The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers)
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Is mankind heading toward self-destruction?

As the various exploits man is engulfed in today (such as oil drilling, banking, politics on the one hand and alcoholism, abuse and war on the other) show, our direction as a western society in particular is centred towards hell on earth. Driven by desire for money and egocentric ideologies, we are choosing to form a bases for mans self-demise, as well as the destruction of our planet as we continue to carve it to pieces in search of black gold and the likes. Man is passionate about not only his continued preservation, but his ability to thrive like a god upon this earth. By this egocentric behaviour he is driven to kill and plunder to the point where there is nothing left but himself to destroy, which is the point we have reached as a group of animals. However, if mankind centres his desire and passion in the creation of art, he can reveal his subjective temperament to himself and prevent his self-destruction, while being expressive in a compassionate way, ultimately refining mankind into a genteel and loving being of nature. So this brings us to a severely important decision: will we use our abundance of free will to save ourselves and this earth? Or will our selfish nature override our compassion and lead us to the destruction of heaven itself?

Through the liberally willed irrigation of passionate and romantic desires, or desires of any kind, we, as a human race, could send ourselves into an abysmal state with close affinities to self-destruction. The age in history we have built ourselves up to over millennia is now; this moment presents to us all what we have worked towards: an abundance of freedom and free will, a large amount of sophisticated technology, the means to create, destroy and funnel whatever we see fit, to practically become gods in our earthly existence, and so forth. It is scientifically shown that we can act in any way we choose at any point in time, despite our emotional states. This reality is becoming more and more a part of our natural existence, as suggests the evidence discovered by the Belgian Unit of Societal Science, who stated that human beings can act in any of number of ways they have readily available, for any intellectual purpose they are absorbed by, whether their emotions should naturally dictate other specific actions and responses. An example of this is the case of a young man from a small suburb in Brussels, the capital of Belgium: after a night of clubbing with a few friends, this man, in a complete state of happiness, “joyful and light hearted” say his friends, without “any opioid or drug substance” found in his blood, killed two elderly people without any remorse and continued partying in the next few hours. So even though this man had no emotion typically linked with committing murder, he found within himself the ability to destroy the lives of two human beings based purely on his direction of will. There have been many other cases similar to this recorded by the Belgian Unit of Societal Science. If such ability is readily developing within society, are we not all liable to become psychopaths? Our moral ability is seemingly becoming disjointed from our ability to act, and free will is becoming more a part of our momentary action. In the novel I have studied, The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, we are presented with a more typical case relating to emotion and action. The protagonist, Werther, falls in love with a woman (Lotte) who is unattainable as his lover. As he becomes more filled, driven and engulfed by his illusory emotions and thoughts that he can’t have her, he becomes more anxious and depressed, and commits suicide. It is clearly visible that Werther’s emotional state suited to the exact details his worldly action, and he is just one of hundreds of recorded cases of love-lost = suicide. I have stated that the majority of humanity is becoming freer to commit acts of destruction, while in the past all of our actions were logical and suited our emotions, unless in states of madness, but this is very rare. So although it could be mass psychopathy that we are choosing to develop to destroy ourselves, our wilful irrigation of passionate desire also contributes heavily, but more so in the past, as is recorded more often in older literature then in today’s world.

From an early age it is common for most of us as human beings to experience some unrest, discomfort and angst in this frightful and rushing waterfall-world of ours, an unrest that forces us to make one of the first critical decisions in our lives: will we opt for an artistic outlet to grow and express these emotions in creative and loving ways, or will we choose to act against people and the world in destructive and fear-driving ways? If our parents are good enough to us, we will usually have many artistic outlets available to us - in the way of paint and instruments- which will lead us through our initial restless phase into a grounded production of something expressive and enjoyable to our young selves. Those of us who get the displeasure and detriment of ignorant parents will not have these artistic outlets, and our angst will usually become focused destructively, causing our young minds to be permanently damaged and traumatised from a young age. The works of psychologists such as Anna Freud have shown us that people are at their most vulnerable and sponge-like at an early child-hood age, and that whatever we were exposed to as children defines many of the decisions we make as we grow older. As this is a key idea of Anna’s child-psychology, it is easily applicable to every human being, and evidence such as her observations of the growing up and lives of her patients, Anna discovered the simple rule that children who have little outlet and are exposed to self-destructive natures such as heavy smoking and drinking will grown into states in which they are self-destructive, and children who are exposed to a lot of artistic and creative behaviour will become very creative, as we can see in various artistic families who create successive generations of artists (such as the Collier Family) or in poverty stricken, abusive families who create successive generations of destructive and poor people with little ambition. In Goethe’s novel, Werther is an extremely artistic character who, as Goethe suggests, comes from parents who showered him with opportunity and freedom to create as a child, with censorship. "I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be." – In reference to his artistry Werther comments how it has released him from his angst. Now I have already said that Werther committed the most self-destructive act that any human being can do, suicide. And so should this not suggest that artistic expression in itself holds nothing for man’s relinquishment from self-destruction? Not in truth, because although Werther commits a grave and self-destructive act despite his artistic growth, he had stopped expressing himself in art several months before his suicide, at the belief Lotte (the girl he so ardently loved) was the perfect expression of creation, and he need no longer create. Werther also had the disposition of a very philosophic and potentially gravely dwelling mind: "No doubt you are right, my best of friends, there would be far less suffering amongst mankind, if men -- and God knows why they are so fashioned -- did not employ their imaginations so assiduously in recalling the memory of past sorrow, instead of bearing their present lot with equanimity.", such as is shown in his more philosophic thoughts, and this way of thinking in itself leaves any man vulnerable to the torture of his demons and the resulting self-destruction. Now from the information we have discussed, it is visible to me that although artistic expression from a young age, continued as one grows older, will lead us away and distract us from self-destruction, it can be overcome by various other human ailments, such as a simple decision or ones disposition in life, although, as is seen in the likes of Picasso and Monet, fervent and lengthened artistic expression will surely destroy ones daimonic drive (the drive that takes the fearful human into dangerous realms of destruction) and instil a great amount of compassion for life and humanly genteel behaviour.

Despite all the chaos and the opposing efforts of good will for selfless and selfish gain rushing through the world contemporarily, on the pure face that reaches to the core of existence, humanity knows that it always at every moment has the ability to redirect its path, whether towards total self-destruction and destruction of everything we have created and worked up to, or towards the refinement and growth of spiritual qualities such as empathy and compassion that will lead all humanity to complete enlightenment and peace. Since the beginning of humanity in this earth period, we have acted to both create and destruct, like the Neanderthals who were both destructive of animals for consummation and creative with earthly substances in the invention of cave art and tools. But at this initial stage of human development, little choice was bestowed upon us. Our Neolithic ancestors had no free will in their worldly disposition. They had to hunt, compete and be adventurous in order to simply survive. They were not a race that thrived at all upon this earth; survival was their only game for millennia. And even as humanity progressed into some of the first stages of civilisation, free will was still very limited. The Indus Valley Civilisation, for example, contained some of the first human beings to build a communal city that involved the congregation of intelligent, conscientious people. But even their choice was limited in that their jobs were all chosen for them, they had to all live the same routine and regiment, and they all had to live the same lives to survive, and begin to thrive. Many civilisations developed quickly after the Indus, such as the Egyptian and Minoan civilisations, who the majority of, although they had more free will, were limited in their choice of life value and role in the greater society. It was only the singular kings that rained that had the complete luxury of constant decision and free will, though they also were greatly limited in the mind. As we reach through history to the present age, pure human free will has been constantly increasing in the hands of both the individual and the greater masses. With more free will came more inspiration. Technology has been advancing extremely rapidly in the last two hundred years. The simple conduction of electricity was unheard of 300 years ago, but now we have it in the smallest piece of plastic. Not only has technology increased, but the broadness of social decision, scientific discovery, military ability and the likes have all flourished with this abundance of free will we have lent ourselves. But with all this free will we now have; this ability to create and destroy at will whatever we can conceive, have we chosen to develop the responsibility and maturity to keep our creations from killing us along with it? It seems not. We are at a point where we can either remove our focus from science and technology to centre all of our energy as an animal species on developing our inner maturity and spirituality, to create high levels of developed empathy and compassion upon the earth, or we can continue along this external and malignant path which will inevitably lead us to self-destruction. The level of free will Werther has in The Sorrows fits in exactly with that of humanity in the late 18th century, when the book was written. Although his feelings and emotions have great bearing on his actions, he still has the ability to make each final decision in conscience and focus the direction of his life based on those actions. But despite his free will his emotional thoughts such as “Alas! the void the fearful void, which I feel in my bosom! Sometimes I think, if I could only once but once, press her to my heart, this dreadful void would be filled.” eventually control his ultimate decision to blow his brains away. It is only in this day and age that we can choose not to let our emotions affect our actions.