Today I figured instead of making fun of something, I’d try to actually do something constructive and educational. That way, if (or, lets face it, when) you get caught with my blog open in one tab and violent porn in another, you can now at least pretend one of those is a constructive use of your time. So I’m going to use today’s posts to break down one of the greatest thinkers to ever grace mankind. No, not Dr Dre, I’ll get to him later; I’m talking about Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche was a philosopher, author, poet, and bitchin’ mustache owner. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of all time and has contributed a lot to nihilism, existentialism, and postmodernism. What I am going to do here is summarize these ideas for context, paraphrase his philosophies, explain a couple of his famous quotes, clear up a huge misconception about him, and, if you ask nice enough, maybe even throw in a couple jokes along the way.
Nihilism is the idea that there is no objective morality and all values we hold are abstract; in other words, because everything is relative there is no absolute truth. Existentialism is the idea that we have to focus on our own existence, the human experience. When you put these two together (as many people do), woah, hold on to your sides!
Postmodernism is somewhat similar, a movement born as a reaction to the modernist ideas of objectivity and progress associated with the Enlightenment. It advocates ideas like there being no objective truth, no shared meanings, reality being a social construct, unchecked science being dangerous; basically, a world view of doubt and subjectivity. It has influenced the social sciences, natural sciences, arts, humanities, and so many other fields that even Monsanto executives are jealous (though they are able to get over it quickly by engaging in their daily ritual of drinking the blood of the innocent).
Sometimes these world views can be dangerous. They can lead to inaction against horrors like human rights abuses or someone saying that M Night Shyamalan is a talented film writer. However, this is where Nietzsche comes in. His concept of the Ubermensch, sometimes called the Superman by English speakers, deals with this. But before we can tackle the idea of the Ubermensch, we need to go through some of his other ideas first. Like a movie from the 80s, we won’t do this through hours of intense focus and work, but instead a quick montage.
First we will start with Nietzsche’s idea of morality. He held an existential nihilist view that there is no objective morality or meaning, therefore opposing morality as something completely abstract and not based in reality. He especially hated the concept of good and evil.
Some background: good and bad started out as reflecting quality or talent (like being good at Olympic sports such as teleportation or thunder boning). Elites were considered good, while peasants were considered bad. However, with the advent of Christianity and other religions like it, morality was created and traits of the peasants, such as meekness, were given the label of “good” and traits of the rulers, like pride, were give the label of “bad.”
Nietzsche hated this system of morality because it promoted enduring oppression and abstract limitations, which he was against. He was the one who came up with the concept of “will to power,” which is the idea that everyone is striving to get as much power in life so that they can become masters of their own destinies. He saw this as the main force behind existence, and thought morality got in the way.
Speaking of religion and convenient transitions, he is also famous for the quote “God is dead.” Many often misinterpret this as an anti-religious quote, which is not only false but also pretty funny, as there are plenty of quotes you could choose of his that actually are anti-religious. It’d be like calling Mel Gibson crazy based solely on his role in Mad Max or Lethal Weapon.
The idea that God is dead simply came from his time period, where logical positivism advocated certainty and the idea that science could solve most of our problems. Nietzsche believed that people were beginning to turn from God to science for answers. He opposed logical positivism because of its claims to certainty and believed that unchecked science could lead to terrible things in the name of progress. You can still see this questioning of logical positivism alive and well in today’s society when we decide not to trust the scientific community’s explanation of how fuckin’ magnets work.
With all this in mind, lets look back at the Ubermensch/Superman, here to save us from the angst and uncertainty born out of existential nihilism instead of a lame assortment of super villains (seriously, Lex Luthor as your arch nemesis? No wonder your parents sent you to a different planet, bro). It is important to note that the idea of the Ubermensch is a goal for people to strive for and attain, rather than any sort of inherited trait.
The Ubermensch accepts the outlook of existential nihilism. However, instead of giving into despair and angst like a punk ass bitch, the Ubermensch is to overcome the total lack of values and build new ones. These are based completely on “this-worldliness,” the idea that we have to focus on our existence in this world. All values would be based purely on life in the here and now. The goal is to have a set of values that are free of the abstract and promote life, rather than limit it.
During World War 2, Hitler and his other fascist bffs used Nietzsche to justify the Holocaust and promote their vision of the “perfect Aryan” as the Ubermensch. However, his work was misinterpreted so hard even Karl Marx would feel bad for the guy. The main reason this happened was because his sister, who was an anti-Semite and pro-Nazi, perverted his ideas after he died in August of 1900. She compiled the Will to Power, which was a collection of many of his unpublished notes that were edited and revised to better reflect his sister’s own shitty ideas. The world wouldn’t again see an exploitation of a dead genius by someone close to him this severe until P Diddy with Biggie Smalls.
If Nietzsche saw what the Nazis did with these ideas, he would have slapped them with such hatred and authority that they would have paradoxically admired him more. Nietzsche not only disliked anti-Semitism (he broke off several relationships with people throughout his life for their anti-Semitism), but he also disliked nationalism and Germany (or at the time, the German Confederation of States). In fact, he vehemently claimed that he was Polish, rather than German, throughout most of his life (it’s a good thing the Nazis held onto this respect for the Polish people too, eh?). Calling Nietzsche a fan of the Nazis is like calling Nelson Mandela a fan of apartheid.
So there ya have it. This was just a brief, simplified explanation of some of the ideas he put out. I guess this is where you would expect me to end on something witty and profound, right? Haha, good luck with that.
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