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CURRENTLY IN CULTURE
Nietzsche speaking to our youth

Esther McIlveen

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), the son of a German Lutheran minister, denounced the Christian ethic of love and obedience as “slave morality” and tried to wipe out the idea that every human being deserves respect. He attacked equality and democracy, calling for a master race to embrace brutality as evidence of its superior power. Nietzsche claimed “agape (God’s love for us) has no rightful claim on our allegiance. Not only does agape lack all moral authority, but it has a destructive effect on society and culture. It inhibits the rise of superior human beings to the heights of glory which we realize at last, are not inhabited by God.” The divine quality that Nietzsche claimed for humanity was power. He consigned women to an inferior status: “Man shall be trained for war and woman for the procreation of the warrior.”

The Nazi Party adapted Nietzsche’s philosophy, with horrific consequences. Yet, we are still affected by Nietzsche’s ideas today. As Nietzsche’s ideas filter down to popular culture (movies and music), murderers are seen as confident and efficient. Evil has become cool. Might is right.

This was demonstrated two years ago, on Hitler’s birthday, in Littleton, Colorado, as two teenagers displaying Nazi symbols shot their classmates in cold blood. In Surrey, B.C., five neo-Nazi white supremacist skinheads brutally killed Nirmal Singh Gill simply because he was a Sikh.

The lyrics of the rock band Korn also reflect Nietzsche’s theories. These lyrics are violent, profane and misogynist. Korn sometimes appears to be throwing a temper tantrum. His lyrics say that God hates me, God doesn’t care, God has given up on me and therefore I can do as I please.

Foul-mouthed rap star Eminem has sold over five million records in the US. Like Nietzsche and Korn, he denigrates women. His lyrics speak of torturing and killing women. On a song called “Kill You”, Eminem appears to be raping and killing his own mother.

As some of our pop culture continues to present such views, are we reaping the results of a generation that has been reared on Nietzsche’s philosophy?

Esther McIlveen lives in Richmond, B.C.

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Last modified September 16, 2000.

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