the
despair that comes with the realization of the world’s misery, could go together with
great fear of what’s going to be.
We notice this when we see increasing tensions between the East and the West, for example,
or when we stand on the brink of economic collapse.
Contemplating the suffering that goes with it today, may also evoke anxiety about a future
with a high potential of bringing adversity to our doorstep.
Because the inadequacies of distant lands may befall us as well, and this idea makes
us anxious.
Angst is an experience that can have many different causes, and does not specifically
relate to the pain of the world.
The same goes for the French word ennui, which is related to the English word ‘annoy’
that points to the dissatisfaction we experience when there is nothing that arouses the passions.
Ennui closely resembles Weltschmerz, but isn’t quite the same.
Even though someone with ennui experiences weariness about a world that doesn’t satisfy
the senses, it is more hedonistic in nature, and also a consequence of plain boredom that
manifests as melancholia and listlessness.
Ennui, nonetheless, could be a symptom of Weltschmerz, because when the world evokes
so much despair, we are likely to feel utterly dissatisfied with what’s happening around us,
so we lose the ability to enjoy, and nothing excites us anymore.
I mean: what’s the point of living when the world is such a dark, hopeless place?
At the core of Weltschmerz lies a tension between how we think reality should be, and
how reality truly is.
As prince Siddhartha, we might have been living a sheltered life.
Not only in the physical sense, but also in the ideological sense.
When we are metaphorically raised by Disney movies, we could see the world much more positive
than it is, and also deny the nature of evil.
And those who do acknowledge the downsides of this world, in a way that is realistic
and backed up by facts, will be dismissed as pessimists.
The problem with ennui as well as Weltschmerz is that we project our ideals onto reality
and, as a consequence, we are disappointed with the outcome.
We cannot bear the pain of the world, because we think that this pain has no right to be here.
Moreover, we feel entitled to a world that spares us, and also spares other people, and
when we discover that is doesn’t, we are unable to reconcile with the idea that we
are not entitled to anything but life, complete with all its darkness.
People are cruel, selfish, and try to screw each other over every day.
Things like war, murder, greed, and violence have been an inherent part of life since the
dawn of time.
The wish to banish them is like trying to deny our humanity, which is probably never
going to happen until the day that either humans are dehumanized, or erased from the
universe.
But as the inadequacies of humanity are part of being human, so are ‘good’ qualities
like being righteous and compassionate.
Thus, the world is a complete spectrum of what we have designated to be good and evil:
and if we cannot bear the dark, we cannot bear life itself.
When we suffer from Weltschmerz, we might want to ask ourselves why we keep on resisting
what is.
What ideals create in us the inability to accept that real life doesn’t work out ideally,
but simply the way it works out.
In the history of mankind, many people tried to solve the problem of Weltschmerz in one
form or another.
Prince Siddhartha achieved the cessation of suffering by walking a spiritual path, through
which he became enlightened, and later known as the Buddha.
French-Algerian philosopher Albert Camus accepted the idea that the universe is meaningless
and indifferent, and that the human tendency to attribute meaning to life is Absurd, and
that we should create our own meaning, and enjoy the time we’re given, no matter how
bleak and desperate our circumstances may seem.
As opposed to Søren Kierkegaard who, even though they shared similar views, believed
that the only solution to end despair was a leap of faith.
In his case, the embrace of Christianity.
Hence, it’s no surprise that so many people find relief in religion.
And then we have the Stoics, who emphasize that it’s not our circumstances that we
suffer from, but the position that we take towards our circumstances.
So, Weltschmerz should be treated by changing the way we think, and not by trying to change
the world.
The fundamental idea that could bring us some consolation, and help us to make peace with
the flaws of existence, the human condition, and ourselves, is the Buddhist first noble
truth: life is suffering.
Birth, aging, death, union with what’s displeasing, separation from what’s pleasing, and not
to get what we want is suffering.
Yet, all of this is part of life.
So it’s no surprise that the world is full of pain.
Thank you for watching.