Why is erasing desire seen as so important? If the subjugation of the self is the point of the self what's the point in having a self? It's like someone handing you a leaflet which says throw this leaflet away.
Interpretation
The quote questions the value of erasing desire and the purpose of self-identity.
Tibor Fischer's quote explores the paradox of self-subjugation and desire, suggesting that if the aim is to diminish the self, it raises the fundamental question of what purpose the self serves. It critiques the notion that self-denial is necessary for personal growth or enlightenment, using a metaphor about being given a leaflet instructing you to discard it, highlighting the absurdity of negating one's own identity.
In practice
In a discussion about personal growth, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of embracing rather than erasing desires.
Every account of a higher power that I've seen described, of all religions that I've seen, include many statements with regard to the benevolence of that power. When I look at the universe and all the ways the universe wants to kill us, I find it hard to reconcile that with statements of beneficence.
The man of the future who will redeem us not only from the hitherto reigning ideal but also from that which was bound to grow out of it, the great nausea, the will to nothingness, nihilism; this bell stroke of noon and of the great decision that liberates the will again and restores its goal to the earth and his hope to man; this Antichrist and anti-nihilist; this victor over God and nothingness - he must come one day.
Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.
Your source material is the people you know, not those you don't know, but every character is an extension of the author's own personality.
The whole of life has become an institution, a madhouse in which duties are to be fulfilled not love; in which you have to behave, not be spontaneous; in which a pattern has to be followed, not the overflow of life and energy. That's why the mind thinks and decides everything, because there is danger.
Surely the ass who invented the first religion ought to be the first ass damned
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