Ernst Jünger, DIE SCHERE #23: Notes This aphorism seems to mark the end of the series of reflexions on "Weg" and "Ziel" which began with #12. EJ sums up some insights gained between ##12 and 23. The beginning of a path can be determined exactly, but its length and duration are elusive variables. Even if the end of a life is delayed by medical intervention you could as well ascribe this added span of life to the will of fate; i.e. even triumphs of medicine are no proof that modern man has the length of his life under control.
In the second paragraph the question initally taken up in #12 -- whether the path is more important thant the goal is settled, though not explicitly but in the form of a hypothesis. EJ indicated that he opted for the path being more important; he does so by announcing that he is going now to tackle one of those questions which you have to ponder if you have chosen that option. At first sight, this new question seems pretty abstract. He asks whether there is anything beyond the goal, or rather whether the path might go on beyond its apparent goal. Moreover, the new question will lead onto territory which even dedicated Jüngerites might find irritating, namely the realm of the occult. In fact, this is only one of numerous detours the reader of this strange book has to go with its author. Such seeming bypaths gradually and ultimately will lead towards the enigma of the Beyond. It should be kept in mind that these are the ruminations of a nonagenarian who faced death many times. He refuses to regard death as the mere annihilation of biological life. He is convinced he can see in death a promise of a Beyond. He himself has characterized this book as a theodicy, a defense of the existence of the divine in spite of the existence of evil, destruction, and death in this world. (1). It is surprising, though, that his approach towards the question what might be beyond death is mostly analytical. He examines in a seemingly sober scientific way such phenomena of this world which might be Vorweisungen, prophecies, intimations of what is beyound the walls of time and death. At bottom, however, these are the reflexions of a man who does not doubt, who knows, who believes. In the last paragraph of this aphorism you may detect a trace of this belief. It is introduced by two questions that imply the alternative that there is something, indeed something essential that remains after the goal is reached and the path seems to have arrived at its end. The wave breaks in the surf which may be regarded as a highly significant result (by its sounds, colours, geological effects) of the long way the wave has taken from its beginning. The monitor that converts elctromagentic waves into images may merely filter out what is needed and the 'purified' wave moves on. From a strictly materialist and scientific point of view the answers suggested by those two questions may be nonsense or at best metaphysics which can never be proved. But EJ adds a last sentence in which he steadfastly insists that there is a continuation after the apparent end. He veils his insistence twofold: by using the image of a voyage, and by using the passive voice. Only if you have kept in mind that EJ equates the image of the wave with the life lived you will realize that he means life when he speaks of a voyage here, and that the end of the voyage is death. Nevertheless, after the voyage's end there is still a subject (though concealed by the grammatical passive) that goes ashore and leaves his baggage behind. (1) Siebzig verweht IV, p. 380, 19.10.89 : "Doch einmal muß der Schlußstrich gezogen werden, und gut wäre es, die Zweifel und Widersprüche durch eine Synthese wenigstens abzugleichen, wenn nicht zu überhöhen. Ich habe es in den vergangenen Jahren durch eine noch unpublizierte Schrift mit dem Titel 'Die Schere' versucht. Man könnte sie in das Genre der Theodizeen einreihen als Erwägung, ob nicht, trotz allen Wirren und allem Unheil der Zeit, sinnvolle, vielleicht sogar göttliche Kräfte mitwirken. Das müßte das nächste Jahrhundert, dem ich mit Optimismus entgegensehe, bestätigen." Günter Rebing
