Are we the Last Men? : a brief look into the predictions of Fredrich Nietzsche.
Friedrich Nietzsche was an iconic and influential German philosopher. In his book ‘Thus spoke Zarathustra’, he introduces the concept of the "Ubermensch or Superman" and it's antithesis, "The Last Man."
The Superman is the ultimate person, someone who has transcended the prejudices and restrictions of their society and created their own values and Beliefs. They are creative, discontent, flexible, self-confident, cheerful and courageous. They defy nihilism by finding meaning and purpose on Earth.
The Last Man, is the opposite of this. They are a generation that does not care. They do not care to accomplsh anything, to have ambition. To develop emotionally and spiritually is not of interest to The Last Man. Their priorities centre around pleasure and avoidance of pain and death. The Last Man is the individual that specialises, "not in creation but in consumption, in the midst of Instant pleasures, he claims to have discovered happiness."
The Last Man does not live in a utopic perfect dream state however, beneath the apathy there lies a strong resentment. With no strong goal or purpose in life, he is empty and this is what he resents. This resentment causes him to envy and belittle any who rise above this state, he wishes everyone to Be equal. Equal in the sense that they all live in the same mediocrity and want the same simple things.
Nietzsche writes, "No herdsman and one herd. Everyone wants the same thing, everyone is the same: whoever thinks otherwise goes voluntarily into the madhouse.” I found out about this concept through a Tiktok, isn't that funny? The person in the Tiktok was duetting someone else who was talking about how they don't care about "achievements" or "ambition." The duetter introduced the concept of The Last Man as a possible description of our generation. It made a lot of sense to me.
A couple of months ago there was a huge influx of content amongst the young, intellectual, mostly female, video essayist of YouTube. The majority of the discourse was talking about capitalism and how it affects every aspect of our lives. At the time it was intensely interesting. They spoke about the hyper-focus on a lifetime career and value being completely wrapped up in employment and how they no longer wanted to think about life in these terms.
This was mind-blowing because it reflected exactly how I felt about it all. I wasn't lazy because I didn't have a dream job, I was anti-capitalist. "I don't dream of labour" become a common sentiment among memes. Many of these memes were accompanied by the desire to do nothing, to leave the working world. At the time, this felt radical. To refuse to feed the capitalism Monstrosity that had made itself at home in all of our heads? That's a revolution baby!
But this perspective, has become stale to me. What does it mean to live a life without work? It seems to mean a whole lot of Tiktok scrolling, of learning about other people's lives, of increased loneliness and insanity. The problem lies in equating Work and money. This perhaps, is Capitaliasm striking once again. It's a dangerous problem too, young people just learning about the evils of Capitalism can quickly adopt the position that no work under capitalism can be good. I'm no expert, I'm just your usual internet user, sharing my floating pieces of information, but what I've come to realise is that work is good. Community work, inner work, creative work, family work, chores, emotional work. These are the cruxes of being human Without work or a goal, we fall into something far too similar to how Nietzsche describes The Last Man: no goals, no passions, content in our discontenTment, or discontent but UNWILLING to change anything, weary of others and ugly from within. That horrible feeling you get when seeing beautiful people your age doing modeling campaigns in all expenses paid hotels? That is what Nietzsche was talking about. We become victims, we sprinkle salt onto oUR wounds to prove that we are hurt, that we cannot move on, that we have been struck down by the world. It is a horrible feeling to succumb to. And we do, daily.
But babies! There is good news! We do not need to accept this. We can aim for more; we can feel different. This state does not have to be permanent. To change though, it takes real effort. There needs to be a true acknowledgement of oneself and one's higher desires. What would you like to do in your time here? What makes you feel like you can breathe easier? What makes you forget that you have ever felt run over by life?
I guarantee there are answers to these questions. You can find them. Nietzsche writes this, “I tell you: one must have chaos in them, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in you. "You still have chaos in you!! You can be an agent of creation and not only consumption. Reject this. We don't have to become the Last Man. I have hope for this generation and that is already a good sign. The antidote to Last Man syndrome is the acceptance of Hope and Chaos. We have plenty of both, we must UTILISE them in our lives now. Dream of a better life. The first step is imagination. Prove Nietzsche wrong, wouldn't that be cool?
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