Nietzsche nails Nihilism and advocates the Übermensch

Friedrich Nietzsche was a lonely and intense individual – this much is made evident in the bulk of one of his greatest literary works, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche was a man woefully impeded by various illnesses of the body and mind, including migraines and insomnia, enough to send anyone over the edge – yet he continued to strive for the sake of his philosophy while at war with his decrepit state. In spite of his debilitating impediments Nietzsche found the determination necessary for gathering his thoughts and compiling several seminal pieces of literature.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a fictional autobiography by a man named Zarathustra – an adapted version of Persian prophet Zoroaster, who originally formulated the notion of the universe being altered through the conflict of good and evil. Zarathustra can ultimately be described as the fictitious re-envisioning of Nietzsche. In reality Nietzsche was put through much physical suffering and as such faced a great deal of mental anguish, meaning the progress he made undoubtedly came at the expense of his gradually failing health. Zarathustra is an enlightened man with an instinct for engineering mankind's ascendance beyond its near-nihilistic detriment. Because of his prevailing ill-health during the examination of the anthropogenic subject – the 'overman' – we can attribute Zarathustra's impetus towards defeating human weakness to Nietzsche's hatred for his ailed physiology and limited lifestyle, as well as the dreams of defeating his own weakness that he probably entertained.

The premise of this mock-biblical journal of Zarathustra's life centres on the advance of man into becoming the overman, or Ubermensch. Zarathustra observes that mankind has surpassed the stage at which worship was a worthy option for its attention; the 'herd', as he refers to the masses that persist in keeping the religion of Christianity alive, no longer needs to maintain its subservience to God, yet it continues to promote the bankruptcy of religious culture and tradition. Zarathustra's famous proclamation "God is dead" precedes the basis of the book that is to be represented by new conceptual developments later on. As opposed to the inbred idea of an omnipotent God and a redemptive afterlife of perfection, Zarathustra prefers to encourage the belief that an earthly existence is the healthiest and most honest pathway.

In light of his controversial revelation that mankind no longer needs to depend on a system of religious reverence, Zarathustra finds the herd to be unwilling to participate in the conversion from what they currently are to what Zarathustra knows they could be, if they were willing to make the daily sacrifices such evolution requires. Nietzsche espouses the term 'will to power' prolifically as he attempts to instil the necessity of wanting to improve oneself. Only through a significant struggle will man be able to overcome his deficiencies and dissatisfaction. What stands out the most in the sections devoted to preaching the struggle of becoming the overman is the way Nietzsche sublimates 'evil' to imply a device of self-improvement, a force that goes against the grain and spells a threat to defunct morals established by antiquated religion. This excerpt perfectly affirms this contrasting definition of evil and how it links to self-improvemnt: "Good and evil, and rich and poor, and high and low, and all names of values: weapons shall they be, and sounding signs, that life must again and again overcome itself!"

Nietzsche is extremely keen to remind us of the qualities he deems conducive to the inception of the overman; he recommends that we do all within our power to correct our imperfections so that we come closer to conceiving the higher being. Interestingly enough his stance on marriage is relatively conventional, though, only because he believes the self-overcoming should be as natural as the body it will be generated from. "Bitterness is in the cup even of the best love; thus does it cause longing for the Superman; thus does it cause thirst in you, the creator! Thirst in the creator, arrow and longing for the Superman: tell me, my brother, is this your will to marriage? Sacred I call such a will, and such a marriage" – once again an incarnation of evil is emphatically praised as the instigator of creation. But, as sombre as it sounds, self-criticism is the most successful tool towards achieving our most dreamt-of goals. In Zarathustra's case the optimum goal is the attainment of the overman.

The book's repetition of the indictment of man's failure to resolve his innate flaws extends to labelling those who don't wish to accept the transcendence from man to overman as 'despisers of the body'. The process of becoming is inherently linked to respecting the body and its organic place on the planet and in the environment. Once man has learnt to respect the body he can harness its abilities and potential and implement a new order. Nietzsche puts an emphasis on the word 'obedience', claiming those who suffer the most are those who lack the will power to make others and their own bodies obey their mind's persuasion. Those who command obedience will go further in their efforts to accumulate power. Virtue is another word given much attention in Zarathustra's semi-poetic search for a solution to mankind's dilemma; Nietzsche makes a valid point of reminding us that "it is illustrious to have many virtues, but a hard lot; and many a one has gone into the wilderness and killed himself, because he was weary of being the battle and battlefield of virtues."

