How to become an Übermensch ---- An ultimate solution to nihilism
Hello
I have an interesting theory and I’m not sure how valuable it is. If it seems valuable, who might be interested and who should I send it to?
The creation of this theory: I did many stupid things which really embarrassed me in my life. I hope I can think and act in a way which I like, just as I did when I was a child. However, none of the existing religions and ideologies can satisfy me. I had no choice but to examine and change myself on my own. I keep making assumptions based on my introspection, then test them by either observing my mental states as I believe in them, or using them to explain the behavior of me and other people. Not long ago, my theory became so reasonable and inspiring that I’m satisfied with it. It is a conclusion of my observations and spiritual practices, and it can serve as a guide on how to achieve self-cognition and internal well-being without having to believe in supernatural entities.
How does it look like: My theory looks like a hybrid of Nietzsche's philosophy and Christianity. It is based on something similar to Nietzsche's phycology, yet it provides most of the benefits Christianity provides (such as joy, passion…). This probably have something to do with my taste. I like how Christianity affects people (I enjoy praise songs, like 'In Christ alone', or 'Battle hymn of the republic'), but I can't agree with its opinions (Why I have the obligation to obey the entity called 'god' just because it's stronger and smarter than me? How can we feel joyful when serving and praising that entity if it isn’t actually a part of ourselves? How can I imagine that the separation from that entity is the source of evil?). I agree with some of the ideas of Nietzsche and other atheists, but I don't like how they affect people (I don't think I'll like myself if I accept whatever Nietzsche or Sartre says. Some people in China claim that they believe in what Confucius or Marx has said, but they think and act in a way as if they actually believe in cynicism, authoritarianism and social Darwinism).
Its nature and purpose: It should be noticed that my theory is based upon the analyze of human nature, instead of ontology or epistemology. Its primary methodology is introspection and practicing instead of reasoning. Therefore, although the concepts and issues it discusses are of western origin, it should be categorized as Eastern philosophy. My theory can also be seen as an interesting attempt to combine Western ideas with an Eastern framework. It can also be seen as a psychology theory or a religion, as it emphasizes on explaining mental activities and overcoming internal weaknesses. I believe it will give humanism a firm foundation: our true-self. This is a task which should have been done long time ago. Humanism has always been based upon our feelings and common sense. As a result, it is so weak that it needs other values (such as Christianity) to back it up, and the only answer it can give to real world issues or our internal weaknesses is unprincipled tolerance.
Why we need such new theories: We are surrendering ourselves to nihilism. Old theories are losing strength and new theories cannot be found. More and more people seem to accept the idea that no theories can help them find meaning or overcome their internal weaknesses, so they just give up. We need new theories on humans and morality. We need new theories which can improve and value us without forcing us to obey supernatural or secular powers. We need new theories which cannot enslave us with commands, slogans or unfulfillable promises, but can be validated by self-examination and practicing. We need new theories which do not arrogantly impose their definitions of meanings to us, but help us to define and pursue meaning wisely. We need new theories which do not condemn us for our issues, but help us overcome our issues and affirm our lives. Scholars cannot be relied upon, as most of them are busy deconstructing old theories even if they know they don’t have the courage or wisdom to either improve old theories or establish new ones. They have betrayed the societies feed them and need them by pledge loyalty to nihilism. We ordinary people have to establish our own theories, so that we can protect humanism and prevent nihilism or its twisted offspring (such as political extremism and evil cults) from taking over our society.
If you like my theory, I recommend you to examine and validate it with introspection and practicing.
The goddess within: what makes human?
'The will to survive' drives a human mind to react to sensory experiences, just like animals. Things change when 'self-awareness' comes into exist. self-awareness is a powerful unconscious idea which enables us to identify and pursue meaning. It is best interpreted as: I exist, so I’m free to define and pursue meaning' (Our instincts and will to survive tell us what shall we pursue. However, as we become aware of our existence, we can and we want to reanalyze what to pursue. And then we call our new objectives to pursue ‘meaning’). Self-awareness eternally enlightens and delights everyone like a shining sun. It is self-awareness which let us feel happy when our and others’ freedom to pursue meaning is strengthened by things like strength and wisdom, while feel sad when our and others’ freedom to pursue meaning is crippled by things like weakness and sufferings. Such is what we call ‘heart’. As a result, we became the only creatures know to improve their living condition beyond the need for survival by learning, working, trading and specializing. It can be said that an ideal life is to pursue meaning while being promoted by various internal and external factors (such as strong will, healthy body, a companion who understands you, have free time), which is common in animations. If we pursuit meaning, we feel like a glorious warrior as we confront our self-awareness. If we don’t pursuit meaning, we feel like a shameful deserter and we don’t dare to confront our self-awareness. It can be said that every single person is a knight who are born to honor goddess of self-awareness.
Self-awareness generates 'the will to power', just like a sun emits light. The will to power is a powerful unconscious idea which let us desire meaning. It is best interpreted as: 'I want to pursue meaning on this world and not to be a slave of its intimidations and temptations'. The will to power drives us to pursue meaning by transforming our physical sufferings from a motivation to behave selfishly (such as stealing or deceiving) to a trigger which awakens our desire for meaning. It is the will to power which enables us to come up with the concept of right and wrong, goodness and evil (We label entities, ideas and actions which support the will to power by providing meaning or promoting the pursuit of meaning as good or right, and label the opposite as evil or wrong. For example, we label murder as evil or wrong because we believe that causing unnecessary suffering to others is counter-meaningful, and it also prevents the victim to pursue meaning. We label error as evil because they are harmful to defining and pursing meaning). It also gives us the motivation to pursue dignity and freedom. Here, ‘power’ is the ability to dominate our (not others) purpose, lifestyle and fate. To follow and practice the will to power is the divine destiny of every human born in this world. Although such person can define meaning freely, to abandon such destiny is impossible. As a result, one can serve an evil ambition only if he is convinced that it is meaningful to do so due to self-deception or deceiving of others. Such is why evil cults in the real world need to pretend to be good guys. It seems that goddess of the will to power is the daughter of goddess of self-awareness, and it is she who lifted us from animals to humans. In movies, novels and animations, we often see characters face the issues of their worlds, respond to the call of their gods or destiny, arm themselves with new powers and strong will, then begin a new life as a hero. Such is the manifest of our unconscious desire to awaken our self-awareness, strengthen our will to power, and pursue meaning with courage and honor.
