Page 27 - The Drucker Lectures

8 [ The Drucker Lectures

proper breathing exercises, by fasting, by narcotic drugs or by
prolonged exposure to Bach with closed eyes and closed ears. It
is something that can be attained only through despair, through
tragedy, through long, painful, and ceaseless struggle. It is not
irrational, sentimental, emotional, or spontaneous. It comes as
the result of serious thinking and learning, of rigid discipline, of
complete sobriety, absolute will. It is something few can attain;
but all can—and should—search for it.
This is as far as I can go. If you want to go further, if you
want to know about the nature of religious experience, about
the way to it, about faith itself, you have to read Kierkegaard.
Even so, you may say that I have tried to lead you further than I
know the road myself. You may reproach me for trying to make
Kierkegaard accept society as real and meaningful whereas he
actually repudiated it. You may even say that I have failed in re-
lating faith to existence in society. All these complaints would be
justified, but I would not be very much disturbed by them—at
least not as far as the purpose of this talk is concerned. For all I
wanted to show you is the possibility that we have a philosophy
that enables men to die. Do not underestimate the strength of
such a philosophy. For in a time of great sorrow and catastrophe
such as we have to live through, it is a great thing to be able to
die. But it is not enough. Kierkegaard too enables men to die;
but his faith also enables them to live.

From a lecture delivered at Bennington College, where Drucker had joined
the faculty in 1942.