Can someone explain the Dionysian affirmation of life?
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ELI5: In ancient Greece, there were lots of gods and they all represented different parts of life and nature. These gods had what is known as ‘dualities’, which means that each god had two opposing sides to their personality. For example: Apollo was a god of healing, but he was also responsible for sending plagues. Most gods had these kinds of dualities, but Dionysus’ had an especially big one: he could represent extreme joy and celebration of life, but he was also very violent and cruel. His celebrations involved dancing and drinking wine and celebrating, but they also involved madness and drunkenness and tearing people to pieces. He represented life and death (as a resurrection god), but also the joy and sorrow associated with life and death. The Greeks worshipped and respected Dionysus for both sides of his personality, not just the ‘happy’ side: to them the life and death, joy and sorrow, celebration and madness, were parts of the same thing.
So **the Dionysian affirmation of life** is approaching life with the same attitude of respect and acceptance with which the Greeks approached Dionysus. Rather than only focusing on the good parts and ignoring the bad (willful ignorance), or only focusing on the bad parts and ignoring the good (nihilism), we should accept and embrace both sides as part of the same thing. It is “The saying Yes to life even in its strangest and hardest problems.”
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