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Assigned to interview Friedrich, I was at a loss as to how to deal with it. He is famous as a controversial philosopher who declared 'God is Dead', with his views on religions, especially Christianity, very negative, even though his father was a Lutheran minister. His father died when Friedrich was only 4 years old so he did not get to witness his son's 'apostasy'.
To prepare for this interview I forced to read his writings entitled 'Antichrist' which is very demeaning to Christianity and even considers Christian values as poison for his followers. Of course, many readers will feel insulted by these provocative remarks and cannot accept their blasphemy. But by stroking my chest I finally decided to meet Friedrich in his hometown of Röcken, in Germany.
That day Friedrich received my visit in the living room of his house, he looked weak, his neck was wrapped in a thick scarf. It seemed the cold February air had turned him pale. He was not as fierce as his writing, only his thick mustache made him look like a member of the military force. His body was hunched, his legs were slightly bent, and his hands looked like dumplings.
I then opened the conversation:
“Herr Friedrich, straight away, in the book The Joyful Wisdom you wrote about the Madman proclaiming that “God is Dead”. How did this happen?”
Friedrich, repeating the Madman's words in the book ‘The Joyful Wisdom’:
"Where is God gone?" he called out. "I mean to tell you! We have killed him,—you and I! We are all his murderers! But how have we done it? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole horizon? What did we do when we loosened this earth from its sun? Whither does it now move? Whither do we move? Away from all suns? Do we not dash on unceasingly? Backwards, sideways, forwards, in all directions? Is there still an above and below? Do we not stray, as through infinite nothingness? Does not empty space breathe upon us? Has it not become colder? Does not night come on continually, darker and darker? Shall we not have to light lanterns in the morning? Do we not hear the noise of the grave-diggers who are burying God? Do we not smell the divine putrefaction?—for even Gods putrefy! God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed, has bled to death under our knife,—who will wipe the blood from us? With what water could we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games shall we have to devise? Is not the magnitude of this deed too great for us?
I said:
"Then if God is Dead, who will replace
him?"
Friedrich, as he said in ‘The Joyful
Wisdom’
God is dead: but as the human race is
constituted, there will perhaps be caves for millenniums yet, in which people
will show his shadow,—And we—we have still to overcome his shadow!
Let us be on our guard against saying that
there are laws in nature. There are only necessities: there is no one who
commands, no one who obeys, no one who transgresses. When you know that there
is no design, you know also that there is no chance: for it is only where there
is a world of design that the word ‘chance’ has a meaning.”
I said:
“Besides the Madman proclaiming God is Dead
in that book, there is also the Zarathustra who says: 'Once you said 'God' when
you gazed upon distant seas; but now I have taught you to say 'Superman'. Who
is Superman?”
Friedrich, quoting ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’:
"I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN. Man is something
that is to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass man?
All beings hitherto have created something
beyond themselves: and ye want to be the ebb of that great tide, and would
rather go back to the beast than surpass man?
What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock, a
thing of shame. And just the same shall man be to the Superman: a
laughing-stock, a thing of shame.
Ye have made your way from the worm to man,
and much within you is still worm. Once were ye apes, and even yet man is more
of an ape than any of the apes.
Even the wisest among you is only a
disharmony and hybrid of plant and phantom. But do I bid you become phantoms or
plants?
Lo, I teach you the Superman!
I said:
“Referring to 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', I
grasped the call for man to become Superman by realizing that there is no
objective truth and no objective morality—that God and goodness are all
man-made. Thus man will go beyond the commonly accepted and discover his own
values, and these discovered values will arise from his own essential desire
for power. Is that not so?"
Friedrich, again quoting ‘Thus Spoke
Zarathustra’ randomly:
The beauty of the Superman came unto me as
a shadow. Ah, my brethren! Of what account now are—the Gods to me!
Man is a rope stretched between the animal
and the Superman—a rope over an abyss.
A dangerous crossing, a dangerous
wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting.
What is great in man is that he is a bridge
and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an OVER-GOING and a
DOWN-GOING.
I love those that know not how to live
except as down-goers, for they are the over-goers.
