Who Rules Over Man? Overman?

Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche, who lived from 1844-1900, was a German philosopher, poet and writer. He was the son of Karl Ludwig Nietzsche (1813-1849) a Protestant minister, who died when Friedrich was only four years old. Nietzsche had a Christian upbringing in his home, but despite his Christian upbringing, Nietzsche went down in history as an atheistic man. His thoughts were recorded for us in writing, popular mostly in non-English speaking countries while he was alive... but today Nietzsche’s writings are translated and read in English and in America.  His work has been the influence of artists, novelists, psychologists, sociologists and social revolutionaries everywhere.

Nietzsche is perhaps most famous of all for publicly challenging the foundations of Christianity and the traditional morality that aligns itself with the commandments of God. Nietzsche believed that he had figured this thing call life out.. to a "t." to him nd his faithfu following, the goal of life was to discover self, to listen to self and to be true to your self, NOT God.

The Gay Science (or Die Fröhliche Wissenschaft, 1882) is the famous work of Nietzsche.  It is in this work that he made his most famous proclamation:  "God is Dead!."  ( “God, ” defined as a single, ultimate, judge and authority who, being omniscient, knows the begining from the end and knows and sees everyone’s secrets,)    It was also in this book that he put forth his doctrine of what he called “eternal recurrence,” that is, the idea that everything has already happened for an eternity in the past and that it will continue to happen over and over forever, a concept akin to the eastern religions when a soul incurs karma and is reincarnated time and time again, perhaps until they finally "get it right."  But with Nietzsche, it was not religious, nor karma.... it was to further circumvent submission to this thing known as the Christian God 

Realizing than men had some form of weakness, Nietzsche encouraged his readers to become superior humans who, when they learned his philosophy and created for themselves their own values, (instead of the dead God’s ideas of life and morality here on earth,) would be able to successfully overcome the flaws in humanity, (mainly Christianity, which he believed was the equivalent of evil) and thus they would raise above the mundane. He called this model of the perfect man, which he wrote extensively about, “Overman,” which translated is “Superman.” (a.k.a. Ubermensch)

Believing that mundane things, like Christianity, only serves to hamper human potential, Nietzsche’s Overman is one who trusts in his own intuition, who rejects any kind of values that does not come from within his own mind and heart, and who embraces (wholeheartedly) everything that Christianity isn’t.  The Overman of Nietzsche's imagination is a little different than the Superman of the 1978 American Movie, but then Nietzsche’s superman is not battling for truth and justice, or the American way.

Overman is not compassionate, not affected by human suffering, and he has little or nt tolerance for the weak. He is a strong man of steel, who can overcome any obstacle put before him in a single bound, because, he himself is ... “God.”

In Nietzsche’s pseudo moralistic concepts, lustfulness is not a sin. It is “an invigoration of the human heart,” and power, (otherwise known as the “lust to rule”) is a gift, a virtue. Selfishness is a character trait of quality, as is rebellion for in his dichotomy of, dare I call it, "Faith,"  to be rebellious of authority is how one shows their strength and power.  It would be weakness to conform.  Overman has the power to embrace change and grow, to grow and become whatever he wants to, and the stronger and more powerful one becomes as they become like Nietzsche’s “Overman” the more one can dominate and recreate the mundane world.  Nietzsche’s concepts are nearly an atheist’s dream come true.

The musical entity known to the world as Marilyn Manson was supposedly greatly influenced by the philosophical writings of Nietzsche. Contrary to what you might think, Marilyn Manson is not a female, not a singular person, but a band with a figurehead who is a male with the same female stage name as the name of the band. The group hit the pop charts like a bullet in the 1990’s wearing T shirts that read, "Kill God, Kill Your Mom and Dad, Kill Yourself/"

Some people thought it was supposed to be funny.


Following in the footsteps of Nietzsche who called himself antichrist, MArilym Manson has an album of the same title. Their lyrics are lustful, selfish, and often reek of the glorification of flesh, particularly dead things.  It glorifies death, reeks of both suicide, and acts of violence and the lyrics has that special flare for exhibiting contempt for God. Marilyn Manson, (whose real name is Brian Hugh Warner) even boasts that Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, Anton LaVey, Charles Darwin, and Sigmund Freud are some of the major influences for his “creative” works.

Mistakenly, Manson (a.k.a. Warner, thinks, that he and his friends are freethinkers and they have all the answers.  But the sad truth is that he is in bondage and chains and going nowhere fast. He realizes he is dead, in a dying world and he may not admit it to the rest of the world at least as long as he can make them think he is pretty cool and in control.  He kinda tells it like it is and he is in a rut.  In his Minute of Decay lyrics he says, “I'm on my way down ...I'd like to take you with me." Manson and friends are wallowing in the squalor of humanities depraved mind with no apparent guilt or shame, or a least a consciousness seared to it all.

Nietzsche, (Nietzsche's Thus spoke Zarathustra, pg.3,4,5, Walter Kaufmann translation,) writes, “…I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go. Once the sin against God was the greatest sin; but God died, and these sinners died with him. To sin against the earth is now the most dreadful thing..." 

But through Christ, death is swallowed up in victory and it has no hold on the believer.  Though man dies, he can have the hope of eternal life, in Christ and he doesn;t have to fear being alone to the point that he will take down with him as many as he can. 

Neitche is right, God died, but that is not the whole story.  He died not because he had to but because he loved us.  He gave his life for ours and then, being God he rose again.  Jesus Christ, God and full of power, overcame death and rose to life again.

Jesus is the real God, true God from God and light from light.  It is he who rules and reigns on high, over all the earth.  In his rightful place as God, he has ultimate rule over everything, even over man.