 
 we all have dark periods in our lives
 we all face difficulties that seem insurmountable
 we all encounter setbacks
  and when we do we're often tempted to throw in the towel
 most philosophers have
 tried to help us to reduce the amount that we suffer
 they've offered consoling advice on how to make the pain go away 
 but there was one philosopher
 with a far more 
 bracing take on the subject
 Friedrich Nietzsche beleived that all varieties of suffering and
 failure were to be welcomed by anyone seeking happiness.
 We should regard them as tough challenges to be
 in the same way as a climber
 might tackle a mountain.
 Almost alone among philosophers
 he thought it was an advantage
 to have serious reversals in life.
 He wrote "To those human beings of any concern to me I wish suffering,
 desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities,
 profound self-contempt
 the tortures of self-mistrust and the wretchedness of the vanquished."
 and to understand what Nietzsche meant
 it helps to scale one of his favorite mountains Piz Corvatch, high in
 the swiss alps.
 I'm now standing on the top of Piz Corvatch
 and the view is extraordinary, sublime - there's a complete stillness in the air
 clouds are just drifting over us
 you can see clouds below us, and then through the clouds, villages and forests.
 You feel like you're on the top of the world and the air is curiously light and
 you feel a kind of
 elated feeling
 and I think that here we can start to understand why Nietzsche placed such an
 emphasis on the tops of mountains.
 It's at the very top of the mountain the come the finest views,
 but it's of course extremely hard to get to them,
 and this is symptomatic of his view that to reach anything that's worthwhile, to
 reach anything that's valuable,
 you have to go through
 an extraordinary amount of effort.
 Friedrich Nietzsche certainly knew a lot about effort
 both physical and mental
 his life was one of exceptional hardship
 he constantly struggled against illness dizziness headaches vomiting
 probably all symptoms of the syphilis picked up in a Koln brothel as a student.
 He was forced on a restless journey around europe
 in search of somewhere where the climate wouldn't upset his delicate
 constitution
 and place the best that agreed with him
 was Sils Maria
 high in the mountains in the southeastern corner of Switzerland.
 Nietzsche came here for the first time in June eighteen seventy nine
 and immediately fell in love with the place.
 "I now have europe's best and mightiest air to breathe," he wrote
 "it's nature is akin to my own."
 He spent eight summers in Sils Maria
 living in this barely furnished room rented from a farmer.
 It was here that he worked on some of his most important books 
 including "Thus spoke Zarathustra", "Beyond Good and Evil",
 and "Twilight of the Idols".
 But his work enjoyed little success in his lifetime.
 Although he had been made a professor by the age of twenty four
 was completely out of tune with his colleagues
 and was finally forced to retire at the age of thirty five.
 For the rest of his life
 he had very little money
 and the many books he worked on here
 went largely unread.
 He lived the life of routine. He would rise at five in the morning write until
 mid-day
 and then take walks up the huge peaks that necklace the village.
 But he didn't just live amongst the mountains for the air and the nice views.
 The landscape he saw around him
 spoke to his deeper sense of himself and his work.
 Philosophy, he declared
 is a voluntary living in ice and high mountains
 Nietzsche's love life was as disastrous as his professional career
 all his attempts to seduce women were in vain.
 Many were frightened by his large mustache.
 And he confessed to feelings of appalling loneliness.
 He wrote to a married friend,
 "Thanks to your wife,
 things are a hundred times better for you than for me.
 You have a nest together. I have at best a cave."
 Nietzsche immersed himself in philosophy
 but his working life was cruelly cut short.
 He ended his days in madness
 having famously broken down and embraced a horse in Turin in eighteen eighty nine
 He returned to his boarding house
 danced naked, thought of shooting the Kaiser, and believed himself to be
 amongst others,
 Jesus, Napoleon, Buddha, the king of Piedmont,
  and Alexander the great.
 He was bundled into a train to Germany
 and put into an asylum
 where he was looked after by his sister and his elderly mother
 until he died eleven years later
 at the age of fifty six.
 A key lesson that Nietzsche's life of hardship taught him
 was that any worthwhile achievement was born out of constant struggle and
 hard work.
 That we sometimes suppose
 that success comes easily and naturally to some people.
