SuicideFuel Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl

[sneed (not chuck)]

Man's Search for Meaning - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In short, it follows the life of a prisoner in a concentration camp. He recalls all the horrors he witnesses and the psychology of those around him. I'm struck by what the novel reveals about the nature of suffering and the possible reactions to it. This paragraph in particular stands out to me.

"But one thing I beg of you"; he continued, "shave daily, if at all possible, even if you have to use a piece of glass to do it . . . even if you have to give your last piece of bread for it. You will look younger and the scraping will make your cheeks look ruddier. If you want to stay alive, there is only one way: look fit for work. If you even limp, because, let us say, you have a small blister on your heel, and an SS man spots this, he will wave you aside and the next day you are sure to be gassed. Do you know what we mean by a 'Moslem'? A man who looks miserable, down and out, sick and emaciated, and who cannot manage hard physical labor any longer . . . that is a 'Moslem.' Sooner or later, usually sooner, every 'Moslem' goes to the gas chambers. Therefore, remember: shave, stand and walk smartly; then you need not be afraid of gas.

In many ways, inceldom is the concentration camp we are stuck in. You have no control over the suffering, but you have a choice about how you will react. Will you become a Moslem, and allow yourself to look "miserable, down and out, sick and emaciated"? Or will you "shave, stand and walk smartly"? As the incel you are, stand up straight and hold your head high. Then you needn't fear any suffering.

 

[Robb97]

He had to shave and look young and healthy because otherwise the germans would have gassed him (If you believe the holocaust).

But where is the deeper meaning here? I fail to see it.

 

[NorthernWind]

Live only to prolong suffering?

 

[Intellau_Celistic]

But where is the deeper meaning here? I fail to see it.

 

[sneed (not chuck)]

He had to shave and look young and healthy because otherwise the germans would have gassed him (If you believe the holocaust).

But where is the deeper meaning here? I fail to see it.

You have the same options when you face all suffering in life. Frankl finds himself in the poorest of states, and it would be very easy to simply succumb to circumstances and live as worthlessly as he was being treated. However, the more noble path is to shave, stand and walk smartly. In doing so, he was one of the few who survived.

Will you face suffering nobly or will you face it as a Moslem?

 

[Lonelyus]

I shaved all the hair from my body, Whats next?

 

[Robb97]

You have the same options when you face all suffering in life. Frankl finds himself in the poorest of states, and it would be very easy to simply succumb to circumstances and live as worthlessly as he was being treated. However, the more noble path is to shave, stand and walk smartly. In doing so, he was one of the few who survived.

Will you face suffering nobly or will you face it as a Moslem?

But that's the thing. It is not noble in his case, he simply has to do that in order to survive. Because the germans look at him and if he looks like he lets himself go, they will kill him.

If they would kill all clean shaven people, then he would have grown a beard. There is nothing noble about that, atleast I don't see it.

 

[Pajeetsingh]

Saw this crappy book at my normgroid cousins place, at a quick glance it seems like typical self help garbage normgroids read.

 

[Pajeetsingh]

I'd touch this crap with 10 feet pool, I hate all nromgroids and whatever shit they read.

 

[sneed (not chuck)]

But that's the thing. It is not noble in his case, he simply has to do that in order to survive. Because the germans look at him and if he looks like he lets himself go, they will kill him.

There are many who do not have the resolve to look well. As is the case with the incels rotmaxxing here.

 

[PoodankMcGee]

Fuck that jew and fuck his shitty book. The only reason he had the will to live was because he was a sexhaver and therefore had that core focus to motivate himself. If he was an incel he wouldve starved to death. His inner psyche and body would have just crumpled and died instead of pushing through. There is no "choice" involved. Fuck his self help garbage. He was lucky and that's it.

Brutal quotes from the book to drive my point home:

"My mind still clung to the image of my wife. A thought crossed my mind: I didn't even know if she were still alive. I knew only one thing - which I have learned well by now: Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance. I did not know whether my wife was alive, and I had no means of finding out (during all my prison life there was no outgoing or incoming mail); but at that moment it ceased to matter. There was no need for me to know; nothing could touch the strength of my love, my thoughts, and the image of my beloved. Had I known then that my wife was dead, I think that I would still have given myself, undisturbed by that knowledge, to the contemplation of her image, and that my mental conversation with her would have been just as vivid and just as satisfying. "Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death." "

---
"That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife's image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise."