Fourth and Last Part · LXXIII. The Higher Man

Against the preacher of 'woe to them that laugh'

What hath hitherto been the greatest sin here on earth? Was it not the word of him who said: “Woe unto them that laugh now!”

Did he himself find no cause for laughter on the earth? Then he sought badly. A child even findeth cause for it.

He—did not love sufficiently: otherwise would he also have loved us, the laughing ones! But he hated and hooted us; wailing and teeth-gnashing did he promise us.

Must one then curse immediately, when one doth not love? That—seemeth to me bad taste. Thus did he, however, this absolute one. He sprang from the populace.

And he himself just did not love sufficiently; otherwise would he have raged less because people did not love him. All great love doth not SEEK love:—it seeketh more.

Go out of the way of all such absolute ones! They are a poor sickly type, a populace-type: they look at this life with ill-will, they have an evil eye for this earth.

Go out of the way of all such absolute ones! They have heavy feet and sultry hearts:—they do not know how to dance. How could the earth be light to such ones!

Zarathustra calls the word 'Woe unto them that laugh now!' the greatest sin on earth and says its speaker loved too little and sprang from the populace. He bids the higher men avoid such absolute ones, who cannot dance.

Laughter, dance and lightnessThe absolute ones who curse laughter have heavy feet and cannot dance.
The spirit of gravityTheir ill-will toward the earth makes it heavy.
Christianity, priests and the need to worshipNames the greatest sin on earth as the word of him who said 'Woe unto them that laugh now', the absolute one with an evil eye for the earth.

Commentary on this passage

What the critics said

Anthony M. Ludovici, Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra (1909)

Learn to laughAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909exposition

Ludovici explains that the closing paragraphs of 'The Higher Man' protest against democratic seriousness: all that is good is cheerful, being able to joke about one's deepest feelings tests their value, and the greatest sin was the word 'Woe unto them that laugh now!'

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

H. L. Mencken, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1908)

Equality and the death of GodH. L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908interpretation

Mencken argues, quoting Zarathustra's reply to the market-place crowd that God is dead, that belief in equality and brotherhood is the mob-morality of the ancient Jews credited to their god, and that since educated men no longer believe in that god it is ridiculous to keep the ethics grounded on him.

Portrait of the supermanH. L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908interpretation

Mencken argues that the superman will be perfect in body and mind, delight in combat, say yes to life's pleasures and ills, be scornful, merciless and free of fear of gods and laws, owe nothing to his neighbours and sacrifice himself only for generations unborn; he will distinguish instinct from passion and renounce from expediency, as Zarathustra's sayings to the brethren and to the higher men are taken to show.

Anthony M. Ludovici, Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra (1909)

The noble wickedness of higher menAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici argues that depriving a higher man of his so-called wickedness may do violence to the greatest in him, and that the noblest wickedness, that of courage and determination, is vanishing under slave-moralities, which is why Nietzsche cried that man's baddest is so small and that to be brave is good.

A hard bed for higher menAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici holds that Zarathustra's greeting confirms his thesis that the philosophy aims to give higher men the great hope, but harshly: Nietzsche would be a hard bed to higher men, making them harder, not easing their way.

The higher the type, the rarer successAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici calls Nietzsche's principle that the higher the type the seldomer it succeeds very important: the most deplorable waste is among higher individuals, because highly organised beings rarely reach full development, so the blind will to power in nature needs direction by man.