The will to power generates 'the force of life', just like the light brings energy. The force of life is a powerful unconscious idea which let us love meaning. It is best interpreted as: 'It is meaning that I truly desire, let me gain as much of it as possible in the course of my life’. It is the force of life which make us inspired when we are able to pursue meaning, while depressed when unable to do so. The force of life motivates us to practice our will to power by transforming our inevitable death from a source of fear and despair to a source of passion and inspiration (Heidegger claimed that we should ‘being towards death’. However, what it takes to reach such state is not ‘dread of death’, but strong force of life), and it also gives us joy and comfort in this process. It can remove our temptation to dominate others, to own what we don’t need, or any other meaningless activities. It also prevents our will to power from becoming a destructive force (such as easily triggered anger and hatred) by helping us to be more sincere when defining and pursuing meaning, so we won’t refuse to conduct introspection or consider our possibility of making mistakes. The force of life feels like an invisible fairy which blesses the mind and strengthens its will to power. Its decline on modern people has inspired zombie movies. In these movies, mysterious viruses turn people into lifeless, purposeless, relentless and malicious monsters (which does not make scientific sense), such effects are entirely opposite to those of the force of life.
Nietzsche claimed that there is a terrifying ‘god’ called ‘the will to power’ within us. However if we observe closely, we can instead see a lovely trinity ‘goddess’ named ‘self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life’ (I call them goddesses not because they have super natural power, but because I hope we can accept them as something valuable, beautiful and benevolent, despite the self-doubt and self-hate many of us have accumulated in their lives. They can also be named as something like ‘axioms of humanity’)! They are a ‘trinity’ because although they are different, they are all related to other and the concept of meaning. Lacking any one of them will weaken the rest. Everyone has their trinity goddess, although a person does not need to be aware of their existence. They lay deep within our unconsciousness, yet they are extraordinary strong and totally undeniable. Nietzsche only knew about the will to power, which is not enough, because we can't understand goddess of the will to power if we don't know about her mother and daughter. As a result, Nietzsche didn’t find out who she is, didn’t know how to find and strengthen her, and was unable to distinguish her from the desire to dominate others and the metaphysical power which dominates the universe.
The trinity goddess is just three simple ideas within our unconsciousness, yet these ideas can be interpreted by an unlimited number of ways, and an unlimited number of ideas can be derived from them. Although the trinity goddess is not as powerful as gods, they are real, understandable and perceivable. Instead of condemning any of us, they are always working in our unconsciousness and affecting how we think and act. As they lift us from animal to human, they are the greatest and most important ideas in our mind. We have to obey them (otherwise we’ll suffer from spiritual pain or madness) by pursuing meaning, despite we can’t justify them with logic. However, we still have the freedom to define meaning. We can define meaning in a large variety of ways based on our own experiences, feelings and reason, and we can even have multiple definitions of meaning. We can’t do that arbitrarily, though. For example, we can’t define ‘worship an animation character’ or ‘smashing the wall with our heads’ as meaning as long as we are sane. Unlike Sartre’s belief, the essence of humanity is defined by their trinity goddess, while other entities do not have any essence until humans define them by abstracting and concluding key features of the external world. Being aware of such limited freedom is a sign of maturity.
The trinity goddess are three great ideas which cannot be justified with reason (we can never prove why we should pursue meaning with logic), yet they are the fundamental ideas which define humanity. That indicates that humans are fundamentally irrational, and it is impossible to organize our lives with reason along. As the trinity goddess are good and strong, humans are good in nature, and a person should affirm his life (as Nietzsche has said) instead of attempting to suppress or control it (as Schopenhauer has said). Such is the theme of a video game called ‘tales of beseria’, where an irrational, strong willed, often misunderstood and somewhat insane girl named Velvet Crowe (who feels like Friedrich Nietzsche) defeated Arthur (who feels like Arthur Schopenhauer), a man who is so disappointed by human nature that he wish to calm the emotion of all humanity with reason. Velvet fell in love with a boy named after ‘life’, while Arthur murdered and manipulated another boy with the same name. At the end of the game, Arthur confessed that his deepest motivation is self-hate and despair, which are obviously, irrational.
If a person mistakes the three great ideas or their effects for external entities (probably due to self-doubt and self-hate), he will begin to imagine what and how these entities should be, inspired by his three great ideas. He will assign the quality of his trinity goddess (such as good by itself, absoluteness, correct by itself) to these entities. This process created all our gods and moral principles. That explains why gods are spiritual and good (by human standards), why they care about and similar to humans (in terms of moral standards, emotions and way of thinking), and why they can bring about positive experiences when we worship them. Gods are imagined to be infinite and perfect because our three great ideas make us unwilling to remain limited and imperfect (However we are always more or less limited and imperfect, which is a tragedy). By the time when most of us realize the three great ideas within us, gods and religions will be buried in the graveyard. All the harm they do to us will be no more, yet the spiritual benefits they provide us will thrive again. That would be the second enlightenment of humanity.
The trinity god of Christianity share the most similarities with the three great ideas (probably because Christianity emphasize the qualities of ‘god’ and how does he affect our minds): ‘the son’ flow out of ‘the father’ and brings ‘the spirit’, while the will to power flow out of self-awareness and brings the force of life; ‘the father’ creates the world, while self-awareness let us be aware of our own existence; ‘the son’ makes people pursue meaning and goodness, and so does the will to power; ‘the spirit’ brings strength, passion and comfort, and so does the force of life.
Forgetting your goddess: what’s wrong with us?
