A philosopher foresaw our current era of social reactionism
I am not fond of cynics, but I have a soft spot for those who are optimistic about humanity’s potential and who are thus disappointed when people do so little with their potential. Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche fit into that category, but Max Scheler (1874–1928) fits even more so.
Few philosophers have more fully embraced the reality of individual emotions than Max Scheler did with his life philosophy. He wrote about his belief in the power of love and solidarity to build communities of mutual respect. He prized individualism and the value of respect for other individuals and their unique perspectives and experiences.
I wrote in my textbook entry on Scheler:
The bottom line for Scheler’s thought is that our salvation as persons lies not in the attitude of indifference toward suffering but in acknowledging pain in ourselves and in others and sympathizing with it. Sympathy and empathy for others are positive values that bring us together as a community. Scheler says that the deepest and most profound level of community is when each one of us takes responsibility for our own actions and responsibility for others. We feel a sense of solidarity with other people and with our collective community, and we seek to build each other up.
— Giles, How We Are and How We Got Here, 279–280
Scheler’s optimism was tempered by the realities of Word War I Germany. By 1917, he saw the war effort as hopeless on all sides, and he wrote about what he saw coming in his book, Ressentiment. That’s not the emotion of resentment — it’s a much deeper and nastier emotion. In the book, Ressentiment, Scheler described the difference between actions from love that seek to improve others and ressentiment —feelings and actions that come from negative values that seek to diminish others.
Scheler foresaw an era in which society is filled with ressentiment. The two decades after the first world war saw a sharp rise in political movements and social sentiments powered by ressentiment. History shows us to where those movements can lead.
In 2021, I wrote an article about Scheler’s concept of ressentiment. Please read it. It is important. I remarked then that his concept, his prophesy, described so much of history between 1917 and 2021. I sought to sound the alarm as he had back then. In the three years since, what Scheler wrote has become increasingly pertinent and descriptive of our world.
I remain an optimist about humanity, an optimism that Scheler never lost. Part of being constructive in building better communities is being honest about the bad around us. If we are honest, we can see how correct Scheler’s prophesy of ressentiment was, but in his philosophy we can also see a better alternative.