DIE SCHERE #16: Notes

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16

»Der Weg ist wichtiger als das Ziel.« Das will nicht sagen, daß das Ziel
belanglos sei, sondern nur, daß der Weg vom Ziel her nicht beurteilt
werden kann. Der Weg enthält mehr als das Erreichte—so das Mögliche. Ein
Erdenrest bleibt. Daher sowohl die fruchtlosen Nachrechnungen der
Historiker (der Treppenwitz der Weltgeschichte) als auch der Rückblick
des Einzelnen auf die versäumte Gelegenheit.
Der Lebenslauf, als Kunstwerk betrachtet, bedarf solcher Berichtigungen
und Rechtfertigungen nicht. Insofern gilt auch die Maxime, daß die
moralische Wertung nicht ausreiche. Sie zählt zum pädagogischen Ethos
der weltlichen und der geistlichen Mächte und die Reue zum
autodidaktischen Teil der Existenz. Davon abgesehen, ist die Moral der
Mode unterworfen; Epochen und Klimate wirken auf sie ein. Die Absolution
dagegen ist, wie es dem Ganzen zukommt, vollkommen und gewiß.

DIE SCHERE #16: Notes
The quote takes up that answer mentioned in #12 as appearing more and more 
accepted in our time. EJ refrains here from understanding the phrase as a Zen 
philosopher would. He gives it a different twist: the way includes elements 
which, contrary to what most people believe, cannot be judged adequately looking 
back from the goal. As an example ("so") he cites all that which was possible en 
route but was never realized. A sting of regret will remain because the common 
reaction will be to value and to condemn when looking back. (1) Historians will 
point out after the event what chances were missed — like those people to whom 
their wittiest remarks occur outside on the stairway having just left the party. 
Likewise, the individual may regret missed chances in his own past life when he 
looks back from the point which he has reached. 
EJ differs from this common practice. He himself has time and again galled his 
critics by refusing to deliver the Selbstkritik they demanded from him. Some of 
his reasons we find here. There is his idea that a life lived, regarded as a work 
of art (which idea he put forward in #3), is in no need of justification or 
contrition. Moral judgments are insufficient and thus inappropriate — in this 
particular context ("insofern"), he adds warily. He admits that moral judgments 
have their legitimate place wherever worldly and spiritual powers intend to 
educate; equally when an individual uses remorse to teach himself how to live a 
better life. Again he qualifies the value of moral judgments even further: they 
are never absolute but vary in different times and places.
But what is it that is absolute, perfect and certain? EJ gives his answer in one 
last sentence. It seems cryptic because it does no longer, like the previous 
passages, refer to an individual life regarded as a whole work of art, but of the 
"whole" ("wie es dem Ganzen zukommt"). 
To my mind that opens a much wider perspective. To be sure, each individual life 
will be granted absolution. But so will the whole of history, the whole of the 
world. As I see it, EJ does not share the idea of the meting out of punishment 
and rewards on a day of Last Judgment or in another incarnation. He would rather 
agree with that bold phrase ascribed to Origines, Omnium rerum finis erit 
vitiorum abolitio. (2)
(1) Uns bleibt ein Erdenrest / Zu tragen peinlich... (Faust II, 11954)
(2) At the end of all things all sins will be disregarded. Das Ende aller Dinge 
wird aller Schuld Vergessung sein.

Günter Rebing