THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA’S FELLOW
by Daniel Berry
For those of you whose godless view of life is much more than a body of
abstract ideas.
Your comments or whatever are welcome: danielberry@gmx.de
…And at that hour, after Zarathustra walked devant the crazy fellow at the
door of the great city, this guy scanned his self and found the truth of
Zarathustra’s words concerning him. He perceived how did he have spoken and
lived all those years out of his wounds, not out of himself. Days and days
followed him in lonely autoanalisis.
On his thirty birthday, the guy departed from the city on his way to the
lucky mountains, where he would find the so much-needed loneliness and safeguard
from mediocrity. The beforementioned in order to be able to heal his heart
and forge his inner-self, his own self, free from others’ decadence.
Sunrise (Sin-rise/Sinn-rise) found him well advanced on his way to his new
home, creative loneliness’ mountains. Days and days walked Zarathustra’s
fellow.
And suddenly one sunset a lake appeared just in front of him, just in the
middle of his way to the lucky mountains. He proceeded into the lake. At deep
night fishermen on a ship named Jonahesburg invited him in. They dinned…
fish… talked and laughed together, because this crazy fellow was well-learning
to laugh again. As Zarathustra had said: “Happy are those who laugh!” It
became too late, and all the fishermen fell asleep, as they’ve always done. The
fellow was the only one to remain awake, as a Tanzer dancing above a
constelation of newly-created ideas and values.
A huge windy storm broke in tears upon the lake, and so fierce was it that
the ship was about to sink. The fellow did all he could to keep it safe, while
the fishermen remained sleeping. The only possibility for avoiding the
coming disaster was to loose ship’s weight, so the guy proceeded to look for
unnecessary weighty objects. And it came to be that in the mere ship’s forefront
there was a huge pile of stones! “Now I can see the reason why did I felt
strange in this boat, like inclined to its front; its front is turning down, like
if it was a praying ship!”, said the guy to himself. In fact, there were
eleven or twelve huge stones… and a BIG rock!
The fellow placed his hands over the rock, and exactly at that moment the
fishermen woke up. They ran to the forefront and turned the fellow’s hands
apart from it.
“Please do not touch them”, they asked. “These are the symbols, that is,
‘the foundation’, ‘our firm foundation’, the image of our idol (rock) and its
vicarii-representative stones up until today. The name of our idol shall not be
touched. Our fathers, and the fathers of our father demanded us to live in
Gotliness, that is, to bring within us, to any place we turn to, the rock and
the stones, because Gotidol is ‘our life and the fullness of our days’ “.
The fellow’s face turned white in surprise: “Make your choice, oh you
friends. Gotliness is going to make you die in this storms of life. It means a
denial of your human dignity. Make your choice NOW, because there is no more
time: or human dignity (thus throwing away the rocks and stones) or Got (thus
dying in life’s storms). It is time; the time has come to take a final decision:
or human dignity, or Got! Die to Got if yoou wish, but my house with me, and
me, will favour human dignity. It is THE time of your choice. There’s no
other chance, because the storm is going to crash this boat. Me, well, I’ve said
before I prefer to die as a man rather than living as a believer… How much
more strongly will I say I prefer human dignity, your life, my life, rather
than Gotliness. Take your pick!”.
After some seconds of thought, which seemed to them like millenia, the
fishermen decided in favour of human dignity. Thus the fellow took in his hands a
bat, threw the rock, and beat it with all his forces with the bat in the
direction to the country’s volcano. The rock flew away pulled by his shadow, and
the rock entered the volcano. It flew away, proceeded into the burning land,
fiercely hit the fire dog’s head, which was thus thrown to the dust, and the
rock continued towards the center of the earth.
“Hey you, oh rock -shouted the fellow-, now you’ll learn that the center of
the earth consists of gold!” The same he did with all the stones, and thus
they were safe. “It is not your sin, oh friends -said the guy- who endarger
your selves nor violated human dignity. It is the idol and vicarii which mean
wrong! It is not sinfulness which violates human dignity, but your idol and its
priests, ideologues and philosophers! The answer to be given before the
storms of life is not to re-turn (synonim of repentance) from sinfulness, but to
throw away Got and vicarii’s words!
