Some Implications of the Origin of the WALTER SCOTT MCNUTT, PH.D., FLORIDA STATE COLLEGE FOR T SHE popular conception of Nietzsche's Superman has been derived from the history of the German army devastating Belgium. But this is not the Superman that Nietzsche's philosophy justifies. It is the object of this paper to set forth the plain facts about the Superman in Nietzsche's philosophy, as a basis for the modern Nordic tendency. There is no better way to do this than to go to the philosopher's own statements and let him tell us just what he means. "A new light hath dawned upon me. Not to the people is Zarathustra to speak, but to companions!" He shall not be the herd's leader; his office shall be to draw many from the herd. The herd must be angry with him; a robber shall he be called by the herdsmen. "Herdsmen, I say, but they call themselves the good and just. Herdsmen, I say, but they call themselves the believers in the orthodox belief." "Behold the good and just. Whom do they hate most? Him who breaketh up their tables of values, the law-breakerhe, however, is the creator."2 "Behold the believers of all beliefs! Whom do they hate most? Him who breaketh up their tables of values, the lawbreaker-he, however, is the creator." "Companions, the creator seeketh, not corpses-and not herds or believers either. Fellow-creatures the creator seeketh-those who give new values on new tables." 1 Zara., p. 19. 2 Zara., p. 19. 3 Zara., p. 20. The above passages give us an insight into the characteristics of the Superman. He is not to be a herdsman, a leader of the masses, nor is he to discourse unto the people; but rather with the creators, the reapers, and the rejoicers is he to associate. It is to the creators that he is to show all of the stairs to the Superman. To the lone dwellers is he to sing his song, unto those who have ears for the unheard will he make the heart heavy with his happiness. He makes for his goal, he follows his course, he leaps over the loitering and tardy will. His on-going is the down-going of the orthodox believers. He seeks solitude because the people, the masses, do not understand what is great-that is to say, the creating agency. They have a taste for all representers and actors of great things, not an appreciation of the creator of new values. "Where solitude endeth, there beginneth the market-place; and where the market-place beginneth, there beginneth also the noise of the great actors, and the buzzing of the poisonflies." "Around the devisers of new values revolveth the worldinvisibly it revolveth. But around the actors revolve the people and the glory: such is the course of things." For the actor, "To upset that meaneth with him to prove. To drive mad-that meaneth with him to convince. And blood is counted by him as the best of all arguments." Hence, war of the masses and not of the Superman. "Spirit, hath the actor, but little conscience of the spirit. He believeth always in that wherewith he maketh believe most strongly-in himself! Tomorrow he hath a new belief, and the day after, one still newer. Sharp perceptions hath he, like the people, and changeable humours. Full of clattering buffoons is the marketplace and the people glory in their great men! These are for them the masters of the hour."a 4 Zara., p. 57. 5 Zara., p. 58. 6 Zara., p. 58. 6a Zara., p. 58. It is only away from the market-place and from fame that taketh place all that is great. Away from the market-place and from fame have ever dwelt the creators of new values. The Superman must flee into solitude. He must not live too closely to the small and the pitiable. He must flee from their invisible vengeance; since toward him they have nothing save vengeance. Superman, "Exhausted I see thee, by poisonous flies; bleeding I see thee, and torn at a hundred spots; and thy pride will not even upbraid. Blood they would have from thee in all innocence; blood their bloodless souls crave for, and they sting, therefore, in all innocence. Too proud art thou (Superman) to kill these sweet-tooths. But take care lest it be thy fate to suffer all their poisonous injustice." "The beauty of the Superman came unto me as a shadow." "Ye lonesome ones of today, ye seceding ones, ye shall one day be a people: and of you who have chosen yourselves, shall a chosen people arise:—and out of it the Superman." "Greater ones, verily, have there been, and higher born ones, than those whom the people call Saviours, those rapturous blusterers! And by still greater ones than any of the saviours, must we be saved, my brethren, if ye would find the way to freedom! Never yet hath there been a Superman. Naked have I seen both of them, the greatest man and the smallest man!—all too similar are they still to each other. Verily, even the greatest found I all-too-human!" We (the Superman) must build our nest on the trees of the future; eagles must bring the lone ones food in their beaks. Not the food of which the impure could be fellow-partakers; a food that would be fire to them must we eat. To No abodes of the Superman shall be ready for the impure. For such an abode would be an ice-cave to their bodies. them our happiness would be torment. "As strong winds will we live above them, neighbors to the eagles, neighbors to the 7 Zara., p. 59. 8 Zara., p. 89. 9 Zara., p. 108. snow, neighbors to the sun, thus live the strong winds. And like a wind will I one day blow against them, and with my spirit, take the breath from their spirit: thus willeth my future."10 "And verily, ye good and just! In you there is much to be laughed at, and especially your fear of what hath hitherto been called 'the devil'! So alien are ye in your souls to what is great, that to you the Superman would be frightful in his goodness! Ye highest men who have come within my ken! This is my doubt of you, and my secret laughter: I suspect ye would call my Superman-a devil!" From those highest and best ones of the orthodox belief the Superman wishes to soar above. Above their height does he long to be up, out, and on to the Superman. The wise and knowing ones (the orthodox) would flee from the solar glow of the wisdom in which the Superman joyfully baketh his nakedness. "When I came unto men for the first time, then did I commit the anchorite folly, the great folly: I appeared on the market-place. And when I spoke unto all, I spoke unto none. "With the new morning, however, there came unto me a new truth: then did I learn to say: Of what account to me are market-place and populace and populace-noise and long-populacecars?"12 "Ye higher men, learn this from me: On the market-place no one believeth in higher men. But if ye will speak there, very well! The populace, however, blinketh: 'We are all equal; man is man before God-we are all equal." "18 "Before God!-Now, however, this God hath died. Before the populace, however, we will not be equal. Ye higher men, away from the market-place! Before God!-now, however, this God hath died! Ye high men, this God was your greatest danger. Only since he lay in the grave have ye again arisen. Now only cometh the great noontide, now only doth 10 Zara. 11 Zara., p. 174. 12 Zara., p. 350. 13 Zara., p. 350. the higher man become-master! Well, take heart! ye higher men! now only traveleth the mountain of the human future. God hath died: now do we desire the Superman to live.”1 "Have ye courage, O my brethren? Are ye stout-hearted? Not the courage before witnesses, but anchorite and eagle courage, which not even a God any longer beholdeth?"15 "Towards the few, the long, the remote go forth my soul and my seeking: of what account to me are your many little short miseries?"16 Summarily, the Superman is made away from the masses of humanity, his abode is on the heights where superiority dwells. His dwelling-place is a place prepared for the prepared. The populace cannot understand him because he transcends their short-sightedness. He is a creator of new values, an image breaker, a builder who always lives in the future to the common man. This loneliness calls for a creation of new values, the transcending values for the Superman. And in order to attain unto these new values one must cast off the values set by the masses-the Christian values; the belief in the God of the Christians. This is absolutely essential before the Superman can appear. But when the orthodox views are cast off and new values set for the superior man, at that moment the Superman begins to emerge and write new values on new tables-the values for the Superman. As to "Equal rights for all!-this is the most extraordinary form of injustice, for with it the highest men do not get their due."17 There must be a new form of estimating man. We must answer the questions: (1) How much power has he got; (2) how manifold are his instincts; (3) how great is his capacity for communication and assimilation? "It is by the loftiest and strongest instincts, when they break out passionately and carry the individual far above and beyond the average, and the low level of the gregarious con 14 Zara., p. 351. 15 Zara., p. 353. 16 Zara., p. 354. 17 The Twilight of the Idols, p. 266. ✓ |