As we have self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life, we should have a world where everyone is passionate, benevolent and sincere. Obviously, something has gone wrong.
Well, if a person suspects that he can't or didn't practice his will to power by pursuing meaning (perhaps he think he is not special, powerful or good enough to pursue meaning, perhaps he suffers from nihilism), he will generate a feeling called 'guilt', which makes him lose the courage to admit his self-awareness. As the will to power comes from self-awareness, this further weakens his will to power, and strengthens his guilt. At last, he has a self-worsening cycle of guilt and weakness: guilt makes weakness, weakness makes more guilt… I call it 'cycle of weakness'. Cycle of weakness has disastrous effects on our mind. It hides self-awareness, weakens the will to power, and suppresses the force of life. It harms us primarily in two ways.
The first way is called decadence. Cycle of weakness cripples our ability to identify, pursue and feel meaning in our lives. As a result, our life experiences become painful and gloomy. We sometimes cannot resist the temptation to over satisfy our desires or get excessive entertainment, and sometimes we don’t have the courage to do what we think that is meaningful. As a result, self-doubt grows and take root within us. At last, we cannot believe we actually desire meaning and goodness any more. We hope something outside of us could justify our existence, could make us pursue meaning and goodness. Therefore, we put chains such as religions, ideologies and traditions on ourselves and beg them for meaning and goodness. However, utilizing our decadence, they and those institutions based upon them dominate us like evil dragons (which is unsurprising because almost everyone more or less suffers from cycle of weakness, including all those ‘elites’ and ‘leaders’). They turn us into their servants by imposing more guilt on us (Such as proposing very high moral standards without giving any realistic means to achieve them, or claiming our desires are evil), belittling us to highlight themselves (Such as claiming we are so stupid that we have to be educated by some kind of god or authority, and we are born to be their tools), trying to convince us that they defines meaning and obeying them is goodness, and/or simply limiting what we can know and what we can express. Meanwhile, although our old values have utilized our decadence, they are not the cause of it. Destroying old values will neither remove cycle of weakness, nor necessarily relief its symptoms. Those who abandoned their old values will remain decadent. They tend to imprudently devote themselves to more harmful values such as cults and fascism, and thus behave even more badly then those who prefer to gradually improve their old values. As a result, although Christianity has greatly weakened in the last 100 years, not a single Übermensch has risen in Europe as predicted by Nietzsche.
The second way is called sickness. As we still have self-awareness, we feel really bad about our weakness, and our self-hate grows. We can no longer love and understand each other, because we can’t even do that to ourselves. Many of us spend a lot of time and energy raising pets because it became easier for us to love and understand animals than to love and understand humans. We want to change ourselves but we don’t know how, as cycle of weakness prevents us to discover and recover our trinity goddess. We can only remember that we were happier and purer when we were a child. In a desperate attempt to the dignity and self-affirmation they have lost to self-hate, some of us (such as those with alt-right political opinions) pretend to be strong by despising or hurting those who seem to be inferior to them (often only in their imagination). Some of us (such as those with alt-left political opinions) pretend to be good by gaining a sense of moral, intellectual or power superiority from unrealistic although seemingly glorious ideals or beliefs. Some of us worship idols such as states, science or big guys, so as to take their ‘greatness’ as their own. Some of us try to pretend to be special or oppressed, so as to feel themselves more valuable. Such unhealthy behaviors are motivated by the will to power, yet their consequences (such as death and destruction) are often obviously meaningless, thus betray the will to power. Such inconsistency indicates the misuse of the will to power and the existence of false beliefs (which are usually created by self-deception), and worsens self-hate. Sickest people see their sickness as sources of pleasure and honor. They justify and strengthen their sicknesses by adjusting their worldviews to them with self-deception (Such as ‘Only my race/political opinion/authority/music star/religion/worldview is great, everything else is evil and worthless, because…’). It seems that these people have fallen in love with disease.
What Christians call ‘sin’, I call it cycle of weakness. It is the source of most of our internal issues. Christians believe that sin is the separation from God, and cycle of weakness is the inability to admit self-awareness. Christians believe that sin made it difficult for us to recognize God, and cycle of weakness made it difficult for us to find the trinity goddess sleeping and waiting in the depth of our unconsciousness. They do have an important difference, though. While ‘sin’ sounds like ‘our faults and flaws’, ‘cycle of weakness’ is a difficulty or disease. Therefore, god of cycle of weakness is a black dragon named ‘Bahamut’, it blocks our self-awareness, bends our will to power and trample on our force of life. It clouds the sun and poisons the soil, transforming our mind into a sunless wasteland. As cycle of weakness is acquired while the trinity goddess is inborn, the best way to promote internal well-being is to overcome our acquired weakness and restore our good nature with self-examination. Such view is identical to the central points of many Chinese thinkers.
Reunite with the goddess: how to fix ourselves?
Some people believe that their feelings, desires, emotions and/or even they themselves are distracting them from their pursuit of meaning. As a result, they keep fighting against their feelings, desires and emotions, wasting their already weakened will to power in self-hate. Some people want to practice their will to power, however they can’t believe it is their nature to do so. As a result, they mistaken their will to power for external commands or principles. They start thinking about ‘I should…’ instead of ‘I shall…’. They try to regain their dignity and self-affirmation by making themselves and other people to obey these commands or principles, which further strengthens their cycle of weakness and weakens their will to power.
So, what are the right things to do? Well, all we need is to maintain three virtues called liberty, goodness and vitality.
First, no matter how troubled a person is, his self-awareness always exists. If we focus on his life experiences, we can feel our self-awareness. If we admit that it is the greatest idea in our minds, the will to power will flow out of our self-awareness like a fountain, along with delight, purposefulness and dignity. With our spiritual needs fulfilled, our self-doubt and self-hate will decline. Our confidence will grow, our mind will become clear and our thoughts will become deep. However, guilt can destroy our courage to admit our self-awareness, and therefore deny ourselves from all the benefits it provides. As a result, we will doubt, hate and deny ourselves. Such self-torture will drive us to meaninglessly hurt ourselves and others. If a person can validate these facts which self-examination, he will regain his courage to confront his self-awareness. Then his will to power will regain strength while his guilt will lose strength, which makes him feel joyful and peaceful. He will be able to know himself autonomously, and therefore control his behaviors better and become more concerned with the consequences of his actions. I call this 'liberty'.
