bar that is set above us. The bad conscious becomes permanent and the debt humanity owes to God keeps us believing we are in a state of evil, falling short to the expectations made
of humans.
Nietzsche wishes to remove this conception of us being evil for whatever we do, and questions why we have concepts such as humility and pity, if they are any good outside of this traditional perspective. I hope you can accept with me that many people in the west, if not Christian, themselves are Christian cultured, and therefore take this morality to be our own, such as: humility is good whereas selfishness and egocentricity are bad. We accept this – so what happens when someone comes along with a platform and enough confidence to proclaim their own greatness? Enter Kanye West, global superstar, with an ego to show for it.
“I’m living in the 21 st century doin’ something mean to it, Do it better than anybody you ever seen do it...”
— Power, Kanye West
Nietzsche promotes the idea that we can be great, that there are people who are great, by introducing the idea of the “Übermensch”, the overman or superman who is better than others
and is set up for greatness. The Übermensch should not be suppressed or diluted, can’t be, even. They will aspire to greatness and accumulate power, in a life-affirming way. If there is anyone who views himself as an
Übermensch , it’s Kanye West;
frequently referring to himself as a God, as the best, and equating himself to the level of Jesus in calling himself Yeezus. And Nietzsche would agree with this, the Übermensch’s nature is to be the best, and to suppress it or play it down is a crime to the nature of the being. Hence why Neitzsche would argue that the traditional Christian moral ideology is so flawed, it is not in our interests to stamp out our “negative” qualities – we ought to aspire to greatness by changing our ‘flaws’ into greatness.
“I’m trying to right my wrongs but it’s funny, them same wrongs helped me write this song...”
— Touch The Sky, Kanye West ft Lupe Fiasco
Kanye West’s albums appear to be a Nietzschean journey. From the self-proclaimed Christian to experimenting with the limits of this conceptual framework, any self-gratification from Kanye is met with distaste from the anti-narcissistic culture we’re so used
to, which Neitzsche refers to as ‘Christian morality’. But there is no reason for us to value this morality, Nietzsche would argue. to. But there is no reason for us to value this morality, Nietzsche would argue. Whether Kanye is arrogant seems at first to be a pretty easy question, most people wouldn’t bat an eye before calling him arrogant. Arrogance in this sense meaning “having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities.” I would be inclined to disagree. Of course Kanye West has a sense of his own self-importance, and definitely feels like his ability is superior to some of his contemporaries. But this isn’t necessarily unjustified, whatever your opinion of him is, Kanye West is clearly successful and to be proud of that isn’t a bad thing.
From personal experience the message of self-worth is a very important one. We have a tendency to internalise the rejection we get from others, making us feel insecure or unworthy. Nietzsche
would call this the slavish values, told to be humble and not think of ourselves as great, the
Nietzschean-West approach is to recognise that actually you can be great. You do not have to be
humble if you’re good at something: Do not put yourself down. Very few places to we get this
message, most of the time we take humility as good, that we have to keep ourselves down and
can never achieve the greatness which humanity is destined. No wonder there is outrage when
Kanye West states “ I am a God. ”
“ 50 told me go ‘head switch the style up, and if they hate then let ‘em hate and watch the money
pile up ”.
Good
Life
The controversy follows both of these figures, the backlash for subverting some of the
concepts that we hold very dear, proclaiming yourself as the greatest philosopher or as the
greatest living rockstar has a similar consequences in public opinion. And with both thinkers you
sometimes have weed through misogynistic and ignorant ideas, but at their cores, they are
shaking up how we conceive the world. And who’s got a better platform than Kanye West to show
this. Whether you like his music or his attitudes, Kanye West is a genius.
"KANYE WEST'S ALBUMS APPEAR TO BE A NIETZSCHEAN JOURNEY"