I want to write another book. Laura insists that I get the first one published. She is right. Nevertheless I’d like to engage the fabulous fable penned by Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra. The story is surreal, a prescient foretelling, a projection of the course of the West.

Zarathustra is a hermit-like individual whose season in isolation allows him to see in stark relief, the absurd and catastrophic course of the habits and inclinations and manner of speaking of his fellow townspeople. Zarathustra desperately attempts to warn, to help them. As you’d guess his effort is to no avail. The townspeople are quite unable to understand. As a matter of fact the stranger-hermit, Zarathustra is ridiculed and despised because of his seeming impudence.

I am reminded of a discussion by email between friends, a disagreement on the significance of the accidental disclosure of battle plans to the editor of The Atlantic by Sec. of Defense Hegseth, and the circle of top security appointees, including the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. The upshot of our email exchange: the potential lethal consequences of such carelessness was brushed aside with the rejoinder that there was no need for such extreme alarm, that those of us who are opposed to ignorance and incompetence, are just “piling on.”

I am going to prepare my first book for publishing and I will set about writing this one.

I’ve nothing to lose by ‘piling on.’

When Zarathustra arrived at the nearest town which is close to the forest,
he found many people assembled in the market-place,
for it had been announced that a tightrope walker would give a performance.
And Zarathustra spoke thus to the people:

I teach you the overman. Man is something to be surpassed.
What have you done to surpass him?
All beings thus far have created something beyond themselves:
And you want to be the ebb of this great tide,
and even return to the beast
rather than surpass man?

What is the ape to man?
A laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment.
And just the same shall man be to the overman:
a laughing-stock or a painful embarrassment.

You have made your way from worm to man,
and much inside you is still worm.

Once you were apes,
and still man is more of an ape
than any of the apes.

Even the wisest among you
is only a conflict and mix
of plant and ghost.

But do I bid you become ghosts or plants?
Behold, I teach you the overman!

The overman is the meaning of the earth.

Let your will say:
The overman shall be the meaning of the earth!
I appeal to you, my brothers, remain true to the earth,
and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes!

Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not.
     Despisers of life are they,
          decaying and poisoned themselves,
                of whom the earth is weary:
                      so let them pass away!

Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by , Zarathustra’s Prologue no. 3

Timing is everything. Our lead character walks into the assembly area to find everyone already in the Square. Excitement is in the air. Everyone anticipates the spectacle. The tightrope walker is to perform. Zarathustra recognizing opportunity addresses the crowd, with a question and with an offer of instruction.

It is never a good idea to open any presentation with an awkward question: What have you done to improve yourself lately? Furthermore, I am here to teach you…

It gets worse from that point on. Zarathustra shares his assessment that his fellow townspeople couldn’t care less about advancement, they are satisfied to be the ebb of a great tide. They want to return if they could to a simpler time, a less complex time, a time when there was more leisure, less stress, a time when government was small and far away, a time when “father knew best.” You can see where I am going with this: “Make America Great Again”, the whole MAGA mantra.

Zarathustra, continues to address his fellows reminding them of the interior conflict (a conflict and mix of plant and ghost) which each knows personally in the course of living day to day. He appeals with sincerity that they exert themselves to overcome this rather miserable way of living. He will assist them.

As I wrote at the beginning of this post, the speaker is not well received.

Stay tuned. Learn what happens to the tightrope walker when he appears.

The high-wire walker’s demise is not pretty.