More and more people ridicule those who take care of their health.
You train? “That’s obsessive.”
You sleep early? “You’re missing out.”
You eat clean? “That’s boring.”
And then, to justify their criticism, they invoke Nietzsche.
They speak of the “Dionysian” as if excess were proof of depth.
As if discipline were cowardice and chaos were freedom.
As if letting yourself go were a brave act.
They are wrong.
Profoundly.
NIETZSCHE SPOKE OF POWER, NOT DECAY
Dionysus, for Nietzsche, wasn’t a drunk god of distraction.
He was a force of nature: brutal, transcendent, divine.
The symbol of life in its totality: joy and pain, creation and destruction, rise and fall.
But nowhere does Nietzsche praise weakness.
Nowhere does he say:
“Give in, let go, dissolve.”
No.
He speaks of dancing on the edge of chaos, not falling into it.
Of embracing suffering to grow stronger, not to justify collapse.
Of going beyond good and evil, not beyond form and fire.
Dionysus is danger tamed, not safety sought.
It is the power to hold the storm without being consumed by it.
But the moderns…
They don’t want the storm.
They want numbness.
They want comfort disguised as philosophy.
They want excuses to avoid the work.
MODERN COMFORT IS NOT A REBELLION, IT’S SUBMISSION
There is no rebellion in skipping training.
There is no depth in neglecting your body.
There is no courage in drifting through life with no rhythm, no order, no care.
It’s easy to mock the man who wakes early, eats with intention, and moves with purpose.
Harder to admit that he has built something you secretly want:
structure, strength, clarity.
So instead, they call him boring.
As if boredom were a sin and stimulation were salvation.
But those who say that health is dull have never felt what it’s like to be alive, fully alive.
To wake up clear-headed, driven, present.
To feel the pulse of blood in your veins after a hard session.
To walk through life with a spine straightened by effort, not ego.
THE UNIVERSE OPERATES THROUGH BALANCE, NOT ABANDON
We know more now than Nietzsche ever did.
We know that the human body doesn’t need abstinence nor indulgence.
It needs harmony. Rhythm. Cycles.
It needs both push and release. Stress and rest. Movement and silence.
The natural world runs on equilibrium:
Too much sun? The plant burns.
Too much rain? It drowns.
Life happens in the between.
The same is true for us.
Health isn’t denial, it’s precision.
It’s not about perfection, it’s about alignment.
And those who find it know something most never will:
that joy, real joy, emerges from tension well-managed.
That the best moments don’t come when you chase them…
but when you’ve earned them.
DISCIPLINE MAKES PLEASURE MEANINGFUL
When everything is allowed, nothing has value.
When every day is “cheat day,” you’re not indulging, you’re escaping.
But when you say no by choice, your yes becomes powerful.
Earned. Felt. Celebrated.
A slow morning after weeks of effort.
A shared moment with people you respect.
A stillness at night, knowing you’ve done what had to be done.
These things are beautiful because you built the conditions for them.
Structure does not kill life.
It creates the space in which life can actually be felt.
REAL FREEDOM IS MASTERED CHAOS
The lie is this:
That discipline is a cage.
That order is weakness.
That control is fear.
But the truth is the opposite.
Discipline is not about suppression. It’s about expression.
It’s not the absence of freedom. It’s its foundation.
Because without structure, everything falls.
And no amount of pleasure can save you from that.
The modern Dionysians don’t rebel.
They drift.
And call it depth.
But drifting isn’t freedom.
It’s slow decay.
And real rebels don’t rot.
They burn with form.
Nobilitas Obligat 