Godlike desires

October of Zarathustra

In their hearts they want one thing most of all: that no one hurt them. Thus do they anticipate every one's wishes and do well to every one. —Zarathustra

I'm Gen X. When Gen X was young, our whole thing was to not really care about anything. Indifference to the world was what made cool. "Cool" was detachment.

The one thing Gen X really cared about, was any show of actually caring. So, for example, a big narrative among Gen X was this idea of selling out. Say a band signed with an indie label but started to get popular, maybe had a hit single that was breaking out of college radio?

If they left the indie label and signed with one of the majors, then they were sell-outs. The band had broken the Gen X code by caring. If they cared about how big they could get, about how much they could tour, about how much money they could make, about someone trying to get their videos on MTV, that marked them as a sell-out.

If they became super big but never seemed to care about it, that was fine.

Caring was verboten, however.

So obviously politics was something Gen X largely eschewed. There's no one in politics who doesn't care. No one in politics is just expressing themselves. To be in politics is to attempt to impose your will on the world.

Which meant that activism was not really a thing for Gen X, not in a widespread way. Doing activism was not popular. It was not cool. There was no Gen X pussyhat moment.

So it's been strange over the last several years to see political affiliation become so widespread and urgent. Making the correct mouth sounds around various issues and, of course, Donald Trump, is the price of entry for most social milieus any more.

I'm sorry, but I can't take it as anything other than fashion. It's no different than skinny jeans and athleisure.

Some of them will, but most of them are only willed. —Zarathustra

Half of the month in review

Here we are at the halfway point in my October of Zarathustra. The halfway point hits right where it's turning cold where I am.

I feel great about this project so far.

• Cons: I spend way too long on this every day.
• Pros: Discipline. Also, I'm following the book much more than I have.

I think I understand Nietzsche's larger provocation. In America, we are so egalitarian that it's pounded into our heads that there was nothing redeeming about royalty or aristocracy. Nietzsche makes a very different argument. I'm not saying I'm convinced by it, but I appreciate being forced to take in the defense.

Most people are worried that humanity is about to become redundant. I don't actually believe that is what's going to happen.

But I do think we are in a disruptive synthesis, in the Hegelian sense, and values will be disrupted and reimagined. It bears remaining flexible about just about everything.

And it wouldn't be surprising if before long it becomes more widely accepted that everyone isn't really the same and that they never really were all the same.

On Involuntary Bliss

Zarathustra realizes that he's at his peak at this point of the story. Or, in his words, the "afternoon of my life." Rising to the height that he has separated him from his friends.

• It's perhaps somewhat appropriate that I made a mistake in my reading plan yesterday, since I'm here at the halfway point. I was meant to read this chapter on day 15, not 16.

Before Sunrise

Zarathustra looks to the heavens and just sings out to higher aspirations. "The world is deep," he says.

On the Virtue that Makes Small

Zarathustra sketches out how he feels about people who have low aspirations, and how they seek to tear down people with greater dreams and higher ideals.

On the Mount of Olives

More loneliness. He also talks somewhat in these chapters about his happiness. Back in 2020 I scrawled a note that I didn't buy it, by the way, and seeing those notes: I still don't buy it.

• He might not have regrets, but he's not happy either.

As I was reading this chapter I started thinking about the discourse around AI. I know that's funny, but the only thing people talk about right now is what the future is going to look like. Everyone is so anxious about what AI might do to the world. In other words, they are taking no agency in that future. Just hoping someone can give them a prophecy and show them the prophecy is correct, which of course no one can do. Even if they prove to be right, we won't know they were right until the future has become the present.

• Which brings me to my thought about this chapter. Zarathustra urges those who would follow him to find their will, and while reading "On the Mount of Olives" it hit me. Enacting one's will puts a person into the present.

One line

"I pass through this people and let fall many words: but they know neither how to take nor how to keep them." —Zarathustra.

• Basically, my Substack. Yeah.

—Brady Dale
October 16, 2026

Next Zarathustra: Padded, rumpless daughters