“A polluted stream is man. One must be a sea, to receive a stream without becoming impure.”
Nietzsche – Thus Spake Zarathustra
In Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, when Zarathustra visits the town of the Pied Cow, he encounters the townspeople, who mistake him for the scheduled entertainer – the deformed tight-rope walker.
The simplest meaning of the opening quote of this post is this: that mankind is filled with filth and sin. Only a greater being, a more evolved creature, can engage with mankind without succumbing to his follies. Of course, for Nietzsche, that more evolved being is the Overman.
But as mentioned earlier, the Overman, whilst expressed in powerful terms, is ultimately an unattainable ideal. That is to say, the Overman is an ideal that all men should aspire towards, for it is in the striving that we find power.
In the town of the Pied Cow, we see a tightrope walker, entertaining the townsfolk, crossing from one tower to another. Here we see the tightrope as a metaphor for mankind, starting tower representing base animals, the destination tower representing the Overman. Here, mankind is presented by Nietzsche as a “rope between beast and the Superman”.
The tightrope walker is unhinged by a jester, who runs out from the first tower, and leaps over the tightrope walker, causing him to fall to the ground. The tightrope walker lay dying, contemplating his life, expressing how futile his life has been, that he is nothing more than an animal. Zarathustra tells him not to fear, that there has been honour in his life – he has lived a life of danger, which is far more than anybody can say about the townsfolk who have lived their lives in safety, superficiality, comfort, weakness: the townsfolk are the epitome of the despised “Last Men”.
Here then, the tightrope walker is the epitome of the aspirational man – he who can never hope to become the Overman, but who finds honour and strength in the striving, walking the tenuous path from animal to Overman, and never accepting comfort or safety.
