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KATHMANDU, JANUARY 29
'Ubermensch', coined by Friedrich Nietzsche in his book 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', (1883) is a loose translation of 'Superman'. A defiant, competent overman who has natural instincts to fight back even to life's most harrowing bewilderment.
Mind you, this is not a character with great powers and conscientiousness. This is a mere mortal like all of us who despite all odds has the courage to tackle challenges head-on.
Shackled to nihilism of his iconoclastic philosophy, it's an understatement to say that Nietzsche was ahead of his time. Although his books gained notoriety only posthumously, his life-enabling philosophies remained and can be construed as coming of a full circle. His books full of heroism and grandeur hover around existential philosophies. A prophet of the belief 'Selbstüberwindung' or 'self-overcoming', Nietzsche championed the idea of conquering any obstacles in life with utmost willingness.
'Ubermensch' is the epitome of what a human can truly become sans fear, sans inhibitions.
He who can own up to his envy truly has the potential to become his best. Society objectifies envy as a negative trait and is mostly seen as a vice.
Nietzsche perceives envy otherwise, as a prompt to channel our envy into opportunities to reimagine possibilities of our true potential.
Imagine that you are envious of a billionaire. Now, use that envy-inducing lady to see what you can do on your own to become like her. In fact, every person who makes us envious should be seen as an indication of what we could one day become.
Nietzsche advocates the idea of being sober, he opines that drinking alcohol gives us a false sense of assurance that everything is fine in our life, sapping us of the will to change our life for the better. Life is not as simple as seen in fiction. Life throws tantrums at you in the most dramatic fashion when you feel feeble and unprepared.
This is where you get a chance to test your perseverance. When we become sober at the purest form of prudence, our mind functions at an unusual and exciting wavelength.
In reality, it was that weekend after an extremely productive weekday or that dawn after an exasperating long night that made us feel a little bit good about ourselves. It has become much easier these days to get trapped in one of these contrived circuitous pathways to wellness. By doing less, we intend to achieve more, and the longer our actions are validated by friends, family and society at large, the harder it will be for mankind to return to the physical dimensions of evolving or relating with the law of nature at its rarity. Desperate times require desperate measures.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 30, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
