When Nietzsche was a boy he was called the "little pastor". He expected to be a clergyman like his father, but at university he began to question his upbringing. He decided that Christianity robbed people of the will to excel. His ideal was the artistic warrior hero of ancient Greece.
In his eyes, people were not created equal. There were men, and there were supermen. Nietzsche thought that these higher beings were the key to the future. He thought the Christian era had had its day. That was the message behind his statement:
"GOD IS DEAD"
Nietzsche blamed cultural decay on the belief that being poor and submissive was good, but being rich and masterful was wicked.
His studies taught him that different societies prized different values.
He said Plato had started the rot by coming up with the idea of another reality behind this one. Fear of an eternal hell made people repress their natural passions, abilities and differences. Nietzsche preferred the idea of "eternal recurrence", meaning that this life is the only reality, but it will be repeated forever. He urged people to live life as a work of art. Nietzsche's "superman" was a lover of life and would welcome the chance to repeat it in every detail.
Nietzsche's own life was dogged by illness, first physical and then mental. The cracks began to show in his autobiography with chapters such as "why I am so clever" and
"why I write such good books". Nietzsche's name is tainted by those who took his ideas and used them for their own ends.
For the last ten years of his life he was clinically insane and was cared for by his sister, who edited his works to fit in with her own narrow views. Years after Nietzsche's death, she saw Hitler as the prototype "superman". History tells the rest.
"people should try and reach their full potential"
The compose Wagner and Nietzsche were good friends but they later fell out.
For ten years he dropped out and lived in the Alps.
A professor at the age of 24, he became very critical of Christianity.
"life repeats itself eternally and every person relives it over and over..."
He thought that the ancient Greeks achieved the correct balance between order and passion.
