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Nietzschean Repulsion Towards Man

“What produces to-day our repulsion towards “man”?  …it is not fear; it is rather that we have nothing more to fear from men …it is that the “tame man,” the wretched mediocre and unedifying creature, has learnt to consider himself a goal and a pinnacle, an inner meaning, an historic principle, a “higher man.” — Friedrich Nietzsche  

Much of Nietzsche’s work in philosophy was dedicated to exposing Western thought for its foolishness. Although his investigations ultimately led him to an extreme Nihilist position, he nonetheless made a whole lot of sense regarding man and his failures. In his phenomenal book, On the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche navigates through modern moral concepts that we’ve inherited, and through detail, demonstrates how we have become our own worst enemy throughout history. The quote above gives rise to many questions, one of which stresses this idea of “man” and how he holds himself as something he is not, insofar as self-awareness is concerned. Man has always shot himself in the leg — Nietzsche is correct by shedding light on this topic. 

We judge ourselves the most,
We doubt ourselves the most,
We have an undeserved sense of entitlement, 
We more often than not find ourselves in situations that we could’ve avoided,
…and so much more. 

Sure, on numerous occasions, the responsibility is not on our shoulders, but Nietzsche is concerned with what is. And when we do take this issue seriously in thought, we come to see that man is nothing more than a contradiction to his own self. Nietzsche wrote, “we have nothing more to fear from men.” What can we understand from this? I interpret this passage in a simple, yet complicated manner. I believe what he is trying to say here is that man has become everything and yet he remains as nothing: he is a lover, an enemy, a noble man, and a crooked man all at once. We no longer fear man, for there is nothing more to fear. Nor do we love man, because love is that which requires blindness to what man is (and to what he is not). 

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