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By Root 637 0

Now obviously, Mr. Colbert would disagree with this and we will see why very soon. (Don’t worry, Colbertites: the truthiness is almost back!) But Nietzsche had very little respect for any religion or institution that encouraged others to hold themselves back. Imagine what would happen to lions if they felt compassion for gazelles. Lions would die off. Instead, the lion is constantly trying to achieve its own success and, in doing so, he achieves dominion over the gazelles. We don’t chastise the lion and say, “Bad lion!” So why should we tell he among us who is stronger or smarter, “Bad person”? Nietzsche argues that the super-man is motivated by his will to power, as we all are—his will is just that much stronger, so we resent him or fear him. To quote Nietzsche,

That lambs dislike great birds of prey does not seem strange: only it gives no ground for reproaching these birds of prey for bearing off little lambs. And if the lambs say among themselves; “these birds of prey are evil; and whoever is least like a bird of prey, but rather its opposite, a lamb—would he not be good?” … [T]he birds of prey might view it a little ironically and say: “We don’t dislike them at all, these good little lambs. We even love them: nothing is more tasty than a tender lamb.”176

But did the lambs accept the fact that they were weaker and not as worthy to rule? No! Instead, they tried to overthrow the super-man. But of course that wouldn’t work, so they did something far more insidious—they made it a bad thing to be the super-man.

According to Nietzsche, the weak (or what are sometimes referred to as the “sheep”) have developed what he calls a “slavemorality.” This morality is entirely based on the fact that such a morality is a good way to prevent others from reaching super-man status. This morality is adopted because the weak—the slaves—are jealous of the super-man and because they don’t want to have to serve him. Nietzsche has no respect for these slaves. Instead of seeking their own self-overcoming, instead of trying as they should to become “super” themselves, they spend their time trying to hold the super-man back. But even worse, they don’t try to stop him by being stronger or smarter. They try to stop him through subtle manipulations, a kind of behind-the-scenes scheming.

When we think about those around us, it seems that Nietzsche might have at least one thing right. We do seem to revel in mediocrity. Ever notice how children will make fun of a child who’s smarter than they are, or ostracize a child who is stronger than they are? It seems that we do this in the adult world, too. As soon as someone is better than everyone else, we try to take him down. There’s one thing we like more than building a hero up—tearing him down afterwards.

Okay, so let’s summarize Nietzsche’s concept of the super-man before we get back to Mr. Colbert. The super-man has overwhelming power. He is faster, stronger, smarter, and so on. But he wasn’t just born this way. The super-man is all these things because of his super-sized will to power. He seeks, first and foremost, to perfect himself. Surely this is a laudable goal. But the pursuit of perfection leads him to become faster, stronger and smarter, which, in turn, leads him naturally to positions of dominance over those less concerned with their own perfection. Those dominated come to resent the super-man and attempt to tear him down. They use many tactics to do this, but their most significant and insidious tactic is to actually define weakness as strength—meekness as power. In other words, they make being super “bad,” and make being weak “good.” In the end, the perfection-seeking super-man is defined away as evil because he is stronger and the weak pat themselves on the back for being meek and mediocre.

The Sheep (aka The South Carolina Democratic Executive Council)

Okay, so let’s get back to the truthiness of the matter. What does Nietzsche—a “not American,” after all—really have to teach us about Mr. Colbert? We’ve already determined that Mr. Colbert is the super-man. Mr. Colbert