The Übermensch And The Antichrist

A Philosopher Prophet for the Modern World

Douglas Woodward / Raiders News Update

Friedrich Nietzsche is often proclaimed the single most incisive “philosopher prophet” for the spirit of our times, a world-spirit the German philosophers called, the Zeitgeist . Perhaps in a morbidly poe­tic way, he died in an insane asylum in 1900, just as the new century he envisaged began. He made many bold assertions—the most memorable of which is from his book, Also Sprauch Zara­thustra (1883—Thus Spoke Zoroaster), the would-be epitaph of God, announced through the words of a supposed spiritual recluse, “God is dead.” 

        We may recall the work by the same name, composed in 1896 by Richard Strauss that served as the overture to Stanley Kubrick‘s, 2001: A Space Odyssey , our cultures’ first exposure to the notion that extraterrestrials guided life on Earth (the movie featured the magical black monolith responsible for our growth and development that eventually would advance us to our next phase, when astronaut Dave became the “Star Child” and  returned to earth).

Debate continues today whether Nietzsche’s madness should be blamed on his nihilist perspectives. There is also a considerable debate whether his many iconoclastic statements should be taken literally. We ask, “Is God really dead? Is Christianity really the enemy? Are the Jews really a race we should blame for the ‘devaluation of man’?’ Will a superman emerge as the doorway to our future? Can humans really establish their own values to live by?” [i]

There were many intellectual sources that “German National Socialism” (Nazism ) drew upon as it assembled its diabolical beliefs. Adolf Hitler  often turned Nietzsche’s best sound bites into his own. On the one hand, we could define Nietzsche’s philosophy  as Nietzsche intended; on the other hand, we could discuss how the Nazis promoted it. It’s true that the two views would be distinct. However, the vital question is whether this distinction—what becomes a defense of Nietzsche—is really warranted. No doubt Nietzsche was misquoted and his name misused by the Nazis. Then again, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky  (HPB), on the same grounds, could muster a defense for her Theosophy and its impact on Nazism.

Theosophy  dramatically influenced both Hitler and Himmler . As a result of her “Secret Doctrine ,” each sought occult powers in order to strengthen the Third Reich. But does that mean that HPB should be held accountable for the actions of Hitler and Himmler? Wouldn’t HPB and Nietzsche both abhor Auschwitz ? Consequently, shouldn’t we absolve them of any re­sponsibility?

Regardless of whether Nazism followed the author’s precepts carefully, the final assessment of Nietzsche’s philosophy  (or HPB’s for that matter), is the legacy of his intellectual contribution to society and his lasting impact that make things better or worse. Given this rather obvious basis for rendering a verdict, nonetheless many experts continue to defend these intellectuals, especially Nietzsche. Even in the introduction to the Barnes & Noble edition to The Antichrist , Dennis Sweet  argues that Nietzsche hated “the Church” and not Christianity. The enemy wasn’t the Jewish race, but Jewish religion. The downtrodden shouldn’t be literally eliminated, they just shouldn’t be extolled. God isn’t really dead, just our ideas of God are outdated…and so on.

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