Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, and philologist
and his work has had a profound influence on modern intellectual history.
Nietzsche was one of the main precursors of existentialism and he believed that there
are no absolute rules for human life, no absolute values, no certainties on which to rely and
he famously said that “God is dead.
God remains dead.
And we have killed him”.
In other words, we have to live like there is nothing else beyond life.
Nietzsche’s philosophy is about reaffirming life, calling for a radical, naturalistic
rethinking of the nature of human existence, knowledge, and morality.
After the death of God, we need to take control of our own destiny by molding ourselves into
something greater, into “Superhumans” - the most used English translation of the
word “Übermensch” in German.
In Nietzsche’s view, the Superhuman is not necessarily physically strong or super smart,
but it is psychologically superior.
Superhumans are those free spirits who have mastery over their emotions, who take joy
in simply existing and who create above all else.
As well as this, they are able to confront the dragon, which is a multicultural symbol,
representing the strength of the culture and values of a society.
A free spirit, a superhuman, is the one who can defend the influence of the dragon, the
one who can create their own values, breaking the chains of society and culture in which
they were raised.
In his book “Thus Spake Zarathustra”, Nietzsche lays out the three metamorphoses
that the individual must go through to become a Superhuman.
Using allegorical imagery, he describes the metamorphoses as the camel, the lion, and
finally the child, which is why in this video we are going to explore these 3 metamorphoses
to better understand how we can all become superhuman, according to the philosophy of
Friedrich Nietzsche.
1.
Camel metamorphosis Nietzsche says “What is difficult? asks
the spirit that would bear much, and kneels down like a camel wanting to be well loaded.
What is most difficult, O heroes, asks the spirit that would bear much, that I may take
it upon myself and exult in my strength?”
The Camel is the first metamorphosis of the spirit.
The Camel represents a strong spirit, capable of taking heavy burdens and travelling long
distances in lonely deserts, surviving a harsh life.
Not many people can undertake this journey and even fewer do.
Usually, most prefer having a comfortable life, without stress or hard work.
By avoiding risk, they follow the standard template for living; the local societal rules
and moral codes, and, sometimes, they break the rules when it is convenient for them,
without having too much moral integrity.
A camel, by contrast, is different.
The camel takes societal rules and moral codes very seriously, trying to become a person
of moral values, a role model, a person of integrity and honor.
In Nietzsche’s allegory, the societal rules and moral codes are represented by a golden
dragon.
These rules and codes can be religious or humanistic values or ideas like “every man
is created equal”, care and empathy towards others, the right of everyone to have an opinion,
condemning violence, taxing the rich or, on more mundane level, societal norms such as:
You’re supposed be polite You’re supposed to go to college
You’re supposed to get a real job You’re supposed to have children and start
a family In other words, a camel is what would be referred
to today as good citizenship, or being a “decent human being”, a person who wants to take
these most respected values extremely seriously and embodies them in all of their actions
and words.
It follows the deep roots of all the more general values driving society as a whole.
So to become a camel, you must know your dragon.
The dragon represents everything that you admire, the values which have been implanted
by your parents or by society as being ‘good’.
But why would anyone undertake such a pursuit?
Why would anyone follow the dragon?
Well, the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, whose work was greatly influenced by
Nietzsche, has an answer for this.
The dragon is the Superego, which is part of Freud's structural model of the psyche.
Formed at about the age of 5 the dragon represents a personality component which makes us behave
morally in life.
It is where all the unwritten rules of what it means to be a good person are, all the
moral values that our parents and society taught us.
When we obey these rules, when we obey the dragon, we feel a sense of price and accomplishment
and when we don’t, we feel guilty and ashamed.
A camel is an individual who goes to extremes, trying to follow and obey as much as possible
the dragon, going on a path which it thinks leads to the highest rewards in terms of pride
and accomplishments.
Unfortunately, most people fail to reach the camel stage, they do not live up to their
ideals.
They don’t have clear role models or a clear set of values in life.
They follow the new trends in society, indulging themselves in comforting, but meaningless
life, empty of strong values.
To differentiate yourself from the herd, to stop being a sheep following random shepards,
you have to start carrying true values in life, you have to follow your dragon.
