Nietzsche's WARNING to Mankind: The Last Man

alas there comes the time when man will no longer give birth to any star lo i show you the last man in nietzsche's epic work thus spoke zaratustra we find the concept of the last man zaratustra has descended from the high mountains he is longing to speak his wisdom to the common man below however his message the coming of the superman or of the ubermensch falls on deaf ears the crowd laughs at him and mocks him there is ice in their laughter evidently the crowd is not yet ready to hear of the ubermensch zaratustra's message

of advancement of a lofty goal for mankind of the next stage of humankind the meaning of the earth it all falls flat the crowd the common man is not interested they cannot be roused to excitement so zeratustra tries something else instead of talking about lofty aspirations and high ideals he tries to go in the opposite direction he speaks to the crowd in terms of what awaits them if they don't heed his message if the people won't be motivated by visions of heaven maybe they will be motivated by visions of hell that hell is the last

man introduced as the opposite of the ubermensch or superman the last man is nietzsche's vision for mankind should it not heed his call for greatness the last man is contemptible empty unthinking unfeeling even the last man is nietzsche's nightmare vision for humanity saratustra hopes that this pessimistic vision of mankind will scare the crowd into listening to him his strategy is that of the biblical prophet who preaches the end of the world in order to increase the urgency of his message as if to say this is your final chance to listen to me or else and

so zeratustra paints the dreadful picture of that lamentable creature the last man what is love what is creation what is longing what is a star so asks the last man and blinks the last man is devoid of grant's thoughts he is not concerned with high ideals he is not in awe of the world or of life to him things simply exist he asks no questions he does not wonder about anything everything seems to him to be just because for no reason and if there is a reason he does not care to find it the last

man asks big profound questions like what is love what is creation what is a star and then he just blinks there is nothing there but an empty expression his questions do not actually mean anything there is no genuine wonder behind what he is asking no desire to know no life there is no grandeur the last man is small his world is small he makes everything small the earth has then become small and on it there hops the last man who makes everything small his species is inerraicable like that of the ground flea the last man

lives longest the last man avoids struggle he is a creature of comfort he finds the easy way out they have left the regions where it is hard to live for they need warmth the last man is completely devoid of motivation everything is just too much effort the last man does not put effort into anything he is a creature of letter g and laziness one no longer becomes poor or rich both are too burdensome who still wants to rule who still wants to obey both are too burdensome in the world of the last man humans are

reduced to completely willless being more like plants than human beings there is no striving no ambition no nothing everything becomes small and petty they have their little pleasures for the day and their little pleasures for the night but above all they are all equal there is no greatness in man everyone is the same no room for the genius the artist the philosopher the conqueror no room for excellency no room for trying to rise above no shepherd and one herd everyone wants the same everyone is equal he who has other sentiments goes voluntarily into the mad

house this is the grim picture zaratustra paints of humanity's future his hope is that this dreadful vision of the future will serve as motivation to the crowd maybe they will listen now but no the crowd keeps on mocking the prophets with bitter cynicism they say give us this last man o tzaratustra they called out make us into these last men then we will give you a present of the superman and all the people exalted and smacked their lips zaratustra however turned sad and said in his heart they understand me not i am not the mouth

for these ears from this point onwards zaratustra tells himself he will no longer try to speak to the crowd and try to convince them he will seek out those rare individuals who are fit for his message the diamonds in the rough who have ears to hear what he has to say the crowd is obviously not ready for him and it was a mistake to think they were from now on zarathustra will not address the great multitude of men but only those few who are ready the free spirits of the future if we leave the allegorical

world of the spokes aratustra and come back to our real world what do we suppose nietzsche is trying to say here is the last man a vision of the future of human society at large is nietzsche saying that unless some kind of revolution happens we are drifting off into the ambitionless world of the last man is that why in the story the crowd ultimately rejects zeratustra's message or is the message that a select few presumably readers of nietzsche will take it upon themselves to prevent this vision of the future from manifesting itself will a few

free spirits take it upon themselves to start a revolution or should we go a layer deeper maybe the vision of the last man is not a vision for society but an allegory of the individual is nietzsche asking us to rise above this wretched existence of the last man to aspire to something greater is nietzsche telling us to get it together otherwise nothing but the misery of the last man awaits us please tell us in the comments what you think we'd love to hear your thoughts if you enjoyed this video there is more nature coming so

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