Sleeping swords: October of Zarathustra
October of Zarathustra
Zarathustra really hits his stride in the second part of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, when he returns to the world with more to give his followers.
I found this part so prescient. Look, I don't want people to suffer in the world, either. It would be great if life didn't end up being so hard on so many people and leave them with so little dignity, but it also feels like the present discourse about the people who are the worst off is wildly out of balance. And, crucially, very little that anyone seems to do for those they pity really seems to do much good.
If anything, it appears to attract more people to the lifestyle that ends up being pitied.
A worldview defined by pity makes life for the person with that view terrible and it doesn't seem to do much good for anyone else.
So I have some sympathy then for Zarathustra's message that it is better to actually live life and push for someone, somewhere, to be great.
And, by the way, the more I read these scriptures, the less convinced I become that the "Ubermensch" is anything Nietzsche really viewed as an actual prophecy. It more seems like a myth he's crafting to inspire someone, somewhere to find the next level of being human, to notch something new into the history books.
Yes, this is the bit where he declares that "God is dead," but really what he wants us to look at is this: If we let God go, what have we made our gods instead?
Because humans always have gods.
2.1 The Child With the Mirror
Zarathustra has a vision that his message is getting distorted in the world, so it's time to return to his followers. It's interesting because in the vision he sees himself as a devil in a mirror. From his teachings so far, seeing himself as a devil doesn't seem like it would be so bad to Zarathustra, though.
2.2 On the Happy Islands
My translation notes that the chapter title here refers to how the Greeks viewed the realm of the virtuous dead. He's contrasting gods and the Ubermensch here. Gods are a conjecture. The Ubermensch, Zarathustra is sure, will be real one day.
2.3 On the Pitying
This is the famous chapter that says "God is dead." But the rest of the chapter interests me much more than that bit. In this one, he also condemns people who devote themselves to pity. It makes me think of so much of contemporary leftism, where everyone has to endlessly pay homage to "marginalized communities."
Just live. Just be great, Zarathustra urges. He makes the point especially sharply when he writes that it's better to be evil than to have petty thoughts. My read: At least evil is actually striving. It's not small.
2.4 On the Priests
Furthering the theme of the prior chapter, he goes after the priests who live like they are corpses. I like the image of people at sea, led by these priests, who think they have found an island, but actually it is the back of a monster. And the monster will devour them. This is how Zarathustra sees people fettering their spirit to a small-minded faith.
One line
But let me reveal my heart to you entirely, my friends: if there were gods, how could I bear not to be a god? Therefore there are no gods. —Zarathustra
- Seriously? Same.
- That's just science.
—Brady Dale
October 8, 2026
Next Zarathustra: Let us all be enemies, my friends: October of Zarathustra