It was at sunrise when all of them arrived to the shore. For breakfast they
had a fish and, above all, they were then able to roast a lamb. A smile
crossed once more the guy’s happy face. “How surprised do I feel grace ‘ vous -he
said-. At the moment de la verit’, when you had to choose between wehat
you’ve always believed (and which gave meaning and inner-peace to your selves) and
human dignity, you chose this last one. Ja, life, my life, your life, a life
as mine, and a life as each one of yours’, begins at the moment when you
choose human dignity above all. Out of stons, out of stones does each one of us
built his life. Stones born out of the stone par excellence that is the rock,
that is, the idol, which is the pursuit for ‘truth’. The personal
understanding of ‘truth’ is the foundation, the basical framework of meaning upon which
people build their lifestyles. ‘Truth’ is the chains in whose name human
dignity is enslaved to an understanding of life (worldview, Weltanschaaung)
which builds a whole lifestyle whose core is NOT human dignity (to treat each
person as an end in himself, not as a means nor instrument nor object) but to
serve that ‘truth’ and the consequences which flow or derive from that ‘truth’,
as well as its interests above everything else, including human dignity. An
authentic human dignity-centered life can be only built AFTER the death of
truth. If truth is dead, if there is no foundation over which to create a
worldview, then… Why to pursue human dignity above all despite life’s sorrows?
There is no ‘why’! Just by not starting a worldview & lifestyle from a
“truth”, but from a personal commitment to human dignity (that is, to treat. to
behave towards each person as an end in himself, not as a means nor tool). As
truth is dead, a person may create a life for any of these antagonistic
purponses: 1) superficiality, or 2) oppression-fascism, or 3) human dignity. My
portion is this last one. So out of human dignity do I build an changing worldview
& lifestyle oriented to my life’s commitment”.
The friends spent all the whole morning talking and dancing and laughing,
and sharing plans for their new lives.
At noon thet perceived a far away-coming deep sound, a deep bell. They guy
was very surprised. The fishermen told him: “That’s not new at all for us.
We’ve been hearing it at noon during months. Each time we hear it, a feeling
visits us with is, a feelinf that clearly tells us that ‘it’s the time’. But…
for that is it the time for?”
“The time is accomplished, and thus the hour has come -said the guy-. The
time for humanity to take a decision, a decision that will shape its whole
future… if there’s still a future! A couple centuries ago, the great efforts of
so many free-thinking persons finally brought us a wounderful invention, the
one which made human dignity possible, that is, the creation of the
individual, of the person as such. Before that invention, only communities, only
herds and tribes existed. The person did not exist by himself; it was just a
cell, a tiny element of which was considered important: the herd, the tribe, the
group. The person did not had human dignity before this invention, but was
only an instrument, an element, a means for the welfare of the herd”.
“When the individual (that is, the concept of the individual independent
from the herd) was created, however, human dignity was then possible, that is,
the commitment to treat each person as an end in himself. The death of Got is
the synonim for the death of the herd’s truth, and thus the creation of the
person, of the individual, of human dignity. Truth is dead; joy to human
dignity! Menschenwuerde ueber Alles!”.
“Nevertheless, few time afterwards people betrayed human dignity. It was
substituted by herdlatry in any of its diverse versions: theism, non-theism,
trascendentalism, deism, rationalism (Kant, Hegel, etc.), mysticism,
nationalism, etc. The creation of human dignity had changed history enough to make it
not suitable to return to the past the same way as before., but betrayers found
those beforementioned subtle proceedings to forgive their newly-born
individuality for the sake of their disolution into… the herd!”.
“It has come the time, the time of decision, ’cause the human being is
re-turning to the herd… to the herd of monkeys! “Each species has created
something above it. However, the human is re-turning (synonim of repentance)…
re-turning to the monkey! By re-turning to the to the herd, we’re approaching
the monkey. The time has come, we are thus at noon. But… shall I call you at
this hour to re-turn, that is, to repentance? No! No! Three times no! With
the death of truth, sin’s not yourselves, but the idol and its herdlike truths.
You are not called to repent, to re-turn, but to move, to move forward…
forward in the way we’re creating to the Uebermensch! As the human is beyond,
above the monkey, so the Uebermensch is BEYOND the man! The bell ‘reminds’ us
that the hour has come,. not the hour to repent, to re-turn to the herd of
monkeys, but to advance, to advance towards the Uebermensch! How delighted, how
happy do I feel looking forward, to the Uebermensch! Not the
oppressive-fascist Uebermensch, but to the human dignity-oriented Uebermensch! What a great
time shall it be!”.
On saying this at noon, the fellow resumed his way up to the mountains.