Second, no matter how weak or sick a person had been, his will to power always exists. The will to power is good by itself, as only it can make us desire meaning. Evil and weakness are nothing more than the consequences of its decline. Those who has strong will to power do not need morality, religions or ideologies. If a person practices his will to power by doing something meaningful, he will gain healthy pleasure. Healthy pleasure gives us long lasting hope and joy. Healthy pleasure makes us feel as if everything in our life is beautiful and allow us to love ourselves (If this does not happen, it’s probably because a person does not think he did something meaningful from the bottom of his heart). If a person ignores or misuses his will to power by doing something meaningless, he can only gain unhealthy pleasure. Unhealthy pleasure brings us negative feelings like shame, regret and emptiness. Unhealthy pleasure makes us feel as if everything in our life is hopeless, and let us doubt and hate ourselves. If a person can validate these facts which self-examination, he will like healthy pleasure and dislike unhealthy pleasure. Then he will be able to feel that his will to power is a part of himself instead of external restrictions or requirements, and thus gain the strength to practice it. He will not say ‘I must not waste my time’, instead he will say ‘I want to use my time to do something meaningful’. He will experience strength and comfort, as morality, once a terrifying shadow hanging above him, now has become a pitiful worm wriggling beneath him. I call this 'integrity'.
Third, our lifespan is short and our strength is limited, and can find true satisfaction by and only by pursuing meaning. If we don’t accept meaning as what we want most, self-doubt and self-hate will grow within us. Whenever we think of death, we’ll be tortured by fear and despair. Excessive entertainment or sense of superiority will not save us from such sufferings. If we do accept meaning as what we want most, fear and despair will not trouble us, and all our difficulties and pain will become our pride and honor. If a person can validate these facts which self-examination, he will value meaning above anything else. The force of life will emerge within him, filling his mind with fresh energy and new ideas. It will give him passion and fulfillment, constantly motivating him to practice the will to power. It will also help him to celebrate his success, to endure or overcome pain, to love what he loves, to hate what he hates. His life will become a joyful war against difficulties and weaknesses, instead of a struggle to survive or an imprisonment with lots of responsibilities and little reward. I call this 'vitality'.
It worth noticing that the supposed effects of 'liberty, integrity and vitality' it similar to that of Christians’ 'faith, hope and love', although they sound totally different. For example, ‘feel our own existence and let the will to power flow out of self-awareness’ is similar to ‘worship Jesus as son of god’, ‘like for healthy pleasure and dislike unhealthy ones’ is similar to ‘be hopeful about the heaven’; ‘receive the force of life and use it to overcome difficulties’ is similar to ‘let holy spirit fill your body and give you strength and healing’. A person who achieve 'liberty, integrity and vitality' will become spiritually strong and pure, free of guilt and filled with the force of life. I call such people 'proto-Übermensch'.
By defeating a range of difficulties and lies and devoting himself entirely to the pursuit of meaning (which is ‘god’ for Jesus), Jesus looks like a symbol of the will to power. When people accept, obey and love him, they replace their weakened and forgotten will to power with an artificial substitute: a 'prosthesis' called Jesus. That greatly relieved their cycle of weakness, thus made them feel stronger, freer and happier. They are so amazed and delighted that they can’t resist the temptation to honor Jesus as their god, to believe that Jesus somehow saved them with their supernatural power. Such is the true nature of Christianity, and it does not matter whether Jesus actually is a god or not. They invented 'faith, hope and love' because it can benefit their minds just like 'liberty, integrity and vitality' do. In fact, 'faith, hope and love' is nothing more than 'liberty, integrity and vitality' plus a religious coating. That coating made it easier for spiritually ignorant people to understand and accept 'liberty, integrity and vitality' so they can enjoy their benefits. It sounds like giving a child a pill covered with sweet coating.
It should be noticed that while Nietzsche's Übermensch might despise all Christian values, my proto-Übermensch feels like an atheist-Christian, whose trinity god is replaced by trinity goddess, whose obedience is replaced by passion. Nietzsche seem to believe that those important guys are born with strong will, while the poor are born with weak will. A person can become one of his ‘old testament Übermensch’ only if he is born to be so. But in fact, by following the steps above, each person can greatly strengthen their will to power, gain the force of life and eventually become one of my ‘new testament superman’.
Confronting the great enemy: how is this world?
Sensory experiences and life experiences are the only two types of information the mind is capable of receiving and analyzing, they reveal and only reveal the states of the external world and the mind respectively. If a person walks around and do some scientific experiments, he can feel and analyze the external world based on his sensory experience. If a person conduct meditation, he can feel a variety of life experiences which allow him to understand the state of his mind. What else can we sense and understand? Nothing.
Then, there comes an issue. As the information we can receive and process is limited, what we can possibly know is also limited. As a result, we can neither eliminate the possibility that all the information we have is wrong or unreliable, nor can we know that they are more likely to be reliable than not (this is not a radical doubt, but a natural conclusion). Perhaps our life is a dream created by demons or aliens, or perhaps reality (states of the mind and external world) generated our experiences in a magical process. Perhaps there is time/god/cause and effect/free will, perhaps not. Perhaps you are a god, and the universe is actually your dream/movie/VR game. Perhaps both our minds and the external world are just a small part of the unimaginable reality, or perhaps so called ‘reality’ is nothing more than the features and patterns of our experiences. No matter the truth is good or bad to us, we will NEVER find out. We can’t be certain about anything (Including this idea itself, as our minds in which it is created, understood, stored and recalled could also be illusion). We can't even be absolutely certain that we have wills, thoughts and feelings (unlike Descartes’ belief), as we can’t know we have wills, thoughts and feelings unless we analyze our own life experiences, which could also be an illusion.
