As I mention in the essay that formed the inspiration for the book:
"But it took another philosopher to highlight and to put into play one of the most destructive ideas to emerge in modern times.""Friedrich Nietzsche was also an atheist. But he saw God not as an invention, but as a casualty. He wrote in 1886: "The greatest event in recent times - that 'God is Dead,' that the belief in the Christian God is no longer tenable - is beginning to cast its first shadows upon Europe." The Christian God, he wrote, would no longer stand in the way of the development of the New Man who Nietzsche said would be ‘beyond good and evil’. Nietzsche knew that in Europe, the decline of religion as a guide to conscience and morality would leave a huge vacuum. Who or what would fill that vacuum? "
"Nietzsche thought that the most likely candidate would be what he called the 'Will to Power,' which he felt offered a better and more persuasive explanation of human behavior than either Marx or Freud. In place of religious belief, there would be secular ideology. The very concept of good and evil would be discarded as the product of weak and inferior minds."
"But above all, Nietzsche believed that the Will to Power would produce a new kind of messiah, uninhibited by religious sanctions, without moral restraint of any kind, and with an unappeasable appetite for controlling mankind."
A lot of what's happening today can only make sense if seen in that light.
Sounds like a very interesting book. If you remember, it would be great if you could ping me when it comes close to getting published.
Though my thoughts would be that the Faustian (”western”) will for power has also been a very positive force. It has made us cross the oceans, fly to the moon, seek the next frontier...
But, this will to power must surely be tempered by Christian ethics and belief not to run amok. Tempered by Christian feeling, this will to power is not necessarily a bad thing...
Thoughts?
Absolutely. You can see it all played out in small scale in the French Revolution's attack on Christianity. Reading about the French Revolution is like looking at one of those miniature dioramas of some Civil War battle, except in this case the diorama is of the Holocaust and the Gulag.
Nietzsche? Freud? Marx? All that bunch of stupids?
‘Will to Power,’ which he felt offered a better and more persuasive explanation of human behavior than either Marx or Freud. In place of religious belief, there would be secular ideology.
A New Messiah? Perhaps like Moamar Qaddafi?
Well said. I’ve always thought Nietzsche’s writings to be chillingly prophetic and very much in line with Revelation’s account of the rise of the AntiChrist. Best Wishes on your book.
Cheers!