The concept of the Übermensch, Nietzsche’s moralizing and Identaria
Despite being a great work of literature and philosophy “Thus spoke Zarathustra” has also certain shortcomings. The principal limitations of Zarathustra as an intellectual project are that it is overambitious in terms of objectives and sometimes melodramatic in terms of style. Nevertheless, its originality and radicalism have proven very impactful for various audiences over the years. Of course, there are concepts and ideas in Zarathustra which are either irrelevant or simply of no practical use for the Identaria project. More specifically, the concept of the Übermensch and Nietzsche’s moralizing can hardly be implemented in the Identaria project.
Although being developed as an artistic and spiritual concept the overman (der Übermensch) – along with the will to power – are probably the most politicized of Nietzsche’s innovative concepts. With the support of Nietzsche’s sister, Elizabeth Förster-Nietzsche the concept of the overman has been politically utilized and discredited by the National-Socialist regime in Germany. Although he might not have accepted this political utilization Nietzsche owes, at least to some extent, the publicity of his work to the adoption of some of his ideas in National-Socialist policy-making.
The inspiring ideal which Nietzsche promotes in Zarathustra, undoubtedly, is the concept of the overman who is always described as an individual, a creator in singular terms. A “group of supermen” seems not to fit Nietzsche’s highly individualistic and aristocratic concept. The overman is a high-level abstraction, having mostly spiritual attributes. It is certainly not defined in racial or ethnical terms in “Thus spake Zarathustra”. Zarathustra proclaims the overman in the Prologue in the following way:
“I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome… The overman is the meaning of the earth… he is this sea; in him your great contempt can go under… he is this lightning, he is this frenzy… Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman—a rope over an abyss… Behold, I am a herald of the lightning and a heavy drop from the cloud; but this lightning is called overman… I shall join the creators, the harvesters, the celebrants: I shall show them the rainbow and all the steps to the overman.”
The concept of the overman in “Thus spoke Zarathustra” could be relevant for the Identaria project only inasmuch as we assume that nationalism could have an individualistic form of existence. In Nietzsche’s view the overman will emerge from the lonesome people as specified in the chapter “On the gift-giving virtue”:
“You that are lonely today, you that are withdrawing, you shall one day be the people: out of you, who have chosen yourselves, there shall grow a chosen people—and out of them, the overman.”
This is how Zarathustra describes the overman in the chapter “Upon the blessed isles”:
“The beauty of the overman came to me as a shadow. O my brothers, what are the gods to me now?”
About 140 years after the first publication of the book Nietzsche’s overman is nowhere to be seen, it is still an ideality that is void. Hence, we must dismiss the ideal of the overman as unrealistic, given the human condition, and admit that there is no much practical use in further pursuing this illusion, or “shadow” under the Identaria project. The men and women of identity should have priority for the Identaria project.
Not of much practical use is also Nietzsche’s moralizing which is certainly not his strongest side. This comes to be very evident in the chapter “On the three evils” which is an attempt to establish three quite controversial human aspects as moral values. These are sex (voluptuousness in Common’s translation), lust to rule (passion for power in Common’s translation) and selfishness. The defence of “the three evils” is not always very convincing and it makes sense mostly in the context of Nietzsche’s fight against “the old” Christian values. At the time of the first publication this chapter might have had somewhat scandalous about it but this is long gone. Overall, Nietzsche’s moralizing is of little relevance for the practical goals of the Identaria project.
Nietzsche’s obsession with the Christian God and his abundant blasphemies are also hardly productive. The epic fight against the Christian God and virtues (such as pity) is dated and does not open new avenues for development. Indeed, Zarathustra’s critique of the virtue of pity is well elaborated but sounds dated. Pity and compassion are not common these days. The most original thing about pity in Zarathustra is that it is actually considered to be the main reason for the act of deicide, for “the revenge on the witness” as the ugliest man phrased it. But as we see in the chapter “The ass festival” almost at the end of the book God is very likely not dead, the ugliest man, the very murderer of God has allegedly reawakened him. In this context, Nietzsche’s fight against the Christian God and the old virtues does not hold practical significance for the Identaria project.
Conclusion
“Thus spoke Zarathustra” is a magnificent concept development and experimentation work. Nietzsche develops a number of novel concepts and experiments with them in the text making use of different philosophical and literary techniques. The “spirit” of concept development and experimentation is deeply embedded in Zarathustra. The “ceaseless stylistic experiments” have been highlighted by Kaufmann but there is even more experimentation work in the concepts that Nietzsche develops or destroys. Apart from the topics already discussed there are also two other important leitmotifs in Zarathustra which are very relevant for the Identaria project. First, at the psychological level the role of individual consciousness and the ability for self-overcoming is of great importance for the emergence of real-world identity-keepers under Identaria’s flag. Although it is not a nationalist book Zarathustra makes an important contribution to nationalist thought as it provides a framework for linking individualism and the eternal quest for identity with the collectivist concept of nationalism. Thanks to Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and his radical aristocratic individualism one can be a nationalist even without a nation. In the realm of Zarathustra, where the chosen people will grow from the lonesome people even the lonest can be a warrior of identity.
Secondly, one of the major themes in “Thus spoke Zarathustra”, namely the eternal recurrence (die ewige Wiederkunft) could be implemented in the Identaria geopolitical project but, of course, not in metaphysical terms. The eternal recurrence is discussed in more detail in the chapter “The convalescent” in a conversation between Zarathustra and his animals, the serpent and the eagle:
“Everything goes, everything comes back; eternally rolls the wheel of being… all things recur eternally, and we ourselves too; and that we have already existed an eternal number of times, and all things with us.”
Nietzsche himself, in Ecce Homo, called the eternal recurrence “the basic conception of the work”. The eternal recurrence in the context of the Identaria geopolitical project must be pursued as practical politics seeking to preserve and develop European identity in all its forms. In this context, the Identaria project could be defined as a project on the eternal recurrence of European identity.
Nikolay Pavlov