In a world where there is absolutely no certainty, we have neither a reason to believe it’s real, nor a reason to believe it’s unreal; we have neither a reason to be sane, nor a reason to be insane; we have neither a reason to live, nor a reason to die; we have neither a reason to do good, nor a reason to do evil. We cannot find any meaning in this world, and none of our beliefs has any foundation at all. If a person accepts this fact sincerely, all that he once believed in will be destroyed. Including his self-deception, common sense which he took for granted, moral principles which other people taught him, etc. Even the trinity goddess cannot save us: as they are all about meaning, even they will die if there is no meaning.
I want to call these findings 'Azathoth theory', as Azathoth best exhibits our fear to the unknowable and meaningless mature of the universe. Azathoth as well as Lovecraft's other dark creatures are the manifest of our fear to the unknown, while Azathoth theory is based on the limits of our cognition capabilities of our minds. Azathoth theory has similar implications to Nietzsche’s ‘eternal recurrence’: both of them indicates no meaning can be found in the external world, while the latter lacks scientific support. Still, we don’t need to feel terrified by Azathoth theory. After all, we don’t know whether those facts we can’t know are good or bad for us, and Lovecraft’s dark creatures are just the worst possibilities we can imagine. What’s more, it’s more reasonable to focus on what we can possibly know than to focus on those we can’t.
Most of us know little about philosophy. However, from the bottom of our hearts, many of us can feel Azathoth theory by intuition. As a result, we find all our values become less and less convincing. This is what we call ‘nihilism’. Nihilism harm us primarily in two ways.
On one hand, as we notice things like god or nation cannot give us meaning, many of us just give up pursuing meaning. This could severely worsen their cycle of weakness. These people either give up themselves to drugs or sex, or forget about the pursuit of meaning, devote all time and energy to the pursuit of money and social status and pretend that’s all their life is about.
On the other hand, most of us do not have the courage to accept Azathoth theory, and they keep trying to find meaning in the external world. They are desperate to find meaning as they can barely find any. Therefore, they have to vastly lower their acceptance standards for the definition of meaning. As a result, some of them let those old religions and ideologies give them meaning, not because their experience or reason make them strongly convinced, but because they want to hear that there is some kind of certainty and meaning in our lives (such as ‘what we do will make the society better, and we are destined to success’, or ‘God knows and dominates everything, and he gives us meaning and purpose’). Such dire situation is reflected in the fictional world of Warhammer 40k, where humans are forced to believe a religion built upon lies. The ‘god’ humanity worship can’t help them or love them, and he is totally overpowered by multiple dark gods. However, worshiping him is the only way to protect humans from being driven mad by their horrific spiritual enemies. Some others end up accepting stupid things like fighting against oppression that barely exists (such as ‘male privilege’ in developed countries), protecting wide life (which nature has slaughtered in billions each year for eons), or even evil cults as the meanings of their lives.
There is still hope, though. Although this universe has no meaning, it is still possible for us to set meanings for our lives and pursue them. Such is the only way to overcome Azathoth theory. In movies, novels and animations, we often see characters face despair, tortured by it, adept to it, defeat it and then become even stronger. Such is the manifest of our unconscious desire to overcome the unknowable and meaningless nature of this universe. However, one cannot achieve this without first becoming an ‘Übermensch’ (as Nietzsche have noticed).
The triumph of an infant god: what should we do?
One can refuse to deal with Azathoth theory (he might refuse to think about it, claim it’s not true or pretend it doesn’t matter to us) and pretend this world can give him meaning. He will not be sent to hell for that. However, as people’s intelligence and knowledge grows, Azathoth theory would become more and more obvious, until everyone has to deal with it. Azathoth is approaching, and we can already hear the songs of its nameless minions: old values are losing strength while new values are either weak or extreme (things like atheism and feminism are not values, they are just tends and activities); scholars are content to deconstructing old values while unable to find new ones (as if nihilism is not a problem); some people choose to believe all values are equal instead of finding and living up to their own values (which accomplish nothing except making themselves look wiser); people are more interested in stupid things like identity politics and excessive entertainment than in raising children (as if their societies and life styles can survive without enough children). As Azathoth theory becomes more and more obvious, these issues will worsen. More and more people will insanely embrace destructive values (including all sorts of poor definitions of meaning, such as political/religious extremism), until they lead us to our doom. Sometime in the future, each human group will either be consumed by nihilism and destroy themselves, or overcome it by becoming Übermensch (as predicted by Nietzsche).
Accepting Azathoth theory is dangerous for those who haven’t overcome their cycle of weakness, as they might not be strong enough to complete those steps mentioned below. For a proto-Übermensch, however, accepting Azathoth theory is the first step to become an Übermensch. Here is what he should do after that.
First, a proto-Übermensch who accepts Azathoth theory will understand that he can't be certain about anything. Although that could be painful, he is gifted with the ability to never be tired with this world and see all his experiences in a way as if they are all brand new. More importantly, he has no reason to be concerned with what other people want him to think and act any more. He now can and he also have to reanalyze and reevaluate everything and anything (as Nietzsche has predicted). When he begins to do so with the information he has at hand, he will notice that it seems he has self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life. They are the first, greatest and realest ideas he would notice. Although his other beliefs are all wiped out due to Azathoth theory, this trinity goddess seems totally unaffected. If he assumes that they are untrue or unreal, he would come up with the conclusion that he cannot identify or desire meaning at all, and he can do nothing other than behaving like an animal. He has no choice but to choose their existence as the first assumption to hold after accepting Azathoth theory.
