Tealtime

Tealtime t1_jbron3e wrote

Reply to comment by Biguiats in The Eternal Return: Nietzsche’s Brilliant Thought Experiment Illustrating the Key to Existential Contentment by Raw_Spit

That's, I think, and intuition i had about it but hadn't consciously thought about thus far. Indeed, in a way it forces you even to really sniff that rose on your way to work and appreciate even just sitting there with nothing to do a bit more if you apply it the right way - it tells you that's all you'll ever get; better make it worth something.

3

Tealtime t1_j0usmvk wrote

Reply to The Original Fight Club. by Thumperings

Rarely have I ever read an article so wrong on almost everything.

​

1). First of all, Mensur still exists among fraternities. It is not an antiquated thing you only saw "back in the day".

  1. Whatever is being said about it being offered only at "the most prestigious universities" is somewhat false. It wasn´t the universities, but rather the fraternities doing their own thing. Since fraternities have a long history in germany, they were already present in every university city, and thus you could do fencing everywhere. The notion of them becoming "leaders" most of the time is not wrong, but the reason for that was because having a university degree before the first world war practically guaranteed you a good position.

  2. The notion of fencers going out to deliberately get scars is plain wrong. If you got a scar, that means you were a bad fencer. I don´t understand why this myth prevails until today.

4) Most importantly, Mensur has absolutely nothing to do with Nazis. Fraternities were in fact entirely prohibited because they all had a democratic principle, and the Mensur in particular was forbidden because in their view, getting scarred was "Wehrkraftzersetzung".

  1. The reason for the lack of headgear was not because "getting a scar was desirable", but because the Mensur is a test of bravery among students to stand up for himself and his fraternity, and if need be, bleed.

  2. A Mensur does not go on until one capitulates or is completely cut up. Depending on the Fechtcomment, it goes on for 25-40 rounds with about 5 strikes for each combatant. This means that more often than not, noone would have been struck so as to leave a scar. The reason why it still happened sometimes was, as mentioned, either because of bad technique, or because the combatant has done many duels, often exceeding the minimum amount prescribed by his fraternity.

  3. "It became known as the 'Nazi Dueling Scar'" No it didn't.

​

It is true that some Nazis had dueling scars, but they got them before the Nazis took power in 1933 and forbade student unions.

11