Perhaps this sounds overly bleak, but Nietzsche, echoing Schopenhauer, believed that the ways in which most individuals sought to alleviate agony only deepened it in the end. Typical escapes—food, money, power, sex—are painfully transitory. Life goes only one way, into ever-steeper decline. This is true for all living beings, but humans have the unique powers of recollection and foresight, so they, unlike mere beasts, can relive the horrors of life and clearly envision their untimely demise. Of course, one can find distractions—politics, education, religion, and family life—but these do little
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