ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has consigned people to live a rather ascetic, secluded life, as a contemporary variation on the patient copying of the Bible of the medieval monk. Well-executed asceticism, however, has more to it than acedia, or apathy and inertia. Peter Sloterdijk argues for a positive turn by referring to the fact that for the ancient Greeks, the physical side of askēsis (“exercise” or “training”) was the key to the good life. He transforms this into an energetic general ascetology: an upwardly oriented exercise doctrine that gives direction to the Sisyphean labor called life. Or rather: quasi-Sisyphean labor, for those who train long and hard enough, will eventually be able to roll the stone up that loathed mountain. The added value of increased endurance is twofold. Those who train hard not only become more resistant to viruses and apathy but also will come to see that a good and sustainable life requires a substantial effort. Ideally this will result in metanoia, a radical turnaround in our superficial, horizontal life. Particularly strenuous, vertical cycling is a sound and necessary alternative to our uncaring lifestyle. Suffering on a bicycle is meaningful and worthwhile. We therefore should imagine Sisyphus happy.
