As last week, the unimaginable thing happened when U22 Vietnam came back to beat U22 Thailand right at home. After the first half was trailing 0-2, many people thought of a sad ending for U22 Vietnam, but the equalizer of 1-2 at the beginning of the second half revived hope and we made history.
Nietzsche's words were rewritten with terrible determination, sweat, penalties and heated disputes. In world football, that saying is even more true. Lionel Messi has been called "a genius without a trophy", "second runner-up king", many times he lost finals, he collapsed many times. If those shocks killed Messi, he probably would have retired from the 2014 World Cup. But they only made him calmer, more persistent, more determined and ultimately stronger for the Copa America and World Cup 2022. On the contrary, there are also players who cannot pass the "Nietzsche test": Persistent injuries, a scandal, a few seasons of decline are enough to disappear from the football world. Not everything makes us stronger. Only things that can't kill us...have a chance.
But Nietzsche does not just write for the pitch. He wrote for this life, where everyone has lost matches. A business goes bankrupt, one is fired at the age of 40, and a family crumbles after 10 years, which seems sustainable. Some people after the fall stand up smarter, stronger, and grasp the operation of social life.
Some people... lie there, blaming fate, the market, the times.
Modern society is full of Nietzsche-style examples. A city that has gone through epidemics, natural disasters, and crises without collapse will be restructured more strongly. A generation forced to grow up in instability and insecurity if not overthrown is often more realistic, less dreamy and sometimes more practical and calculating than their father and brother. The price of being stronger is not cheap. It is often a loss, a broken illusion, and can leave sequelae of unhealthy mental scars.
The humorous and also bitter thing is that Nietzsche does not promise that you will be happier. He just spoke more strongly. Be strong to endure more, to understand life better, so as not to fall before a second hit.
And perhaps, that is the reason why this saying is always true, when every time life disappears, we say to ourselves: It has not killed us yet, so... just stand up!