Second, our proto-Übermensch notice that he can’t disbelieve them no matter how hard he tries. In surprise and delight, he discovers that the three great ideas are not something he believes in (although he does can believe or disbelieve their existence). Instead, they (instead of the inability to follow and practice them) are what defines him, makes him and powers him, what all his believes are based upon, and what his true-self is. Should they disappear, he as a human will cease to exist (The reason why some people feel peace and joy by obeying their gods is neither because there exists a god who gives them peace and joy, nor because humans enjoy obeying something greater than them, but because it is their true-self whom they actually obey. Their gods didn’t shape them, care them, help them do good or satisfy their spiritual needs, their true-self did). Our proto-Übermensch is amazed by how strong and glorious the true nature of humanity is. He cannot help but love himself and the rest of humanity. Filled with rejoicing and confidence, Azathoth theory cannot frighten him anymore. He notices that the source of its terrifying might is not unknown itself (which is always inevitable), but our inability to accept the unknown (Those who are weak cannot believe that they desire meaning and goodness. They need something outside of them to justify their existence, to make them pursue meaning and goodness, and thus become vulnerable to uncertainty). He laughs at Azathoth and says: ‘I don’t know what is the true nature of this world and how did I come to it, but I’m glad to be alive anyway! I want to live and pursue meaning in this world, because my goddess tells me to!’ He stops wondering 'WHY affirm my life if I can’t be certain about anything?' Instead, he shouts out 'WHY NOT affirm my life despite I can’t be certain about anything?' At this moment, an Übermensch is born. Our new born Übermensch would be able to experiences, explore, understand and pursue meaning in this world freely and passionately regardless of its unknowable and meaningless nature. He has little guilt and plenty of curiosity, just like a child new to this world. His life will become an adventure in search of meaning, and his difficulties and philosophical issues (such as ‘do we have free will’) will be reduced to random obstacles he comes across during his adventure.
Third, before our Übermensch accepted Azathoth theory, he tried to find meaning in this universe, and he failed miserably. Now, believing ' WHY NOT affirm my life despite I can’t be certain about anything?', he has the courage to accept the unknown. He no longer needs any external reasons or justifications in order to pursue meaning, such as ‘God’ or ‘absolute truth’. As a result, he now has the option to set his meaning of life for himself. Such is how his suffering ends! I choose to set 'Let me and everyone else know how to live a meaningful life' as the primary meaning of my life, as I can't imagine anything sounds more meaningful to me. You can set your meaning of life for yourself freely, too. It could be to enjoy your life and raise children with your lover, to understand and help explore the solar system, to work hard in order to contribute to society and family, or whatever sounds reasonable to you. But be careful, if you are insane and you kill someone because you set ‘kill those who make me unhappy’ as the meaning of your life, others might kill you for their meanings of life, such as 'to protect those I love'. Lies and excuses like ‘they offended my god’ won’t save you! It also should be noticed that although happiness and other positive feelings can be inspiring and valuable, they come into exist when we have what we want. As a result, setting ‘be happy’ as the meaning of life is equivalent to saying ‘what I want is to have what I want’, which is illogical. You can still set ‘let others happy’ as your meaning of life, though. This is moral relativism, but this is not moral nihilism: although different Übermensch have different definitions of meaning, and they may adjust such definitions as their worldview changes, ‘to pursue meaning’ is an absolute need for all of them.
As you can see, Azathoth theory brings new life along with destruction. If we see all our beliefs as a building, then it is obviously in a poor state. It has no firm foundation beneath it (thanks to Azathoth theory), while self-deception, others’ opinions and assumptions taken for granted weaken it from within (we can confirm this with Socratic questioning). Azathoth theory will push it down, break it apart and wash it away like a big flood. Although this is a destructive process, it will also expose the trinity goddess from mud and rubble: a firm foundation on which a taller, stronger and more beautiful new building could be built. For an Übermensch, Azathoth theory serve as a baptism which purge his mind of questionable beliefs.
Now I have a prophecy: the god of nihilism, Azathoth, will soon descend upon our spirit realm like a giant asteroid. It will burn the earth, block the sun and freeze the air. What that we once believed in are like dinosaurs. All of them will die of hunger, darkness and coldness, and their bodies will cover the earth like carpet. Although they once ruled the spirit realm, fossils would be the only thing they leave behind. Azathoth’s abominations, such as cults, drug taking and fascism, will rampage across the realm, bringing chaos and despair wherever they go. Even the trinity goddess of self-awareness, the will to power and the force of life won’t be able to stop Azathoth. However, as the realm lies in ruins, the trinity goddess will conceive a new god: ‘the god of affirmation’. Pure, brave and newborn, the god of affirmation is both a lovely little boy and a mighty warrior. He will protect the trinity goddess, absorb and purify Azathoth, and fill the spirit realm with life again!
The rise of Übermensch: how about the future?
An Übermensch lives a brave and passionate life despite the unknowable nature of the universe. He is who he is, as he is one with his true-self. He is a child who sense and understand the world unrestrained by doctrines or common sense. He is a beast who desires meaning despite everything else. He is his own hero and his own legend. He serves no one but his internal goddess. He needs no morality as he is guided by the goddess inside him. He is a paladin of humanism, self-awareness is his banner, the will to power is his sword, the force of life is his guardian angel, and the love for life is his blood. If I need to give my Übermensch a cartoon image, I will choose a lovely little boy or a pretty school girl, instead of a genetically modified super soldier.
An Übermensch does not feel guilt. However, he will not do something evil such as hurting or dominating others, as he does not have cycle of weakness which motivate him to do so, and he understands that is not what he truly wants and enjoys. An Übermensch loves himself, yet he is not selfish. He loves himself because he understands and realizes the awesome potential of humanity, which also makes it natural and logical for him to love others.
An Übermensch might despise certain ideas, mental states and behaviors. He might hate the foolishness of certain people (Übermensch or not), the corruption of certain elites or the flaws of certain cultures or ideologies. Yet an Übermensch will not hate or despise the lives of others, as he knows that he comes to this world without knowing why, he was born with the trinity goddess and he is destined to seek meaning and die: a fate which he shares with every other human being in this world. An Übermensch might say ‘I detest your religion’, but he won’t say ‘I detest you’.
