Stephen Colbert and Philosophy - Aaron Allen Schiller [101]
Alright, Colbertites, begin humming! According to Nietzsche, a man is “super” when he is better than other men. He is better because he is stronger physically or mentally. Either way, the key point is that he knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. Nietzsche argues that his super-man has the “will-to-power.” The super-man does not let anything get in his way. The super-man is simply superior—better at getting what he wants—and those lesser than him find themselves having to do his will. Some men, like Stephen Colbert, are just better than the rest. “For men are not equal: thus speaks Justice,” Nietzsche tells us in his text Thus Spake Zarathustra. Philosophers usually interpret Nietzsche as dismissing the very popular belief that all men are created equal. Equality is not the case, says Nietzsche, since some men are simply stronger, faster, or smarter than others. But even beyond this, what really puts the “super” in super-man for Nietzsche is a superior will to power.
The will to power is an idea that has its beginning in the idea of the will to live. The will to live is essentially the belief that everything that is alive strives to live—everything is built to try to keep living. Similarly, every living thing has the will to power. But Nietzsche thinks the will to power is even stronger than the will to live. He thinks this is proven by the fact that we will sometimes even risk our lives for power. The will to power can be thought of as just the will to dominate others, but most philosophers think it is a deeper idea than that. For example, Mr. Colbert does not seek dominion over others by being President just for power. He is seeking something more. Rather, he recognizes that because he is as great as he is, he would be the best president. And, importantly, what is clear about Mr. Colbert is that if he wasn’t already perfect, he would strive to become the perfect Stephen Colbert that he is. Self-perfection is the goal of super-men.
Granted, as we Colbert fans will admit, there is very little to improve about Mr. Colbert. But it is this “self-overcoming” that best describes the will to power. By this I just mean that super-men seek to grow beyond themselves, they overcome their weakness and thus become stronger. The fact that this causes the super-man to inevitably be better than other men, and thus achieve dominion over them, is just a side-effect.
To be clear, the super-man is not the goody-goody that we might think of when we think of a really good person. The super-man does not show things like compassion and pity. Instead he exhibits the qualities that best lead one to success in the will to power. In seeking this kind of perfection, traits like courage, open-mindedness, and truthfulness best bring one to power. The super-man can identify what he desires and then strive for it without allowing compassion or other emotions to get in the way.
This might seem cold to you. But, remember, when we think about men like Mr. Colbert, compassion could get in his way. It’s not as if Nietzsche believed that we should all go around hurting each other. But we should be wary of how emotions like compassion are used to keep power in check. Nietzsche believed that weak people use compassion and pity as a way to keep the powerful from achieving their ends. The reason for this is simple. As a super-man begins to reach self-perfection, the weak around him often must bend to his will. This can lead to servitude for those who are weak-willed. So the weak seek pity from the master in an effort to avoid the burdens of servitude.
Nietzsche argues that in religions like Christianity, compassion and pity are developed as virtues as a way for the weak to hold back the strong—as a way to prevent having to serve the super-man.