My Friend, Zarathusra

Instilled in this essay are the lessons I’ve learned from Nietzsche’s work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Domestication

"Woe unto the one who loves not his work! He passes his days without joy, and nights without rest."

—Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Society governs man, man does not govern himself. Expectations from outside sources stifle internal ambitions and desires for greatness. We are told that only a small percentage of people can achieve greatness. People dissuade you, speaking of the cost of greatness.

Those that speak are the voice of the Last man. When progress comes to a halt. When humanity clings to one another for warmth and comfort. When humanity chases simple pleasures and hedonism instead of chasing their dreams. When men give up their ambitions and decide to live in nihilism, waiting for death to save them. When conformity rules. When society decides that it is better to fit in instead of stand out, you will know the Last man.

In the age of the last man, there is but one hope.

Become a radical individual.

Through your individuation you will create your own values and you will overcome yourself. This is the path. Man is meant to overcome himself. To become his own master. Master of mind, body, and spirit. 

The Overman

"I teach you the Overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?"

—Thus Spoke Zarathustra

When you strip your illusions away what is left? When you take the voice of the herd away, what remains? What is left is your individuality, hiding in the darkness. This darkness shrouds your innermost drives for greatness. To transcend and overcome the last man, you must walk into the darkness. Only through the darkness will you find the light -- Your creativity and joy that were stifled during domestication. 

You must use your light as your weapon of self-transcendence, to become the Overman, a new type of human being. One that destroys the burdens society has placed on them and creates their own values. One that awakens to their destiny of self-transcendence. Overcoming weakness, fear, and stagnation to maximize their potential.

The Overman is not given to you. It is a process of becoming, of overcoming, of actualizing. Through rigorous suffering and self-mastery. We are told to avoid suffering. No. To suffer is to realize greatness. Only those that suffer can feel true happiness. Crossing the finish line of a mentally challenging race. Finally submitting that draft you’ve been working on. Overcoming a mental weakness you’ve let run you for years. Dropping your victim mentality in place of one that makes you stronger. This kind of suffering breeds strength and mastery.

Self-mastery is not in service of yourself, it is in service of the world. Through self-mastery you make the world a better place. Zarathustra came down from the mountain to give his wisdom to the world, though, most of them were not ready to hear it. They laughed at him, mocked him, even told him they would kill him if he did not leave…. So why did he come down from the mountain? Because he loves man. He loves humanity, and he decided to spread his teachings. He left that town, then moved to the next one to find people that would listen.

Understand, to take the path of self-transcendence is to take a path few will. The weak cling to resentment, excuses, and victimhood—the Overman destroys these within himself.

The Cost of Freedom

"You call yourself free? I would hear of your master thought, not that you have escaped from a yoke."

—Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Freedom isn’t free, it comes at a cost. It doesn’t lie in the material realm. It lies in spiritual realm of deliberate, painful, debilitating effort. To be truly free is to return to your primacy, your individuality. To be free is to forsake the security of conformity. To be free is to stand out rather than fit in.

The free man does not rely on the expectations of society to govern his will. The free man radicalizes his individuality with the purpose of self-overcoming and mastery. The free man does not seek validation from the herd or from those who could never understand his path.

The way forward is through separating from the herd. To separate is to silence the voices that demand conformity. To separate is to withdraw from the echo chamber of mediocrity. To separate is become an individual, self-reliant, self-determined, and self-transcendent.

You walk this path alone. You will be shunned, mocked, ridiculed, alienated. This is to be expected. The weak will always hate the strong. When they look at you, they will see their own weaknesses reflected back at them. They will see you transcend your limits, and because they are too weak to do the same, they will hate you for it. Good. Their despising is a sign that you are going the right way. 

Know this: along the way, there will be others like you. Others who want to create their own destiny. These are your allies. They will see you and will follow you. Through self-overcoming you are not only self-led, you become a leader of men. You are the Lightbringer to guide them through their darkness.  

So, I ask you: what would you rather have?

Security Or Freedom? Owning your own Destiny or living someone else’s will?

Burn It All

"One must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star."

—Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Destruction is a necessary step in self-overcoming. Only after destruction, can you begin creation. You must burn things that have held you back, the limiting beliefs society has foisted upon you, your own weaknesses. Your victimhood, your resentment, your inaction. You must destroy these things within yourself.

Destroy your old values. Burn everything. Every voice of the other. The voice that says you must do this or that because it’s what society expects from you. The voice that pleads with you to follow the well-worn path, the safe path. The voices that tell you that greatness is for the few, not the many. These voices lie. They are not your voice. Your instincts know the truth. It isn’t logical, its animalistic. Something primal. A primacy that the herd despises and fears.

From the ashes you become the architect of your own existence. The self-transcendent does not wander through the ruins of the past; he builds atop them. He constructs his own moral framework, his own meaning, his own path. To create is to bring forth something that did not exist before—to manifest your inner vision into reality. Every philosopher, artist, warrior, and visionary was first a destroyer. But then they became creators of their reality.

Real morality, real value, real greatness comes not from following the herd but from forging your own path, following your own voice and creating your own reality. Your own virtues, your own goals, your own mountains to climb and demons to conquer.

So, I dare you to create your own virtues, your own values. In doing so you achieve something 99% of people will never do.

To Love the World

"The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly."

—Thus Spoke Zarathustra

You walk this path, and you will be resented. But you must be careful not to give resentment back. You are the tree on top of the mountain. The tree does not get angry at the birds that perch upon it. Nor does it anger at the animals that use it for shelter. It simply exists as it is. You must follow suit. Do not resent the resentful. Love them, for true strength lies in love and building others, not dominating them.

Love, in its highest form, is not need, nor is it submission. The self-transcendent does not love out of weakness or dependence, they love out of abundance. For the strong, love is not transactional, it is a creation. The weak love out of necessity, out of a place of lack. The strong do not seek to dominate others, but to build them up. The strong do not seek validation—they are validation. They do not beg for recognition; they illuminate the path for those who dare to follow.

To love the world is to will its transformation, to give it the fire of self-overcoming. This love is not passive; it is active, burning, and generative.

The process of self-transcendence is brutal, unforgiving, hellish. But it is also beautiful. It is a feeling and a joy and a conquest that very few have realized and fewer will realize in the future. The joy of returning to your creative origins. The joy of destroying the systems that have held you down, and creating new ones that will build you and the world up.

Through destruction, you mantle the role of the creator. To create is to fulfill life’s purpose. Why else are we here? There is no logic or survival mechanisms behind art, music, poetry, etc. These things exist because people listened to their inner voice. The voice that told them to channel their creativity and manifest it into the real world. The voice that told them to reject voices that didn’t serve them, and to listen to the ones that did.

You must decide. What will you choose? Will you choose to be among the few, or the many? Will you choose to be free, or will you allow yourself to be ruled by others? Will you join the last men, or will you transcend and become your own?