To discover your personal dragon, make two lists: a list of everything you consider good
and bad in life, based on what your parents and society taught you, and a list of everyone
you admire - leaders, artists, scientists, athletes and so on, then try to find a common
ground between them.
As an example, you may realise that you admire Nelson Mandela and what you consider good
is respecting human rights, great leadership, equality, diplomacy, confidence and so on.
In that case, to become a camel and to follow your dragon would mean for you to acquire
deep knowledge of what good leadership means, human rights and to learn to be a confident
public speaker.
Everyone has their own dragons and so the camel metamorphosis is different for each
of us.
But the Camel is not the end phase and has some limitations.
Although it has faith in its capabilities, the Camel doesn’t question the values and
obligations imposed upon it.
It is a “nice guy” that does not ruffle feathers.
The Camel only proves his strength and power by conforming to the subconscious rules he
lives and thinks by, in other words, the Camel is a great player in the “Matrix”, following
the game’s rules in an excellent way.
Winning quest after quest in the “Matrix”, the Camel explores, experiences and learns,
but ultimately it will always be a prisoner of that Matrix, no matter how successfully
it plays the game.
Some can live their entire lives as successful camels, living in this self-imposed jail.
However, some camels can wake up and understand the meaninglessness of their lives, how meaningless
it is to live according to somebody else’s values.
Thus, they can start their own transformation, becoming lions and breaking free from the
Matrix.
2.
Lion metamorphosis Nietzsche asks us “Who is the great dragon
whom the spirit will no longer call Lord and God?
“Thou shalt” is the name of the great dragon.
But the spirit of the lion says, “I will.”
If the camel follows its ideal, the lion tries to destroy this ideal, it confronts the dragon.
For every “thou shalt”, or “you shall”, the lion says no, standing against tradition
and against any values that are imposed upon it.
The lion destroys the things that the camel loves so much.
But by destroying them, it destroys something inside itself.
This can be a relationship that is oppressive or limits one’s freedom or leaving a particularly
good job, because it requires compromising one’s integrity and life principles.
Both the camel and the lion are reactions to ideal values, one positive and the other
negative.
The transformation of the camel into a lion is essential, otherwise the camel will be
ruined by its own quest.
Saying yes to everything, no matter how noble, will destroy the camel’s spirit in the end.
The same is true in our real lives, if we do everything for others trying to be the
best role model and we do not do anything for ourselves, we will succumb and be crushed.
Each of us is unique and this uniqueness cannot be expressed if you just follow the voices
of other people ordering you in your head, telling you what is good and what is bad.
You need to find your own meaning, your own individual mission in life, independent of
your environment.
To break free and to create your own values and meaning in life, you have to undergo this
transformation, you have to go through this rebellious phase, like the lion in its attempt
to gain its freedom.
In Nietzsche’s allegory, the lion, finding himself alone in the desert, encounters the
dragon.
The dragon is seductive, it sparkles with golden scales and on each scale glitters a
“thou shalt”.
The thousands of scales represent thousands of years of the “thou shalts” that have
come before us, the centuries of codes of how you ought to think and act.
There are layers upon layers of moral codes, formed in the entire history of humanity.
But the dragon is the enemy of true self-mastery and the lion wants to engage the dragon in
mortal combat, rebelling against any “Thou Shalt”, refusing any oppression.
The lion is the person committed to their own freedom, committed to expressing their
individuality in its fullest, and “Thou Shalt” is a barrier to achieving this.
When confronted by the dragon, the lion says “I will!”
But the dragon replies that all values are already created, each one forming a part of
its golden scales, and the lion doesn’t need to create new values; in fact, it is
forbidden.
Ultimately, the dragon says, “there shall be no more ‘I will’.”
This lion cannot take it.
The lion must then fight the dragon to win its freedom.
During the fight, the lion roars the “sacred No”, which means a rejection of all the
values that came before the lion.When the lion rages the sacred “No” to every “Thou
Shalt”, this is the start of its freedom.
The lion represents self consciousness, aware of its independent power.
Nietzsche went through the lion phase when he started to fight those people who disapproved
of his life choices, including his family.
As a consequence, he became stateless, jobless and godless, but he gained the power to start
to live his life on his own terms.
