By young I meant 20, so not that young. I was a freshman in college, a Philosophy major who felt after not too long that discourses on philosophical theories for the sole purpose of arguing apart from any grounding in context are either insufferably tedious or way over my head (most likely the latter). I always fancied myself the intellectual type – ooh, I read Voltaire & Umberto Eco! – that self-propagated myth was soon dispelled.
In one of my lower level Philosophy class we read this book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche. Can’t remember most of the book today, but I remember being intrigue by the discussion on the concept of the Ubermensch.
“Ubermensch” is sometimes translated as “super man.” But “Uber” is closer to “over” or “above” (Germany’s national anthem is “Deutschland Uber Alles” – Germany above all). I don’t think there is one neat consensus on what this concept means, and I hesitate to attempt to explain it in length here. But at the time I interpreted the concept as a person who is above the confining ideas or circumstances surrounding her/him. The concept advocates the creation of new values, and I took that to a more simplistic personal interpretation.
While some of the ideas in the concept relates to Nietzsche’s critical view of Christianity (the character Zarathustra challenges the view of withdrawing from the world in the hopes of other-worldly rewards), some of the ideas also challenges societal and cultural constricts. According to Sy Safransky in Nietzsche: “Nietzsche intended the ultra-aristocratic figure of the Übermensch to serve as a Machiavellian bogeyman to the modern Western middle class…”
I guess the idea is, in essence, about being a general shit-disturber? But since I was never much for kicking around shit for the sake of spreading stink, I applied the concept more modestly to my own context as a young person who looked eagerly to an existence away from my parents’ loving yet watchful eyes. I could already sense that at this time that I was at a cusp of change – growing out of my old skin – and I didn’t want to put my old skin back on.
The Ubermensch concept of the creation of new values, in my simple interpretation, advocates a forging for one’s own path and identity regardless of familial or societal expectations. For example: don’t be a Christian just because your parents are Christians. In short, your life – your choices, your beliefs, your mistakes, etc – should rests in your own hands. You can’t say you went into Accounting instead of welding because your parents thought it was better for you and now it’s their fault you’re miserable, because you’re ultimately responsible for the life you lead and the person you become.
Around the same time I was getting more into punk rock, this time assisted by Will, who used to copy his CDs into tapes for me. I was also Will who lent me this book, The Philosophy of Punk: More Than Noise by Craig O’Hara.
The book itself (or its origin) is a reflection of punk’s DIY philosophy: written by a D.C. punk, it originally circulated in photocopied & stapled format. As I recall it was not even intended to be a book; it was a term paper or something like that. But reading the book, while feasting on the noise and energy coming out of my bootleg tapes, shifted my world.
The punk ideologies – the DIY ethics and the refusal to trade personal values for wealth or status, among others – struck me as parallels or modern embodiments of the concept of the Ubermensch. The shit-disturber idea certainly fits, although I hate people who think being punk rock is an excuse to be assholes. I guess one can argue that being an asshole is in itself a challenge to societal expectations to be polite, but I’m resent disrespect when I haven’t done anything to warrant such treatment.
The concept of solitary pursuit of truth and meaning and self-construct were very attractive to me, a socially awkward kid who struggled between craving acceptance and not wanting to belong to anything stupid. Drunk on repeated listening of Rancid’s Let's Go album, this idea of constructing own values took root.
If Lars Frederiksen can say “When I heard GBH/I made my decision/punk rock is my religion” I would have to trace my turning point to that fortuitous convergence of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Philosophy of Punk and Rancid that led to my punk rock epiphany.
To those interested, free copies of Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Philosophy of Punk are available online on Goggle Books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=p2h1jVM6WJ4C&lpg=PP1&ots=9OLrLwUVTK&dq=thus%20spoke%20zarathustra&pg=PA6#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=rrsy2eOyypgC&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20philosophy%20of%20punk&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
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