I love those who do not first seek a reason
beyond the stars for going down and being sacrifices, but sacrifice themselves to
the earth, that the earth of the Superman may hereafter arrive.
I love him who justifieth the future ones,
and redeemeth the past ones: for he is willing to succumb through the present
ones.
I love him who is of a free spirit and a
free heart: thus is his head only the bowels of his heart; his heart, however,
causeth his down-going.
I love all who are like heavy drops falling
one by one out of the dark cloud that lowereth over man: they herald the coming
of the lightning, and succumb as heralds.
Lo, I am a herald of the lightning, and a
heavy drop out of the cloud: the lightning, however, is the SUPERMAN.
I said:
“The tight-rope walker’s performance is dangerous as he must traverse a rope suspended over a deep chasm. So too, in bringing about the Superman, man must live dangerously. He must assume great risks and never remain stagnant, but despite the dangers always live for the sake of self-transformation. As Zarathustra explains, those who live in this manner are the individuals destined to be the harbingers of the Superman. But who is Superman?”
Friedrich, as he said in ‘Joyful Wisdom’:
“People have never asked me as they should
have done, what the name of Zarathustra precisely meant in my mouth, in the
mouth of the first immoralist; for that which distinguishes this Persian from
all others in the past is the very fact that he was the exact reverse of an
immoralist. Zarathustra was the first to see in the struggle between good and
evil the essential wheel in the working of things. The translation of morality
into the realm of metaphysics, as force, cause, end-in-itself, is his work. But
the very question suggests its own answer. Zarathustra created this most
portentous of all errors,—morality; therefore he must be the first to expose
it. Not only because he has had longer and greater experience of the subject
than any other thinker,—all history is indeed the experimental refutation of
the theory of the so-called moral order of things,—but because of the more
important fact that Zarathustra was the most truthful of thinkers. In his
teaching alone is truthfulness upheld as the highest virtue—that is to say, as
the reverse of the cowardice of the ‘idealist’ who takes to his heels at the
sight of reality. Zarathustra has more pluck in his body than all other
thinkers put together. To tell the truth and to aim straight: that is the first
Persian virtue. Have I made myself clear? ... The overcoming of morality by
itself, through truthfulness, the moralist's overcoming of himself in his
opposite—in me—that is what the name Zarathustra means in my mouth.”
I said:
“Oh, so you mean the Zarathustra, who in
Greek is called Zoroaster, the founding prophet of Zoroastrianism in ancient
Persia over 1000 BC. Some researchers suggest that Zarathustra may have been the
first monotheistic prophet in recorded history. He eliminated all the ancient
gods from the Persian pantheon, leaving only Ahura Mazdah, the 'Wise God', as
the Only True God. This was, at a time when Zarathustra instituted religious
reforms that were broader in scope and more radical than Martin Luther's
challenge to the Roman Catholic Church.
Then Zarathustra established the concept of
morality which can be summed up with the words 'good thoughts, good words, good
deeds.' Living these three principles is how we exercise our free will by
following the law of Asha. The three ethics of Zoroastrianism also pass down
concepts such as the cosmic struggle between right and wrong, between
Asha—Truth and Virtue and Druj—Lie, Evil, and Chaos.”
Friedrich:
“As Zarathustra spoke: ‘ Let us speak thereof, ye wisest ones, even though it be bad.
To be silent is worse; all suppressed truths become poisonous.”
I said:
“Zarathustra urges to discard God and
instead create a new meaning of the earth; one that embraces the personal
desire for self-actualization and self-affirmation, and promotes the
development of a strong body in which natural instincts are seen as a source of
energy to be channeled and sublimated in order to overcome oneself. This new
meaning, Zarathustra announced to be Superman.
