God is Dead

'Suppose, finally, we succeeded in explaining our entire instinctive life as the development and ramification of one basic form of the will--namely, of the will to power, as my proposition has it... then one would have gained the right to determine all efficient force univocally as--will to power. The world viewed from inside... it would be 'will to power' and nothing else.'

'I teach you the Übermensch - Superman.'

'Once the sin against God was the greatest sin; but God died'

Yes, and according to that dreadful old joke, so did Nietzsche.

In fact he died 100 years ago, on the 25th August 1900. Somewhat belatedly, Shebang commemorates him

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche 1844 - 1900
Nietsche's writings ranged over a variety of themes, but it is possible to pick out from among them at least three major ideas:

GOD IS DEAD.
God doesn't exist.
And since God doesn't exist,Christianity is just a ploy to keep power in the hands of the majority who resent the few who are more suited to rule.

THE WILL TO POWER
People are driven only by the desire to obtain power.
Despite all the talk about morals, morals don't exist and we shouldn't pretend they do.
Morals are just a facade to cover up people's real motivation: the desire to control other people and prevent other people from controlling them.
All attempts to construct societies without realizing the centrality of this will to power are doomed.

THE ÜBERMENSCH. SUPERMAN
People stop short of their potential by
....................... needing to be comfortable
........................feeling sorry for themselves.
Democracy is a bad thing: it gives power to those who had proved themselves unfit to govern.
Man should become Superman by overcoming his fears, comforts and petty concerns.

Nietsche has been said to have inspired the Nazi regime.
But he was also an inspiration upon thinkers as diverse as Freud and Sartre, as well as leading figures in all walks of cultural life, including dancers, poets, novelists, painters, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and social revolutionaries.

He was also not capable of the cruelty he preached, even though he challenged the foundations of traditional morality and Christianity.
He believed in life,
............... creativity,
................ health,
................ and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond.

Central to Nietzsche's philosophy is the idea of 'life-affirmation,' which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines which drain life's energies, however socially prevalent those views might be.
Nietasche has been called one of the first 'existentialist' philosophers

On the morning of January 3, 1889, while in Turin, Nietzsche experienced a mental breakdown which left him an invalid for the rest
of his life. From 1889 until he died in 1900, he wrote nothing.

Upon witnessing a horse being whipped by a coachman at the Piazza Carlo Alberto, Nietzsche threw his arms around the horse's neck and collapsed, never to return to full sanity.

..........some argue that Nietzsche was afflicted with a syphilitic infection (this was the original diagnosis of the doctors in Basel and Jena) contracted either while he was a student or while he was serving as a hospital attendant during the Franco-Prussian War; some claim that Nietzsche's use of chloral hydrate, a drug which he had been using as a sedative, deteriorated his already-weakened nervous system;
..........some speculate that Nietzsche's collapse was due to a brain disease he inherited from his father;
..........some maintain that a mental illness gradually drove him insane.
..........some maintain that he was disgusted with himself for feeling pity...

Nietzsche's thought extended a deep influence during the 20th century, especially in Europe; less so in English-speaking countries

1890-1910
Loved by avant-garde artists
Being on the edges of things, and in the margins of established society and culture, they found his work made sense.
Nietzsche's ability to get down and dirty, to challenge accepted values and to appreciate animal instincts were crucial influences upon Sigmund Freud and the development of psychoanalysis.

1930's
Nietzsche's ideas were taken up and promoted by the Nazis and Italian Fascists.
Nietzsche's siste, Elisabeth Fˆrster-Nietzsche, sought out and cultivated Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Nazi interpreters gathered together, with some selectivity, passages from Nietzsche's writings which seemed to justify war, aggression and domination for the sake of national and racial glory.

1960's
By the 1960's in France, Nietzsche had already for some time been popular with writers and artists.
He became especially influential in French philosophical circles during the 1960's-1980's.
His declaration that 'God is dead' led people to wonder about our times. If God is dead then everything is possible.
His persepctive,and his emphasis upon the will to power revealed new ways to challenge established authority and to launch effective social criticisms

Nietzsche may genuinely ne said to have influenced: Alfred Adler, Georges Bataille, Martin Buber, Albert Camus, E.M. Cioran, Jacques Derrida, Isadora Duncan, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Stefan George, André Gide, Hermann Hesse, Carl Jung, Martin Heidegger, Gustav Mahler, André Malraux, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Max Scheler, Giovanni Segantini, George Bernard Shaw, Lev Shestov, Georg Simmel, Oswald Spengler, Paul Tillich, Ferdinand Tˆnnies, Mary Wigman, William Butler Yeats and Stefan Zweig.