 There was no such thing as a straight path to the top in Nietzsche's eyes.
 "Don't talk about giftedness or inborn talents," he wrote
 One can name all kinds of very great people who were not very gifted.
 They acquired greatness- they became geniuses - 
 and they did so
 by overcoming difficulties."
 it's a lesson that the ballerina exemplifies.
 Monica Perego is a principle dancer with the English National Ballet.
 "It takes a lot of work
 uh... also dedication. It's a job that you do for love really,
 and basically it's just um... a lot of
 practicing
 the same step their over and over again until you get it right and you make it seem effortless,
 and uh... a lot of pain in the body of course because it's a lot of strain
 for the muscles
 and uh...
 pain on the feet obviously 'cause you've got these lovely point shoes on, which 
 look really nice but um... they're quite painful sometimes." 
 "How much does it hurt?
 I mean, it's hard to imagine." 
 "Well, it depends, you go through phases really, but you do get
 a lot of blisters
 and you do get aches and pains all the time."
 "All the time?" 
 "Oh yeah, pretty much especially backs, I mean it's personal but
  backs and calves, that's the worst. And of course blister on the toes
 and uh, you know... yellow nails that seem disgusting."
"What's a yellow nail?" 
 "Well, basically a bruised nail."
 "So a bruised toenail?"
 "Yeah."
 
"So do they bleed as well? Do your feet ever bleed?" 
"No. Well, yeah, just with blisters. I had actually two
 toenails coming off as well
 and um... for example just we were on tour
 and I'd been off sick for a while and I had to come back and go straight into
 Swan Lake rehearsal
 and so my feet, well, weren't used to it
 and so I had about ten blisters on my toes and I had to
 perform
 with like blood and you know, loads of paddings, 
 and try to not feel the pain, but of course you always feel it."
 "Nietzsche said that
 without pain, without going through pain
 that there could never be any gain and that anything that's worthwhile doing in life
 is going to take you through some awful things. Do you think that's right?"
 "Um, it's right in our career, for sure. Definitely,
 because it is so straining.
 But there is satisfaction
 at the end of the
 performance, or
 at the end of someone's career. It's so amazing
 that no aches and pains will take that amazement away from it, you know."
 "The pain was worth it. 
 "Oh yes, definitely."
 
 
 At the heart of Nietzsche's philosophy is a simple idea:
 difficulty is normal.
 We shouldn't panic or give up when we experience it.
 We feel pain because of the gap between who we are at the moment
 and the person we could ideally be.
 It's because we can't master the ingredients of happiness straight away
 that we suffer as much as we do.
 But Nietzsche didn't think it was enough just to suffer.
 If hardship was all it took in order to be fulfilled
 then all of us would be happy.
 The challenge is to learn to respond well to suffering.
 Perhaps to use it to create something beautiful.
 Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the few philosophers to speak of the virtues of
 hardship and failure.
 He thought that we could all potentially benefit from them.
Paul Brown ran a drinks distribution company outside Manchester
 which went bankrupt last year. He's now back in business
 and the experience of failure changed his life for the better. 
 "As a person, do you think as you 
 come in here every morning
 that you're slightly different because you've had this experience?"
 "Yeah! I'm in earlier, for a start
 uhm,
 but no i don't . . .
  I don't let the little problems and all of that get on top of me.
 You know, it's a little problem
 you know, it'll go away.
 you don't . . .you don't take it in
 like it's massive
 you know like it's the end of the world yeah you know.  The end of the world happend
  a couple months ago
 and I failed
 uh... suddenly there's a new world so, well, it hasn't ended at all and so 
 you don't think a problem is the end the world you know so. . . "
 "So in a way
 you don't panic as much because you think well,
 I've been through the worst, the worst has happened and I came through it."
 "Yeah.  Yeah, you do.  Because you know it's - it's not as bad - it really isn't as bad
 you know as what everyone makes out, you know. Failing is horrible. I mean I wouldn't
 like anyone to fail.
 but have the experience of failing
 have the feeling of the experience of failing at least you know, 'cause that's
 horrible
 but try not to fail
 but everyone fails."
