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“Is it better to out-monster the monster or to be quietly devoured?” ~Nietzsche
Of course it is always better to out-monster the monster. But how does one go about doing that exactly? How do we outflank the abyss? How do we outmaneuver nihilism? How do we overcome the beast of lesser men?
Before we can answer that, we must define our terms…
What is the monster?
The monster is the three-headed beast of deceit, delusion, and certainty. It hides in the smoke and mirrors of aggrandized culture. It makes a song and dance of “truth” showcased in pretentious makeup and makeshift platitudes. It disguises its ugliness behind a veil of comfortable lies. It pretends to be an invulnerable front between you and death, but it is merely an illusion.
The monster is a middleman, a stopgap, a contrivance. It’s the illusion of division. It is propped up by the lesser beast of men (Nietzsche’s concept of the Last Man). It takes the form of cultural conditioning, religious indoctrination, and political propaganda. It is what separates mankind from experiencing true intimacy with infinity.
What is the Overman?
The Overman is a force of nature first, a person second. He (or she) is a wrecking ball, a chisel, a sword of truth.
The Overman is the primordial prodigy, the epistemological elite, the interdependent Self, the chameleon of the human condition. The Overman is the “genius” that Jesus spoke of in the Gospel of Thomas: “If you bring forth the genius within you, it will free you. If you do not bring forth the genius within you, it will destroy you.”
An Overman is one who has transcended the human condition and achieved a self-actualized state of perpetual self-overcoming.
The Overman is “over” ordinary men because he is neither a slave to reason nor a slave to realpolitik. He is beyond “good” and “evil.” He strategically elevates himself above the battlefield of the human condition. He is neither a beast caught up in the throes of mindless instinct, nor a god caught up in the throes of high-minded reasoning. He is Overman—the pinnacle of man—caught up only in staying ahead of the curve and becoming the best version of himself.
What is the Oversoul?
The Oversoul is a feeling of nonattachment with the infinite interconnectedness of all things. Some call it “in touch with Infinity.” Some call it “balance with Nature.” Some call it “oneness with God.” But the key is having a healthy nonattachment to everything being attached to everything else.
The Oversoul is both the Great Mystery in which we rest and the inner mystery with which we attest. It’s the Unity within which every man's spiritual being is contained and made one with all things.
But the Oversoul requires courage to feel it. It requires audacity, insouciance, and revolt against cultural norms. As George Orwell said, “Until they become conscious, they will never rebel; and until after they have rebelled, they cannot become conscious.”
Thus, experiencing the Oversoul is a paradox. We cannot become conscious if we don’t rebel, and we cannot rebel until we’ve become conscious.
This is mostly because we are creatures of comfort kept inline by outflanking cultural conditions. We suffer from what Nietzsche called, “the herd instinct.” We tend to be more like lemmings than rebels, more like sheep than lions. But an Overman Tapping the Oversoul solves the paradox.
What happens when the Overman experiences the Oversoul?
An Overman in touch with Oversoul is a force of Infinity that has the capacity to out-monster the monster, to outflank the abyss, and to outmaneuver nihilism.
When an Overman taps the Oversoul, he redefines God. Which is the first and vital step of out-monstering the monster.
Why is it necessary to redefine God? To absolve oneself of one’s cultural conditioning. To get out from underneath one’s parochial ancestor’s shadow. To take out the middleman that lies (and is a liar) between oneself and interdependence with all things.
For the middleman is the monster. The middleman is anything preventing you from realizing you are one with all things. It’s anything inhibiting you from a direct experience with God. As Eric Fromm said, “When people can’t handle God anymore, they turn to religion.”
Redefining God is an Overman’s way of handling God without turning away. He taps the Oversoul and brings forth the courage to draw the Question Mark Sword from the hardened stone of his culturally conditioned beliefs. He uses it to cut out the middleman.
He is violent in his art so that he may be peaceful in his life.
He cuts through cultural conditioning, religious indoctrination, and political propaganda. He decapitates the middleman. He gets ahead of it all in unhinged, humble, righteous glory.
When all the red herring pretense and stopgap idealism is stripped away, all you’re left with is the bleeding-meat truth of existence, the indifferent heat of an ancient universe that outflanks you in every way. What’s leftover is raw infinity. What’s leftover is naked reality. What’s leftover is the snarling abyss.
“Good! So be it. Bring it on,” the Overman howls with audacious glee. He challenges the abyss to an epic staring contest. He dares to gaze into the abyss until he sees the light. For it is through the darkest darkness where he will discover a greater light than the blinding light of culture that came before (Plato’s Cave). It is through the blackened guts of the abyss where he will discover the raw ingredients of God, without petty pretense, without religious platitude, without fearful placation. Just raw, naked, unflinching infinity burning everything that is not already fire.
Overman and Oversoul is the epitome of fire. It is fire incarnate, a burning beacon of unbridled hope searing through the human condition like white hot antifragility through cold rigid fragility. In one fell swoop of his Sword of Truth, an Overman in the throes of Oversoul cuts clean through the Middleman of cultural conditioning, religious indoctrination, and political propaganda. In doing so he redefines God.
Overman and Oversoul redefines God as Infinity itself. No pretense. No platitudes. No stopgaps. Just raw, naked, indifferent Infinity. The interconnection of all things. The Dancing Nothing. The Blooming Ha Ha. The Great Mystery.
In doing so, Overman and Oversoul becomes the spearhead of Truth, cutting through all the trivial “truths” of men. Moving ever-forward. Propelled by a Truth Quest without end. Everything falls to the wayside. All the petty finite games fall to pieces in the midst of the mighty Infinite Game blasting through. Cutting through middlemen like an assassin of higher order. Bridging the gap between Man and Overman. Showing that the way through all “ways” will always be through a nonattached sense of incredulity and curiosity despite the makeshift middlemen of fragile men.
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About the Author:
Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.
This article (Overman & Oversoul) was originally created and published by Self-inflicted Philosophy and is printed here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Gary Z McGee and self-inflictedphilosophy.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this statement of copyright.
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