> Übermenschen – machine-men, aerialists and space-bound conquistadors – tantalised philosophers and beguiled fascists
Articles like this seem to take advantage of the misunderstanding of Nietzsche without directly endorsing it. The actual concept of "ubermensch" would have no place in this article.
The term was coined by Nietzsche and referred to a futuristic human who was raised without the influence of religion or superstition and without having interacted with anyone who has such influences. In his view these people would be liberated from what he saw as the oppression of Christianity (and other Abrahamic religions), which he felt encouraged people to accept meekness, suffering and poverty in exchange for a pleasant afterlife. He called Christians "preachers of death" and encouraged people to abandon complacency for a "will to power". It is an appeal to a superior type of person but it is intended to encourage rational cultural development. The term itself has nothing to do with technology or ethnicity.
By now everyone knows that his work was bastardized by the Nazis but many seem to prefer the controversy of the Nazis' version over what he actually wrote. He spoke out in defense of the Jewish people and even stopped doing business with and publicly rebuked a publisher who was an anti-Semite. We have gotten really good at remembering the hateful and forgetting the rational.
Couldn't have described it better. I felt myself vomit a little bit at how deeply the author misunderstands the philosopher he bases his entire pieces title on.
The piece is nothing more than a banal juxtaposition of modern issues (fascism! technology!) to an uncontroversial call to some "spirituality" of an arbitrary sort known only to the author. Oh yeah, and superheros.
I don't think Nietzsche quite fits this context. "Will to power" without meekness, suffering, or poverty seems to fit a supervillain more than a superhero.
Articles like this seem to take advantage of the misunderstanding of Nietzsche without directly endorsing it. The actual concept of "ubermensch" would have no place in this article.
The term was coined by Nietzsche and referred to a futuristic human who was raised without the influence of religion or superstition and without having interacted with anyone who has such influences. In his view these people would be liberated from what he saw as the oppression of Christianity (and other Abrahamic religions), which he felt encouraged people to accept meekness, suffering and poverty in exchange for a pleasant afterlife. He called Christians "preachers of death" and encouraged people to abandon complacency for a "will to power". It is an appeal to a superior type of person but it is intended to encourage rational cultural development. The term itself has nothing to do with technology or ethnicity.
By now everyone knows that his work was bastardized by the Nazis but many seem to prefer the controversy of the Nazis' version over what he actually wrote. He spoke out in defense of the Jewish people and even stopped doing business with and publicly rebuked a publisher who was an anti-Semite. We have gotten really good at remembering the hateful and forgetting the rational.