"Hmm- yes.
 and yet I don't know, I always think
 it's something interesting that Nietzsche says is that
 we're starting to live in a culture where failure is not spoken of it's like there
 are these failures and
 sort of that's this freakish thing that happens the few people and let's not talk
 about them and then there's success but somehow the two are not brought together and I
 think what's quite interesting is to think in every life even a good life
 you know, a successful life is going to involve some failure at some level. Not necessarily a huge level
 but at some level."
"Well, how would you be able to judge your success if you haven't failed?"
 Paul's experience in many ways confirms Nietzsche's analysis of the benefits of
 failure. However
 Nietzsche's point is more subtle.
 he didn't think that having failed was in itself enough. All lives have failures
 in them.
 What makes some lives fulfilled as well is the manner in which failure has been met.
 It's a surprising fact about Nietzsche that for a time he wished to abandon the
 bookish life
 in favor of becoming a full-time gardener.
 The plan never really came off,
 but cultivating plants taught him an important lesson.
 Nietzsche thought that we should look at many of our problems like gardeners.
 Now gardeners come across a lot of plants with very ugly roots. If we take this one
 I think it's a particular monster
 Look at that- fairly ugly- but what gardeners are able to do is to cultivate something that looks
 initially very ugly into something
 very beautiful.
 Look at this; rather stunning.
 Nietzsche thought this was a kind of metaphor for what we should do in our
 own lives
 That is, take situations
 that look initially very horrible, very dark,
 and grow out of them
 something beautiful.
 There's something very uplifting about Nietzsche's botanical view of our problems
 Even all those negative, dark feelings
 can be cultivated to produce something fruitful.
 But it's entirely up to us to make this happen.
 Envy for example,
 might just lead to bitterness but could, if properly trained, spur us on to compete
 with the rival and produce something wonderful.
 Anxiety might make us panic
 or it might blossom into an accurate analysis of what's wrong, and so, to peace
 of mind.
 And that's why Nietzsche wished misfortune on his friends;
 because he believed that hardship was a necessary evil out of which if these
 friends were skilled they might be able to harvest beautiful things.
 "Would you ever wish failure on your friends?"
"No."
The feeling of failure, yeah."
"The feeling of failure?" 
"The feeling of failure."
"Why?"
 "Because the feeling of failure is horrible.
 And the feeling of
 making it again afterwards
 just puts it into context how bad
 it feels to fail
 you know so the feeling afterwards is so much better."
 "Have you ever been to Naples?"
"No."
"Well, ok
 Nietzsche went to Naples and Nietzsche says in order to get
 great happiness from life
 in order to harvest great happiness
you've got to live dangerously, he says
 and he advises you to build your homes on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.
 Which is a slightly reckless thing to do. Reckless, but it's a beautiful view - you see the sea
 you get a wonderful view
 and
 that's kind of his, you know, his idea, that life's a risky business
 and um...
 no pain no gain."
"True, true, yeah.
 You've got to take a chance at some point, I think."
 'cause if you don't take a chance how would you ever know
 I mean the views could be absolutely fantastic,
 but if you say to yourself
 it could erupt, you know,
 the problem is the landslide well you'll never know whether the views are that good
 the views could you know
 make up for that
 that risk, that danger.
 If Nietzsche gave some thought to what some good responses to problems might be
 he also castigated what were in his view the disastrous ones. One of the worst
 was to head for the pub.
 One of the most striking facts about Nietzsche was that he hated drinking alcohol
 and this was more than just a personal taste. He believed that anyone with even
 the slightest interest in being happy should never go anywhere near a drop
 of alcohol.
 As he put it, all the more spiritual nature's should abstain from alcohol completely.
 Water always suffices.
 Water - the Nietzschean drink.
 To imagine that there is benefit in escaping our troubles once in a while
 with an alcoholic drink or two
 is to misunderstand completely the Nietzschean analysis of the relationship
 between happiness and pain.
 Happiness does not come from escaping troubles- it comes from cultivating them-
 from turning them to your advantage.
 The last thing Nietzsche thought we should do with our sorrows is drown them. Our worries
 are vital clues, telling us what's wrong with our lives and pointing the way
 to our ultimate improvement.
 Nietzsche was born in the tiny village of Röcken in what used to be East Germany
 His father was the parson
 his deeply devout mother was herself the daughter of a parson.
