The Last Man, and Will To Power

TL;DR

Nietzsche’s response to the death of God is the superhuman (Übermensch), a literal next species that creates new values and gives meaning to existence. The will to power, not survival, is the fundamental drive of all life, and the alternative to the superhuman is the last man – a comfortable, resentful, egalitarian herd.

Key insights

• Nietzsche opposed nationalism and antisemitism not from humanitarianism but because both are expressions of ressentiment (inferiority-driven resentment) that block the breeding of a pan-European rulin
• The superhuman is meant as a literal biological evolution – man is a bridge, not a goal, and no superhuman has ever existed; the project requires selective breeding over thousands of years.
• The noble type of man feels himself the determiner of values, acting from a surplus of power, not pity; aristocracy is justified as the scaffold for higher beings, not for the common good.