Like it or not, the new year is fast approaching. And like it or not, the new year is the harbinger of change and a culture of obligatory self-improvement.
This year, I urge you to skip the cycle of new diets, new gym regimens, and new daily journals for a better form of self-improvement: becoming the Ubermensch.
You might be wondering: What is an Ubermensch? Literally translated from German, an Ubermensch is a “super man” or an “over man.” This terminology is conceptualized largely by Friedrich Nietzsche in his book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and indicates an ideal that all people should strive for. I am in the process of reading this book now, and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone, but if you don’t have time for that, then this listicle is for you.
Nietzsche explains through Zarathustra that man is a rope between beast and Ubermensch, and man must be overcome in order to become an Ubermensch. So with that being said, I guess here are three steps to overcome your inner man to release your inner Ubermensch according to Thus Spoke Zarathustra:
#1: Become the Camel
This step should not be difficult for any Connecticut College readers, but Zarathustra first asserts that we need to take on the characteristics of the camel.
Like camels, you need to carry a heavy burden. For us, this burden is obedience to social constructs and norms. But it is not enough for camels to just stand still while carrying all this weight; they have to keep moving. For us, this means becoming unafraid of discomfort and discipline, desiring to obtain new knowledge.
This step is the first step because it is the nearest to man’s natural state of existence within the status quo, but enables us to take the first step, which is the desire to know more and the discipline to actually learn more.
An oversimplification of this for our purposes could be: in order to become the camel, stay in school and don’t skip your classes.
#2: Become the Lion
The second step is to evolve from the camel to the lion. It will be an uncomfortable metamorphosis, and not one that will be easy to any natural Connecticut College camels, but it is necessary if you want the honorary and ultimately meaningless title of Ubermensch.
The lion sheds the camel’s burden of social obedience, and gains independence by fiercely rebelling against the status quo. The lion stage is essentially all of your basic “king of the jungle” rhetoric rolled up into one person.
For us college students, this means that you should be practicing what you are learning. Stay aware of the issues that matter to you, and do something about them: conduct research, speak on panels, vote in elections, campaign with local groups, publish articles, etc.
#3: Become the Child
This one is my favorite, because the imagery is so counterintuitive. The last metamorphosis is from the lion into the child.
Everyone always talks about wanting to nurture or heal their inner child, and right off the bat I feel compelled to say that Nietzsche did not care about this contemporary narrative of buying “little treats,” hugging yourself, or “making time for play.”
Instead, Nietzsche was interested in the purity and innocence of childhood. Children are naturally curious, and seek the truth about the world in their own ways without regard for any external influences. It’s why we all used to stay up late trying to catch Santa Claus in the act, or why we all wanted to touch the stove for some reason?
The camel can only follow society, and the lion can only fight society, but the child can make their own rules based on their own creative discoveries about morality, politics, and relationships.
It’s difficult to say what this step would look like for college students, because not all of us will take this step. What we can know is that if you have become the child, your decisions won’t be motivated simply by obedience or defiance, but by your own convictions.
To be completely honest, chances are, not many of us are the child yet.
Obviously, this article is a crazy oversimplification of a modern masterpiece, and a modern masterpiece that I haven’t even finished reading yet. I know that it will take me a long time to become the Ubermensch, and that’s mostly because right now I am motivated only by how much I like the word Ubermensch. But don’t worry readers (if I have any readers left at this point), we will all get there if we try, and it is an honorable thing to strive for in today’s society. The worst that can happen is we get stuck as a camel or a lion, and those are pretty cool too.
Read the book, happy holidays, and yay Ubermensch!