He talked about the lion metamorphosis from his own experience, being convinced that to
become a real free spirit, he must fight against anyone who tries to limit his freedom.
To be able to transform your camel into a lion, you need to have the courage to break
the chains of tradition, of religion, of society and perhaps you even have to break up with
several people in your life.
As an exercise, make a list of everything and everyone you think limits your freedom
to be yourself.
It can be an unfortunate unwritten rule at your workplace, it could be your spouse who
always tries to control and correct your behaviour, it may be your friends who criticize you when
you behave in a particular way.
Once you’ve done this, try to think of possible strategies of how to change that situation:
maybe you can make a case in the team meeting at work regarding the problems you are experiencing,
perhaps you could have a serious talk with your spouse in which you can discuss the issue,
how it bothers you and how you would like it to change, or you could find new friends
who can appreciate you better.
Lion metamorphosis doesn’t need to be a violent and sudden reaction, it can be a smart,
calm, but definitive one.
The Superhuman, Nietzsche believed, was a true individual, one who must build self-mastery
on his or her own terms.
However, while a lion can create freedom for itself, it is still not capable of creating
new values and here the final metamorphosis comes into play – the child metamorphosis.
3.
Child metamorphosis To quote Nietzsche “For the game of creation,
my brothers, a sacred “Yes” is needed: the spirit now wills his own will, and he
who had been lost to the world now conquers his own”.
In the final metamorphosis, the spirit becomes the child, the creator.
After complete destruction of imposed morals and values, comes the creation of new values,
new beginnings.
The child doesn’t have any resentments, they forget the past to create a new present
and a brighter future.
The child continuously creates their own new values and lives by them.
They will their own will and don’t impose their values on anybody else.
The child metamorphosis can be interpreted by Nietzsche’s affinity for the philosophy
of Heraclitus.
Heraclitus imagined a universe where everything is in an eternal state of becoming and that
Time is a child playing, continuously creating and destroying.
Similarly, in Nietzsche’s view, a free spirit, being a part of this nature, is like a child
at play, in a state of permanent creation.
To be a complete person, a free spirit and a superhuman, you need to get in touch with
the child you were when you were playing, to love life beyond good and evil, creating
your values and following your own rules of playing this game of life.
The child phase is the phase of pure creativity, of being “in a flow state”, not having
any restrictions regarding what is possible.
For a child, everything is possible, they give a “sacred YES” to life, they are
like a self-propelling wheel, full of innocence and forgetfulness, creating their own rules.
After the lion uttered the “sacred No”, the child comes to shout a “sacred YES”
that affirms life.
Nietzsche was saying that people who can become more childlike are the storm clouds on which
the Superhuman will thunder.
The goal of life is to create and, ultimately, to create the Superhuman.
To reach the child phase, you should not seek external answers and approval.
You need to find the joy of life within, not worrying about the societal traditions and
moral codes.
You need to be confident, affirmative, creative, in a permanent state of flux, forever changing
and developing.
Don’t fixate on a specific identity, you don’t need to talk, behave or dress in a
certain way, you are the one who is choosing how to talk, behave, and act in the world,
and you can change your decisions as you please.
As an exercise, try to think of those activities in which you can experience “the flow state”,
for example when you lead a team in a critical project at work, time spent painting in the
quietness of home, or times when you are with engaging people and you feel like time is
flying, or when you are deep in your work, developing ideas and creating innovative solutions.
After having a clear picture of how you behaved in those activities, try to think what you
can do to get yourself more into these states.
Maybe the answer would be to stop being so critical of yourself, to let go, to remove
the people who do not let you reach these states by imposing too many rules.
Stop taking life too seriously, experiment more, try new ways of behaving in the world
and new ways to spend your time in order to reach the flow state.
If you are able to go through all of the 3 metamorphoses, the camel, embracing the greatest
ideals which were created before you, then the lion, gaining your freedom from these
ideals, then finally the child, creating your own ideals and your own unique meaning of
life, then you can become a true free spirit, and a Superhuman.
Being a Superhuman is not only an individual phenomenon, but also a collective one.
The more people become superhuman, tapping into their unlimited potential, the more the
entire world will come alive and flourish.
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Thanks so much for watching.