Our fascination with Nietzsche

Last week I was talking to an older friend who lived in Germany his whole life up until the past few years about America's fascination with Frederich Nietzsche. He was thoroughly surprised at how much emphasis was put on this man who was not even one of the most famous or influential thinkers of his time period or region. It is true that at the beginning of his career he had some brilliant views on the church and society, but as he aged his hatred of the church and belief in the superman led him to be somewhat of a crazed man and quite loony. The only reason that I could give to my friend Thomas was that his rhetoric on the church can be related to American churches. Thomas insisted that most of Nietzsche's thoughts on the subject were no greater than any other man during his time period, so why the great respect toward the man? It was a question I have been dealing with for some time now and my conclusion was the fact that he gave atheists a title or motto, "God is Dead." This phrase can be seen in The Gay Science which was one of his first books.

Americans, especially Southerners, seem to have a love of generalizations and titles. If there is a quote that relates to a subject it will most likely be used. These title give us a belief that we understand a subject more because we can relate another idea to it. That is why Nietzsche is looked at so highly in modern atheist circles, because he gave people a motto that makes them think they understand. Little do they know that all they are truly doing is attempting to assert themselves as the ubermensch, by pretending to have a greater understanding than so many others they are attempting to put themselves as superior. Nietzsche was an elitist, and the more I speak to more "free thinkers" around town I realize that they are quite the same. All of the ones I have talked to generalize more than the Christians who they criticize. By putting such a main focus on a man who went insane before his forties takes away from so many other people that were similarly attacking the church. Freud, Beneke, Engels, Marx, Goethe, Hegel, Heidegger, Kant, Wittgenstein, and many others get so much less attention than Nietzsche. It is a sad truth that so much is being left unstudied while a self proclaimed "madman" is considered this great influential thinker.