The text argues that true human elevation and the creation of higher values require individuals to confront and overcome profound suffering and dangerous ideas, rather than seeking comfort or relying on external validation. This process is arduous, generational, and demands self-reliance and intellectual honesty.
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6. Ye higher men, think ye that I
am here to put right what ye have put wrong? Or that I wished henceforth to make snugger
couches for you sufferers? Or show you restless, miswandering,
misclimbing ones, new and easier footpaths? While it is the rabble that created contemporary
values, he does put some of the blame on these higher men. They had the power to
create better values, but failed. Now they expect him to rectify what they put wrong,
or at least show them a comfortable way to deal with this sorry situation.
Nay! Nay! Three times Nay! Always more, always better ones of your type shall
succumb, — for ye shall always have it worse and harder. Thus only —
— Thus only groweth man aloft to the height where the lightning striketh and shattereth him:
high enough for the lightning! But he is not here to offer them
any comfort. The solution he offers is hard, and requires from them to sacrifice a lot.
Their sacrifice will not produce the Superman, but will create stronger people, who will also be
required to work hard and sacrifice. And so forth, over generations, until finally, Man will grow
so high that he will be struck by lightning. The meaning of this metaphor will be soon made clear.
Towards the few, the long, the remote go forth my soul and my seeking: of what account to
me are your many little, short miseries! Ye do not yet suffer enough for me! For ye
suffer from yourselves, ye have not yet suffered FROM MAN. Ye would lie if ye spake otherwise! None
of you suffereth from what I have suffered. — I don't think Zarathustra is being fair here.
Some of his guests did express their disgust in Man, in the state of today's humanity.
He wants them to feel it even more deeply, to go deeper into the abyss, so they can then create an
even higher mountain. 7.
It is not enough for me that the lightning no longer doeth harm. I do not wish to conduct it
away: it shall learn — to work for ME. — The lightning metaphor, which we encountered
before, signifies ideas that are deadly to today's humans. Man has learned to create lightning rods,
that avert lightnings away and make lightning-storms much less
lethal than they used to be. Similarly, modern society learned to keep away the
dangerous ideas that are hazardous to its human members. Zarathustra wants something
else. He wants humans to become stronger and stronger, until they are so powerful
that they are no longer slain by these ideas, but actually make them work in their favor.
My wisdom hath accumulated long like a cloud, it becometh stiller and darker. So doeth all
wisdom which shall one day bear LIGHTNINGS. — Unto these men of to-day will I not be LIGHT,
nor be called light. THEM — will I blind: lightning of my wisdom! put out their eyes!
Once humans will get to this level of power, only then will they be able to deal with his ideas. So
he is not philosophizing for the people of today, and hopes they will be scared away by his ideas,
because they are too dangerous for them. 8.
Do not will anything beyond your power: there is a bad
falseness in those who will beyond their power. Having stressed that he wants his guests to strive
to become greater, Zarathustra now gives warnings to those of them who will choose to try it. The
first warning is that they should be aware of the limits of their power, and not will beyond them.
Especially when they will great things! For they awaken distrust in great things,
these subtle false-coiners and stage-players: — — Until at last they are false towards themselves,
squint-eyed, whited cankers, glossed over with strong words,
parade virtues and brilliant false deeds. Those who will beyond their power are destined
to fail, and when they do, they make people think that it is bad to will greatness. They
end up pretending that they are great, but people can see through this pretense. Thus,
they become a bad influence, deterring people from striving to be great.
Take good care there, ye higher men! For nothing is more precious to me, and rarer, than honesty.
Is this to-day not that of the populace? The populace however knoweth not what is
great and what is small, what is straight and what is honest:
it is innocently crooked, it ever lieth. With all this pretense, today's humans no
longer know what is great and what is small, what is true and what are lies.
The way to fight back begins with being true to yourself, and honest with others.
9. Have a good distrust
to-day ye, higher men, ye enheartened ones! Ye open-hearted ones! And keep your reasons secret!
For this to-day is that of the populace. What the populace once learned to believe
without reasons, who could — refute it to them by means of reasons?
And on the market-place one convinceth with gestures. But
reasons make the populace distrustful. And when truth hath once triumphed there,
then ask yourselves with good distrust: "What strong error hath fought for it?"
The populace cannot be convinced with reason, and there's no point in trying.
If the populace actually comes to believe the truth about something,
it's because someone tricked them into doing so, not because they were convinced by reason.
Be on your guard also against the learned! They hate you, because they
are unproductive! They have cold, withered eyes before which every bird is unplumed.
Such persons vaunt about not lying: but inability to lie is still far from being
love to truth. Be on your guard! Freedom from fever is still far from
being knowledge! Refrigerated spirits I do not believe in. He who cannot lie,
doth not know what truth is. What he calls "the learned" are not free
spirits who think for themselves, and learn about the world by experiencing it. They are people
who repeat what they learned from others. And they hate those who think for themselves. These
learned people actually do consider intellectual honesty as a virtue, so they try not to lie, but
Zarathustra says it is not enough. Intellectual honesty should also be about employing your mind
to seek truth, not just honesty. 10.
If ye would go up high, then use your own legs! Do not get yourselves CARRIED aloft; do not seat
yourselves on other people's backs and heads! Thou hast mounted, however, on horseback? Thou now
ridest briskly up to thy goal? Well, my friend! But thy lame foot is also with thee on horseback!
When thou reachest thy goal, when thou alightest from thy horse: precisely on thy HEIGHT,
thou higher man, — then wilt thou stumble! Continuing the previous discussion,
the mountains he speaks of are metaphorical. Those are spiritual mountains, and you should
get there by putting your own spirit through trials, until it becomes stronger and more
knowledgeable. If you just follow others, you may become knowledgeable, but you will
not gain the spiritual strength to deal with this knowledge. This will be your downfall.
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