An Übermensch might have some kind of conversation with himself, like ‘What am I thinking?”, “What do I really want and enjoy?’ ‘Do I come to this world to do something like this?’, as his lack of guilt made it easier for him to conduct introspection freely and throughly. An Übermensch understands that it is his trinity goddess who lifted him from an animal to an Übermensch, who his true-self is. He might enjoy walking, travelling, listening to music, or other activities which enables him to experiences their existence.
If an Übermensch has a lover, he/she might come up with ideas like: 'My life is great, so does his/hers, so it must be a great thing for us to be with each other and create new lives together! I don't know how did I come to this world, nor do I fully understand it. However, I appreciate what he/she has brought to me and I'm glad to meet him/her in this world!' If an Übermensch is about to die, he/she might come up with ideas like: 'I have fought for my trinity goddess by pursuing meaning in this meaningless world. I have protected what I love and fought against what I hate. If such is the end of my life, then I shall rest in peace, free of guilt or regret'.
Übermensch will begin to occur in the most developed regions in the world (such as Europe, East Asia and America), where old values are being destroyed by Azathoth theory. Then they will spread to many other modern countries and reigns. As they do not ask for privilege and they don’t have any traditions which distinguish them from others, they are very unlikely to be persecuted. Their beliefs are stronger, more inspiring and thus more attractive than any other belief systems available. Their internal strength and their love for life indicates higher birthrates compared to those people around them. As a result, their number will grow rapidly. In the end, Übermensch will peacefully take over their societies with their numerical superiority. At first, other people in those societies will be worried about this trend. However later on, they will realize that they are unable to stop this trend, and it can even save their race and society from decline as becoming Übermensch is the only way to maintain a sustainable birthrate and a modern lifestyle at the same time.
In Übermensch’s societies, there would be no external moral standards, which weakens humans by often threaten them with guilt while rarely motivate them with strength and passion. Instead, there would be natural trust and good will everywhere among the society, as it becomes much easier for people to love and understand each other if they can love and understand themselves. Such trust and good will can be observed between people and their pets in the real world, as well as animations such as ‘card captor Sakura’. There would still be laws, however they would be seen as agreements made to serves purposes such as resolving/avoiding conflicts or discouraging behaviors which severely harm the others, instead of the enforcer of justice. Übermensch will not see their authorities as idols, such as a god-like agent which leads them towards social justice. Instead, they will see authorities as what they actually are: something like ‘tools to maintain order’ or ‘entities which provide services (such as security) at the price of taxes’.
In Übermensch’s societies, formality and etiquette might be considered unnecessary, unreal or even shameful. People will be more concerned about art, personal feelings and reproduction instead of value systems, wealth and social statues. Attempts to affect other people’s minds with slogans or moral obligations will be responded by fury and distrust. Admitting one’s own weaknesses and mistakes might be seen as a sign of strength and honesty. Doubt and vitality will be valued, while faith and obedience will be considered a sign of irresponsibility to one’s true-self. All forms of extremism will be considered to be signs of internal weakness and unable to attract new members. The use of violence will decline, yet the ability to use violence (such as military power) will be retained, as many Übermensch might value or even take pride in their ability to protect themselves.
In Übermensch’s societies, people will not waste their time and energy on excessive entertainment, unnecessary conflicts, political events or other meaningless activities, thus become happier and more productive than others. Meanwhile, as Übermensch are ambitious and they value human lives above anything else (such as religions and ideologies), they might spend a large portion of their time and resources on raising children, expanding their territories to outer space or other constructive activities. As a result, Übermensch’s societies will vastly overpower and outnumber other human groups (if there is any). At that time, Übermensch might see other humans as barbarians, idiots or cultural relics. However, they will provide help to these people or even invite these people to join them, as they won’t devalue other human beings because of their incompetence.
Humanity still will probably be extinct, though, as the universe we know only has limited lifespan. However, Übermensch will not be depressed by that, as they see their lives as an adventure in pursuit of meaning. They come to this universe, they pursue meaning, then they leave. By becoming Übermensch, our descendants will be able to realize their full potential and enjoy their meaningful lives before their inevitable extinction.
Knights and princess: how to know and view ourselves?
Our minds can be seen as information processors. They can understand the external world by finding the patterns in sensory experiences. However, sensory experiences do not contain any information about the mind itself. The reason why our minds can know itself is that our mind can receive and analyze another form of information which I call ‘life experiences’. Sensory experiences and life experiences are the only two types of information the mind is capable of receiving and analyzing, they reveal and only reveal the states of the external world and the mind respectively. As a result, we can’t possibly know things like whether the mind belongs to the physical world, whether the physical world is just our feelings, whether the mind and the physical world are two independent things, although we can imagine all of these possibilities.
Self-awareness came into exist when the mind noticed the difference between sensory experiences and life experiences. However, life experiences can tell us much more than that. A human mind constantly generates and receives life experiences. Its activities at each moment are reflected by the life experiences generated by that moment, which is received by the mind itself. One of the three great ideas, ‘the force of life’, is named after the life experiences it brings to us. When a leaf is falling in, we know the leaf is falling because we can see this with our eyes, and we know we know this because we received and analyzed our life experiences at that time. Life experiences is a clear pond in front of the mind, whatever the mind do is mirrored by it. The warmth of sunlight, the fragrance of flowers, the pain of falling, all these feelings are not events in the external world revealed to us in the form of sensory experiences, but the process which our minds understand sensory experiences, which is revealed to us in the form of life experiences. As life experiences is impossible to recorded or shared, people use music, literature and other physical forms to record, express and/or share their life experiences. It can be said that art is the result of our spiritual loneliness and the manifest of our mental activities. We tend to label those entities which brings or represents delightful life experiences as beautiful, and those brings or represents painful life experiences as ugly.