 The philosopher adored his father
 and must have been deeply shocked when he died suddenly when Nietzsche was only four years old.
 The loss was to haunt him throughout his life.
 One of his first actions when he finally earned a little money
 after winning a court case against a publisher
 was to buy a large headstone which now covers his father's grave,
 and on it Nietzsche had inscribed a quotation from the New Testament
 "Die Liebe horet nimmer auf."
 "Love never ceases."
 A traditional Christian message
 Even though Nietzsche loved his father deeply
 even though he's buried in a Christian graveyard right next to his father, the
 pastor
 Nietzsche had the greatest reservations about the kind of assistance that Christianity
 brings us when we are facing difficulties and problems.
 It's striking to visit the house where Nietzsche was born
 right under the shadow of the Lutheran church where his father preached,
 competely unchanged since he lived here.
 Little nietzsche must've grown up breathing an intensely religious
 atmosphere.
 So it's very surprising to read the philosopher and find out what he had to
 say as an adult
 about his parents' religion.
 "One does well to put gloves on when reading the New Testament."
 "In the entire New Testament there is only one solitary figure one is obliged
 to respect,
 Pilate, the Roman governor."
 and quite simply, 
"It's indecent to be a Christian today."
 Nietzsche was rather against
 Christianity for the same reasons as he was against getting very drunk. In a short
 term
 uh... go to your service in a christian church may make you feel quite good in
 the same way as getting very drunk may make you feel quite good, but in the long
 term Christianity in Nietzsche's eyes dulls pain
 uh... and in this way it also
 dulls the energy that pain can give us to overcome problems and so reach real
 happiness.
 There are undeniably certain differences between a pub and a church, but
 Nietzsche insisted that they were great similarities between the
 consolation available in both places.
 It seemed to him that the New Testament
 tried to make us feel better
 by saying that many things we thought of as problems
 are not in fact problems at all,
 but rather assets.
 To anyone worried about being too timid, the New Testament advises
 "Blessed are the meek
 for they will inherit the earth."
 To anyone worried about not having any friends,
 the New Testament says,
 "Blessed are you when men hate you
 when they exclude you and insult you."
 And to anyone who worries about not having enough money
 and who envies those who do,
 the New Testament has these soothing words
 "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
 a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
 Nietzsche took such words to be catastrophic.
 Like alcohol, Christian council might dull pain
 but it would also weaken the resolve to overcome the problem from which the pain has arisen.
 So how would Nietzsche have preferred Christians to behave  
 when faced with difficulties?
 Chiefly, 
 by not pretending that they didn't want the things that were difficult to get.
 Nietzsche had a host of difficulties.
 He was poor and sick and lonely, 
 but he never behaved in the way that he had accused Christians of behaving.
 That is, he never declared that health and wealth and love were bad.
 He accepted that he didn't have them; partly by choice, partly by circumstance.
 But, he did not deny his wishes;
 he did not deny his pain.
 So, it perhaps comes as no surprise to find in the parish records of his burial
 here in Roken
 for the church authorities to have written beside his name the words 
 "A known anti-christ."
 Although his life was hard
 we shouldn't think that Nietzsche was miserable all of the time.
 On the contrary, he often talked about fulfillment, particularly when he was here
 in the mountains.
 But what he does talk about fulfillment
 he's thinking of something richer than the sort of cosy well-being
 we might imagine.
 He writes sarcastically about people who are addicted to the religion of "comfortableness". 
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 He calls them "small,
 mean people, hiding in
 forests like shy deer."
 "But those of us who dare to climb up above the tree line
 to see the views and breathe the air.
 It's then that we'll understand the benefits of abandoning comfort
 for true fulfillment.
 As Nietzsche famously said, 
 "That which does not kill me makes me stronger."
 Like every philosopher in this series,
 Nietzsche was interested in making people happy,
 however unlike every other philosopher in this series, he believed that extremes
 of pain
 were a vital component in reaching the kind of happiness he had in mind.
 Not everything which makes us suffer is necessarily bad for us.
 Not everything which makes us feel good is necessarily actually good for
 us.
 "To regard extremes of suffering as an evil, as something to be abolished,"
 wrote Friedrich Nietzsche, "is a supreme idiocy."
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