Nietzsche and Forgetting

In his Genealogy of Morals Friedrich Nietzsche explores the meaning behind “the right to keep promises.” At first, he marvels at the idea of the opposing force – forgetfulness. Nietzsche explains that forgetfulness is the active process of repression, which allows us to be free of our unwanted, over-produced consciousness, and that without it “there could be no happiness, no cheerfulness, no hope, no pride, and no present.” He follows to say that we humans have since developed the opposing faculty of memory, a continual active desire or will that something should not be forgotten. He continues to express that in order for this memory to be attained, in a world of constant distractions and different circumstances, one must become calculable, regular, necessary, and secure in one’s own future. Thus people had to become disciplined, conditioned by society, and responsible. Finally, he who is fully responsible is eligible to make a promise.

This brings forth a troubling thought. If in order to develop our faculty for memory, we have to abandon much of our forgetfulness, is it really worth it? According to Nietzsche, forgetfulness allows us to be happy. Is ignorance really bliss? I have thought about this several times. In fact, I have found myself doing whatever means I could find to “block my memory” so to speak. It is no secret that a huge number of people drink and do drugs in an attempt to escape the confines of reality. Should they?

Based on my past experience, the answer is a clear “no.” As Mill puts it, there are qualitative differences between pleasures and goods. The pleasure gained from a brief escape from reality is qualitatively inferior to that gained from truth.