For years I have been unable to understand what Nietzsche was on about with that Super-Man concept. But, in a piece about the non-Super-Man Elon Musk, Erik Jampa Andersson has managed to make it clear to me!
The Übermensch is a figure who, having cast off concerns about an ‘afterlife’ or the will of some supernatural divinity, actively engages with the seeming meaninglessness of the world to create a set of values that affirm life in all its complexity, ambiguity, and struggle. Musk, conversely, embodies the modern capitalist hero who leverages technology and capital primarily to reinforce personal prestige and economic power, not to transcend the prevailing social order but to entrench and expand it. Thus, rather than embodying Nietzsche’s vision, Musk represents precisely the type of person Nietzsche warned about—someone who superficially adopts radical ideas while perpetuating precisely the nihilistic emptiness the Übermensch was meant to overcome.
A fundamental misunderstanding about Nietzsche’s Übermensch is the belief that he represents a cold-hearted figure devoid of empathy or compassion. On the contrary, true embodiment of the Übermensch demands profound emotional maturity and a deep capacity for empathy and altruism. This empathy is not sentimental weakness but rather the strength to courageously affirm life, embracing its suffering, contradictions, and interconnectedness. The Übermensch transcends petty self-interest and resentment precisely because he sees himself deeply connected with the fate of others, acknowledging that authentic power lies in empowering, rather than dominating, those around him. Altruism, then, is not mere moral obligation but an expression of life-affirming values—a creative act by which one asserts meaning against the nihilistic tendencies of isolation and self-obsession. In short, empathy and altruism are essential to truly becoming an Übermensch, for they are the qualities that allow one to affirm and elevate human existence as a whole, rather than merely imposing one’s will upon it.
In the article, Andersson is defending empathy, and he does so with his usual clarity and conviction. Hence the image of an icon on love...
Thing is that what I like about this Super-Man thing is this bit about actively engaging "with the seeming meaninglessness of the world to create a set of values that affirm life in all its complexity, ambiguity, and struggle." I guess that my feeling after spending all this time with the trees is that empathy is kind of like that thing you need if you have lost your way, because the way is living in a fashion that acknowledges that one cannot live without the web of community... in fact, it antecedes acknowledging. The way is that the flourishing of the community is what your living and dying is doing. It's almost impossible to express, because it sounds like morality or communism or altruism or self-interest... when it is far beyond and before that. One cannot unentangle from the complexity. The environment's ills are mine; mine are the environment's. To flourish is only possible collectively. This is what we humans have broken. Empathy is a prosthetic.
Important post !!