From a broad analytical viewpoint, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a masterpiece in conceptualising an egalitarian vision of Darwin's Origin of the Species. Zarathustra is 'bringing man a gift' on behalf of his wisdom and that gift is his proposal to redirect man on its course to supremacy. Although Zarathustra is forced to accept the majority will be disinclined to follow his example, he isn't exclusive in his ideology, just in his practice. Nevertheless, as far as those who would prefer to exist apathetic of his message are concerned, his forgiveness runs dry. He is the generous bearer of a sublime knowledge, who smiles upon those who accept themselves and frowns upon those who deny themselves the objective of becoming something higher.

Nietzsche certainly had his work cut out for him when he committed to constructing this concept of the overman, especially when it's juxtaposed to the physics of the 'eternal recurrence'. Assuming that the past stretches back infinitely, as does the future forwards, Nietzsche clarified that all the actions and moments that transpire in the present will inevitably occur again in the future, as they did in the past, because everything is dynamic and impermanent, and must therefore be repeated because conclusive development fails to disrupt the continuous cycle of change. This logical roundabout is confusing enough without the added problematic philosophy of the overman on top, so it's understandable that Nietzsche's style and form when writing were both equally inconsistent. While Zarathustra's journey is governed by a chronological timeline, started at his emergence from the mountain cave and ending at the beginning of his final stage in transcendence, the cohesion of events in the plot is scattered, with sudden diversions into parables and leaps from discovery to discovery leaving you feeling as if your perception is being shuttered erratically as you read.

We cannot blame Nietzsche for the inconsistencies of Zarathustra's journey; the inspirational method that he conducted while composing his notes meant Thus Spoke Zarathustra would read more sporadically than it does fluently, and perhaps this enabled Nietzsche to write as freely and expressively as possible. The often esoteric narrative of the book is occasionally overruled by passages of eloquent discourse, like this definitive lesson: "Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman- a rope over an abyss. A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous lookingback, a dangerous trembling and halting. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an over-going and a down-going".

Zarathustra's journey itself is characterised by the 'three metamorphoses' – the camel, the lion and the child. Zarathustra plays the camel throughout, being burdened after his "wild wisdom became pregnant on the lonesome mountains". At the story's climax he is approached by a lion, signalling his rise to a level where he can be proud of his wisdom; he awaits the child that embodies 'new creation'. He is also a man "hungry, fierce, lonesome, God-forsaken: so does the lion-will wish itself". In homage to Nietzsche's parody of Christ and his disciples, Zarathustra invites a group of social strays to lodge in his cave and observe his teaching. He, perhaps like Nietzsche who thought so differently in comparison to many of his contemporaries, hopes to educate these men in the doctrines of the overman and save them from themselves by empowering their pride.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a book I have yielded much inspiration from, mainly in regards to its positive, albeit critical philosophy on self-improvement. Nietzsche was isolated from most of humanity because of his illness and the shame this would have induced in him, so for him to have devised a system that focuses on cancelling out the negative element in one's life through the deepest, darkest introspection was a remarkable personal feat.

If Nietzsche were alive today I would be very intrigued to hear what his opinions on modern moral conundrums would be. If he was so enthusiastic about man achieving his true potential, surely he would be rallying behind genetic engineering and stem cell research that aim to provide solutions to hereditary human disabilities and diseases. Would he believe, as I do, that pervasive charitable organisations like Oxfam and Samaritan's Purse are not conducive to enabling neglected populations in less economically developed countries to becoming self-sufficient, and that the best form of assistance is up-front aid that teaches communities how to rely on themselves?

One thing goes without doubt, Nietzsche would have loved Live at the Apollo – massively intelligent and hilarious stand-up comedians addressing the issues of the world and layering them with the humour of an enlightened being. Laughter and dancing are, as Zarathustra advises, traits of the highest beings that we should emulate for the good of overcoming our insecurities and imperfections. And I think we can all affirm with Nietzsche that both these exercises offer the most assuaging therapy to the tired mind of a struggling slave to virtues.