To Be 'Übermensch' Is To Be Superman

The child in me suddenly came out. At this very moment, my mood is saying that I post this here. I have just taken an on-line personality test, 'Which Superhero are you?', and it revealed that my personality is predominantly (that is, 85%) 'Superman'. The result said 'You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others'. Honestly, this is what I think of myself. This, too, is what some say about me. But I'm also wondering whether it has a counterpart, something like a 'Which villain are you?' personality test.

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 85% Green Lantern 70% Iron Man 70% Supergirl 65% The Flash 65% Robin 52% Spider-Man 50% Hulk 50% Wonder Woman 45% Batman 35% Catwoman 20%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of the 'Übermensch' in his 19th century philosophical text, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, is often interchangeably misconceived as 'Superman'. Yet, as I understand it, Nietzsche's 'Übermensch' does not actually refer to an individual, but to a process of overcoming oneself as well as nihilism.

These days I always come across discussions about post-modernism, even from among the left activists with Marxist, let alone progressive, background. While I do not consider myself as a post-modernist because of my Marxist orientation – especially because of post-modernism's refusal to accept that there is a basic process at work in social life at this historical moment, which is the global capitalist system with its totalising scope and implications – I find post-modernism's analytical tools useful at times. In particular, the methodologies of 'double reading' and deconstruction.

I have completed a course on the Sociology of Post-modernity in 2002 under Prof Randy David so I could say I have done quite a number of readings about both the modern and post-modern sensibilities. In the last months, I have attended several left discourses, dialogues, and discussions and I have always heard the argument that post-modernism poses the greatest intellectual challenge to socialism. I have always argued against this because I think that capitalism, with neo-liberalism as its new configuration, remains the greatest intellectual challenge to socialism. First, there are very few people who know about post-modernism – one could even count them in his/her fingers. In the University of the Philippines, for instance, I could perhaps say that only a minority of students and faculty members have a good grasp about post-modernism, even from the Colleges of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Arts and Letters, and Architecture where post-modernism may have been taught – not to mention whether or not they agree with its theoretical claims. Second, espousing post-modernism's principles of heterogeneity, contingency, and as I have mentioned, its refusal to accept the systemic nature of capitalism would indeed be an intellectual assault to socialism – especially at this moment when the development, enrichment, and refinement of the critical programme of socialism is most urgently needed. Here, I don't intend to further dwell on this issue about post-modernism and socialism. I am reserving this for a future discourse.

Going back to the process of becoming an 'Übermensch'. My heterodox development economist supervisor, Dr. Erik S. Reinert, once argued that Joseph Schumpeter's notion of 'creative destruction' – or 'innovation' in the parlance of evolutionary economics – was borrowed from Nietzsche. In this light, it would be best to understand the process of becoming an 'Übermensch' as a process of one's will to power for 'creative destruction' in three inter-related steps. In particular, the will to power, in the first instance, to 'creatively' overcome the nihilism of some defunct religions or outmoded institutional ideals in order to create new ideas. Second, the will to power to 'destructively' reject corrupt(ed) societal codes and morals. And third, the will to power to overcome one's self, or the continual process of self-overcoming.

The process of becoming is actually a process of overcoming. It's a dialectics between becoming and overcoming. What I want to become is a function of what I need to overcome, and vice versa, 'What must I overcome in order to become that person?' This would thus entail an acknowledgement of one's limitations and shortcomings. This sensibility is in fact common sensical. (Here I am reminded of Ka Dodong's comment about post-modernism – that is, post-modernists tend to profoundly intellectualise even the things that could simply be understood by common sense!)

On a personal note, I know what to overcome – fear, anxiety, pain of the past, among others – but it seems that I still am grappling with what I want to become. When I was a child, the career I wish to take was clear to me. These days I appear to be too cautious, wary, and somewhat indecisive about my career track. But still, I could feel something big is in store for me. Hence, I must face each and every moment with cheer, happiness, and a warrior's heart.

It is so hard to become a 'Superman' as described in my personality test – mild-mannered, good, strong and altruistic – especially in this world of malicious people, a world 'as if' governed by the moral universe of the 'contract of mutual indifference', of practical unconcern to others (i.e., we only do something good so that others would also come to our aid when the time comes we are in need). Yet, I will still opt to be 'Superman' in the process of becoming an 'Übermensch'. We must have the will to power to 'creatively' overcome the nihilism posed on the world by the capitalist, elitist, fundamentalist, and individualistic ethos. We must have the will to power to 'destructively' reject the outmoded values, practices, and ideals in the society. And we must have the will to power to overcome ourselves, ours being creatures of habit, and be mindful that we can make things happen – for it is only in first conquering ourselves that we could conquer the future. Indeed, we must have the will to power to unashamedly embrace 'utopia'; lest this world and our very own selves will be far worse.

We must remain mild-mannered even if others are rough and rude; good even if others are bad and vile; strong even if the circumstances pressure us to be weak; and as human beings who love to help even if others appear self-indulgent and selfish. In this sense, to be 'Übermensch' is to be Superman – the will to power to remain mild-mannered, good, strong, and someone who loves to help others in order to creatively destruct the morally intolerable realities of today towards the realisation of a much more caring world.