All comes to an end eventually. This is the cycle we follow, one that births a new generation of men to take upon itself the tasks left unfinished. We do not succumb to the inevitable, but become great in spite of it, and pass to the future the memories and ideas of greatness. Today I will speak on Zarathustra’s 9th chapter about those who succumb to failure, The Preachers of Death. They who deny the Superman in their lives, and work for nothing, welcoming eternal misery. They are not among us brothers, for we will become.
Life, as we know, is a time when man aspires to become the greatest he can possibly be. When he pursues the hardest of tasks, climbs the tallest of mountains, and sails to the southernmost souths. His life is a time when he achieves greatness and becomes the supreme form of man. Many fail to accomplish this task, the highest accomplishment of all men. Many fail purposefully, and in doing so dedicate their lives and channel their capability for greatness to the obsession with death. Zarathustra warns us:
“There are the terrible ones who carry about in themselves the beast of prey, and have no choice except lusts or self-laceration. And even their lusts are self-laceration. They have not yet become men, those terrible ones: may they preach desistance from life, and pass away themselves! There are the spiritually consumptive ones: hardly are they born when they begin to die, and long for doctrines of lassitude and renunciation. They would fain be dead, and we should approve of their wish! Let us beware of awakening those dead ones, and of damaging those living coffins!”
These are the preachers of death, and they are the subscribers to the cult of suicide that guides the world today. They are fearful and keep themselves helpless to the world. Helplessness which seeks absorption of the many into their ranks. Those who wish death upon themselves are struck by fear, and only find security in degrading others to their lowly rank and status. Men who reject their manliness, only seeking the comfort of mother.
Preachers of death, the men today who absorb themselves into this cult of self hate and rejection of greatness. They fear death yet welcome it with open arms, holding onto their idea of self and worth of life desperately yet doing nothing to sustain it except what their fears order them to. They follow the doctrine of ideality in their sloth, that they suck from others what they refuse to build for themselves. We see the preachers of death today, they are often the smug observer who will not dare speak their mind except to project their self destructive ideas onto others, who is right and no one else understands things quite like they do. Self assurance only in the goal of self destruction.
What the preachers of death give unto us all is the gift of uncertainty. Uncertainty in every matter of life, and one which guides man to cynicism, to become a stoic, to refute greatness. In greatness their word is slain, and so they guide men away from greatness towards the path of decline and death. A cancerous way of being, they are only empowered by their total dedication to the justification of self destruction. Many may take the ultimate task of ending life upon themselves, and their martyrdom will be spread from preacher to preacher, dominating their conscience. Zarathustra describes their thoughts:
“Life is only suffering”: so say others, and lie not. Then see to it that ye cease! See to it that the life ceaseth which is only suffering! And let this be the teaching of your virtue: “Thou shalt slay thyself! Thou shalt steal away from thyself!”; “Lust is sin,” so say some who preach death “let us go apart and beget no children!”; “Giving birth is troublesome,” say others “why still give birth? One beareth only the unfortunate!” And they also are preachers of death; “Pity is necessary,” so saith a third party. “Take what I have! Take what I am! So much less doth life bind me!” Were they consistently pitiful, then would they make their neighbours sick of life. To be wicked—that would be their true goodness.
Messages we are exposed to today; that men, women, and children are exposed to under the guise of wit and truthfulness. The messages of approved media: not to have children, that life is unpleasant and childbirth is cruel, that you ought to give up all that you have. The messages that reduce a man or woman into a preacher of death — of their own death. Messaging that infects the mind with a suicidal virus, weakening the immune system and reducing life to a slothful decline.
This is no way to reach the Superman. No, this is the path to death, through the shallows and valleys, into the mud where disease awaits its next victim. These preachers retain their instincts and live with fear of death, that they worship and follow blindly as the stock of a herd. To follow the path of Greatness, the path to the Superman, this surpasses all preachers of death and refutes them. Their messages are focused and attack the mind, so the warrior must hone his mental strength and overcome its attack. The warrior who ventures to the path of the Superman is not overcome by these cynics and stoics, no he becomes the greatest warrior through his many victories. He proves to himself what is great and worthy, he proves to himself his nobility, and he builds for himself a community of only the greatest. Can the same be said for the preachers of death?