Friedrich
then quoted his book the Antichrist:
“Under Christianity neither morality nor
religion has any point of contact with actuality. This purely fictitious world,
greatly to its disadvantage, is to be differentiated from the world of dreams;
the latter at least reflects reality, whereas the former falsifies it, cheapens
it and denies it. Once the concept of ‘nature’ had been opposed to the concept
of ‘God,’ the word ‘natural’ necessarily took on the meaning of ‘abominable’—the
whole of that fictitious world has its sources in hatred of the natural (—the
real!—), and is no more than evidence of a profound uneasiness in the presence
of reality.... This explains everything. Who alone has any reason for living
his way out of reality? The man who suffers under it. But to suffer from
reality one must be a botched reality.... The preponderance of pains over
pleasures is the cause of this fictitious morality and religion: but such a
preponderance also supplies the formula for décadence....”
I said:
“But mankind's rejection of God has existed
since the first humans, Adam and Eve. They chose to freely disobey God's
commandments by eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. According to Christian belief, by his transgression Adam became
an earthly being, a 'natural man' with a 'carnal mind'. You in 'The Antichrist'
advise mankind to repeat Adam's attitude of rejecting God as in the
beginning."
Friedrich quoting ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’:
“At last, after seven days, Zarathustra
raised himself upon his couch, took a rosy apple in his hand, smelt it and
found its smell pleasant. Then did his animals think the time had come to speak
unto him.
‘O Zarathustra,’ said they, ‘now hast thou
lain thus for seven days with heavy eyes: wilt thou not set thyself again upon
thy feet?
Step out of thy cave: the world waiteth for
thee as a garden. The wind playeth with heavy fragrance which seeketh for thee;
and all brooks would like to run after thee.
All things long for thee, since thou hast
remained alone for seven days—step forth out of thy cave! All things want to be
thy physicians!
Did perhaps a new knowledge come to thee, a
bitter, grievous knowledge? Like leavened dough layest thou, thy soul arose and
swelled beyond all its bounds.—'
—O mine animals, answered Zarathustra, talk
on thus and let me listen! It refresheth me so to hear your talk: where there
is talk, there is the world as a garden unto me.
For me—how could there be an outside-of-me? There is no outside! But this we forget on hearing tones; how delightful it is that we forget!
Have not names and tones been given unto
things that man may refresh himself with them? It is a beautiful folly,
speaking; therewith danceth man over everything.
How lovely is all speech and all falsehoods
of tones! With tones danceth our love on variegated rainbows.—
—'O Zarathustra,’ said then his animals, ‘to
those who think like us, things all dance themselves: they come and hold out
the hand and laugh and flee—and return.
Everything goeth, everything returneth;
eternally rolleth the wheel of existence. Everything dieth, everything
blossometh forth again; eternally runneth on the year of existence.
For thine animals know it well, O
Zarathustra, who thou art and must become: behold, THOU ART THE TEACHER OF THE
ETERNAL RETURN,—that is now THY fate!”
I said:
"Herr Friedrich, in closing, how do
you want the world to remember you?"
Friedrich:
“As I said in Ecce Homo:’ I am, for
instance, in no wise a bogey man, or moral monster. On the contrary, I am the
very opposite in nature to the kind of man that has been honoured hitherto as
virtuous. Between ourselves, it seems to me that this is precisely a matter on
which I may feel proud. I am a disciple of the philosopher Dionysus, and I
would prefer to be even a satyr than a saint. But just read this book! Maybe I
have here succeeded in expressing this contrast in a cheerful and at the same
time sympathetic manner—maybe this is the only purpose of the present work.
The very last thing I should promise to accomplish would be to ‘improve’ mankind. I do not set up any new idols; may old idols only learn what it costs to have legs of clay. To overthrow idols (idols is the name I give to all ideals) is much more like my business. In proportion as an ideal world has been falsely assumed, reality has been robbed of its value, its meaning, and its truthfulness.... The ‘true world’ and the ‘apparent world’—in plain English, the fictitious world and reality.... Hitherto the lie of the ideal has been the curse of reality; by means of it the very source of mankind's instincts has become mendacious and false; so much so that those values have come to be worshipped which are the exact opposite of the ones which would ensure man's prosperity, his future, and his great right to a future.”
THE END
This is an imaginary interview in memory of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Sources:
https://academyofideas.com/2017/10/nietzsche-and-zarathustra-last-man-superman/
https://encyclopedia.summitlighthouse.org/index.php/Zarathustra
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