The last man has not only killed God. He makes everything small, according to Nietzsche in Zarathustra. He himself becomes homo economicus, a screw, in the mechanistic understanding since the Enlightenment. The last strong countermovement against this dehumanization of humankind, which was triggered by the Enlightenment and is still progressing, was Romanticism. The Romantics defied the atheistic Enlightenment. God is not dead, they showed. God is even greater.
A truly religious person cannot sin
says Novalis somewhere. And thus exactly hits the virtue of the cynics.
The will to might is always also a will to submit to the more mighty. Let us worship wherever it is possible. This is not idolatry, as the last Christians immediately whisper. Quite the contrary. Allahu akbar! God is even still much greater. He is still much more beautiful. And God is even much closer to you, than you can imagine, because he is also much smaller. The whole universe has room in your soul.
In the worship of the smallest, we find that which is greater than the greatest we have ever painted. In the worship of the Beloved who becomes our Goddess, in the willingness to give her everything, willing to die for her at a beckoning through her, we realize: and God is still much greater.
Novalis tells:
A minion of fortune longed to embrace the ineffable nature. He sought the mysterious abode of Isis1Of course, Isis here does not mean the Islamic state, but the Egyptian goddess Isis. He left his fatherland and his beloved ones and in the urge of his passion he did not pay attention to the sorrow of his bride. His journey lasted long. The hardships were great. At last he met a spring and flowers that prepared a way for a family of spirits. They told him the way to the sanctuary. Delighted with joy, he came to the door. He entered and saw – his bride, who received him with smiles. Looking around, he found himself in his bedchamber, and a sweet night music sounded under his windows to the sweet resolution of the mystery.
Novalis, Aphorisms
The murder of God through the Enlightenment has also killed the proud man and the earth is now inhabited by the last people.
The Speech of the Last Man
In Zarathustra, the protagonist first tries to advertise the superman to the people. But the mob does not want to hear anything about it. Then he warns of the last man. However, the audience does not understand this as a warning, but as something worth striving for.
The earth has become small, and on it hops the Last Man, who makes everything small. His species is ineradicable as the flea; the Last Man lives longest.
“We have discovered happiness” — say the Last Men, and they blink.
They have left the regions where it is hard to live; for they need warmth. One still loves one’s neighbor and rubs against him; for one needs warmth.
Turning ill and being distrustful, they consider sinful: they walk warily. He is a fool who still stumbles over stones or men!
A little poison now and then: that makes for pleasant dreams. And much poison at the end for a pleasant death.
One still works, for work is a pastime. But one is careful lest the pastime should hurt one.
One no longer becomes poor or rich; both are too burdensome. Who still wants to rule? Who still wants to obey? Both are too burdensome.
No shepherd, and one herd! Everyone wants the same; everyone is the same: he who feels differently goes voluntarily into the madhouse.
Nietzsche, Zarathustra
Either we become, in the words of the Romantics God, in Nietzsche’s word superman, or we end up in the desert of nihilism.
- 1Of course, Isis here does not mean the Islamic state, but the Egyptian goddess Isis