Life experiences can be used to pacify abnormal mental activities. They are considered ‘abnormal’ because they originate from false beliefs, distract our mind from meaningful activities and cripple its intelligence. The existence of these activities is always reflected by our life experiences. Whenever there are abnormal activities within our minds (such as self-hate), pure life experiences will be generated. Whenever our mind is functioning properly, morbid life experiences will be generated. As a person feels his life experiences, he will come up with the will to pursue pure life experiences and avoid morbid ones. Such is ‘the will to purity’. The will to purity enables us to enjoy pure life experiences, and to despise morbid life experiences. It drives us to examine ourselves, enables us to identify faulty believes which bring about abnormal activities and then disbelieve them. This process can promote internal well-being, no matter what we previously believe in. Therefore, goddess of the will to purity is a wise and gentle girl who always help us to deal with our problems while never accuse us of having them.
If a person practices his will to purity, he can gain spiritual comfort, become more clear-minded, and avoid causing meaningless sufferings to himself and others. If everyone can do this, this world would become a much better place. However, many people are unwilling to practices their will to purity due to their self-deception. Self-deception occurs among those people who are lack confidence in their trinity goddess. These people are worried that some of their beliefs might overpower their will to power or destroy their self-awareness. So instead of using their will to power to endure or alter those external condition which brought these beliefs, they use their will to power to disbelieve these beliefs and believe in fabricated ones instead. These people tend to make up more and more false beliefs to shelter themselves from the healing light of the will to purity, just like vampires. If someone insist telling them the truth, they’ll feel insulted. They might even ignore or deny their life experiences with false beliefs such as ‘Humans are animals, so it’s natural for us to be evil’ or ‘I’m nothing more than my physical body’.
Self-deception has three forms. The first one is selective-thinking, intentionally ignore those facts or ideas which drive us to think critically and sincerely, such as ‘What is the motivation behind my action?’, ‘What if I’m wrong?’, ‘Why that instance doesn’t fit our theory?’ The second one is bigotry, let favors replace curiosity become the motivation to perceive the world. One symptom of this is asking ‘How to convince myself I’m right’ when thinking along while asking ‘How can you prove I’m wrong’ in debates. The third one is fantasy, substitute reason with feelings and emotion when making judgment (judge others or other people’s ideas are not bad, but self-deception is bad), like ‘Many people believe in my religion, we pray together every day, so my religion must be truthful’, ‘He is a stubborn person, so whatever he says must be wrong’.
The only thing a person needs to do to cure self-deception is to trust his trinity goddess. When his self-deception declines, his will to revolution will slowly recover. Then his will to revolution will motivate him to improve his mental state. When this is done, he should be able to enjoy his life experiences in each single moment, and rarely be tempted to deny or ignore it. It can be said that goddess of the will to purity is a princess imprisoned in the stronghold of lies. The trinity goddess is the worriers who smash the wall, burn the monsters, and free the princess from her shackles and chains. However, for those who cannot trust their trinity goddess, the only cure for their self-deception is sufferings.
Getting along with an inconsiderate goddess: how to deal with desires?
Every single creature has the will to survive, and humanity is not an exception. The will to survive came into exist as a mind receives sensory experiences, and it is the source of most of our desires. Many of us tend to use their will to power to deny their desires. This is one form of self-deception, and it does a lot of harm and little good. Its effects include:
First, desires invoked by the will to survive will not disappear silently as a person denies them. For example, the desire for a lover are pure, healthy and controllable. Should one deny it, he will be convinced that he will never find a lover, and thus suffer from despair. Such despair will transform his original, healthy desire into anger, hatred, the desire for rape, the desire for dominating others, or other unhealthy desires or emotions. These desires and emotions are more harmful, more painful and less controllable. Mistaking these unhealthy desires as our natural instinct is the main reason why many people have the misconception that human-nature is evil.
Second, denying desires weakens instead of strengthens our trinity goddess. It requires us to constantly waste our will to power on maintaining self-deception, and it is caused by and strengthens self-hate. For example, if a person wants to deny his desire for a lover, he need to hate his desire. He has to either constantly tell himself that he doesn’t need a lover, or constantly be troubled with the spiritual discomfort which results from such false belief.
Third, the will to survive drives us to survive, not to do harmful behavior. The desires it gives us include: find clean food and water, avoid getting hurt, to reproduce, to take care of offspring, avoid killing our own kind, etc. The satisfaction of these desires either seems meaningful, or necessary for the pursuit of meaning. Therefore, the conflict between these desires and our trinity goddess is usually avoidable. Our trinity goddess may even coexist with desires, let us we seek the satisfaction of desires in a more constructive and enjoyable way. Romance is a good example for this.
As you can see, goddess of the will to survive is quite hard to get along with. However, if we be honest to her, she won’t do harm to us. As denying our own desires is one form of self-deception, to trust our trinity goddess is the only thing we need to do to avoid it. For an Übermensch or a person who wish to become one, there are two beneficial ways to deal with desires.
First is to accept them and assign meaning (such as gain new experiences or motivate us to do something else) to their satisfaction. By doing so, our experiences would become more enjoyable and our desires would become more controllable. For example, if a person sees eating ice-cream as a good way to be relaxed and gain enjoyable experiences, he can feel and remember the texture of ice-cream better. When his desire for ice-cream is satisfied, such desire won’t attract his attention anymore. It should be noticed that if a desire is sufficiently satisfied, it would be difficult to assign meaning to it or gain pleasure from it. Continue seeking the satisfaction of a sufficiently satisfied desire is a symptom of cycle of weakness.
Second is to accept them and endure their unsatisfaction by focusing on other meaningful activities with the will to power. By doing so, our self-awareness will become stronger and our force of life will bring us peace and joy. If our meanings are achieved or our desires are satisfied in the future, pride and honor will be our reward. It should be noticed that although ‘enduring unsatisfaction’ and ‘denying unsatisfaction’ sounds similar, the former is a sign of strength (a strong desire for meaning) and makes a person even stronger, while the latter is a sign of weakness (self-hate and self-deception) and makes a person even weaker.