Are we becoming Nietzsche's LAST MEN?

Introduction. Nietzsche was obsessed with the future - with understanding it, predicting it, and shaping it. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), his brilliant prophet Zarathustra paints a disturbing portrait of humanity's future. Has it come true? 👇

Zarathustra: "One must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. Alas! The time is coming when man will give birth to no more stars." A star births life and order around it; but itself arises from chaos. However, our fixation with logic is negating creative chaos.

The last man doesn't know the meaning of "love" or "longing." To love something is to prefer it over everything else; to long for someone is to be partial to him/her. However, to have favorites goes against the levelling rational spirit of the age.

The last men only live for "pleasant dreams." Today, as hyper-realistic video game consoles, VR goggles, and the metaverse take over, Zarathustra's prediction has come true. Our connection and commitment with reality is being severed; the simulation is too good to turn down.

The last men wish to live in a world without extremes, with everyone crowded in the middle: "Nobody grows rich or poor any more: both are too much of a burden. Who still wants to rule? Who obey? Both are too much of a burden. "

The last men have bid farewell to all hierarchies - but for that they had to say goodbye to all distinctions too: "No herdsman and one herd. Everyone wants the same thing, everyone is the same."

Those unable to accept their socially assigned worldview are wrecked with guilt. They consider their idiosyncratic ideas a form of deformity. They self-sabotage. They walk "voluntarily into the madhouse."

The last men have lost all energy and will for serious and protracted war: "They still quarrel, but they soon make up – otherwise indigestion would result."

Zarathustra painted a picture of the last man to elicit disgust and move people to pursue the path of the superman instead. However, the crowd told him: "Give us this Last Man, O Zarathustra - make us into this Last Man! You can have the Superman!"

Bottom line. In our hierarchy of values today, equality ranks at the top. Politics is committed to reducing inequality and crowding everyone in the middle. Technology creates new "pleasant dreams" for us to escape to. A disturbing question arises: Are we Nietzsche's last men?