Nietzsche has permitted me to understand human beings, particularly modern human beings, in a most insightful manner. Following the “death of God,” Western man has clung all the more tightly to Christian morality, despite the fact that that morality can no longer have a firm, rational basis. The effort to replace God with a progressive view of history has as its goal “the last man”: the universal green pasture happiness of the herd. The morality that accompanies this new idol does not have any rational basis. On the contrary, it is the product of the ressentiment of a particularly nasty political ideology. It is the product of a venomous act of will. The irony of this new, more militant, form of moralizing is that it has been, in part, aided by Nietzsche’s writings. Superficial readers of Nietzsche have turned into celebratory, progressive atheists who deem themselves superior over all of history. These same readers are those who would have firmly held to the most preposterous superstitions in earlier times. Their eyes remain fastened to the shadows dancing on the wall of the cave.

In short, Nietzsche’s writings have opened my eyes to the political snares likely to trap youthful individuals, releasing me from my shackles within the cave. Consequently, I have been able to pursue the philosophic life which is in direct conflict with the political life.