TracingWoodgrains as the Nietzschean Superman
The following is the transcript of my troop deployment (i.e. ending rant) from episode 114 of my news podcast The Mind Killer. If you like it, please consider subscribing to the podcast
A recent Astral Codex Ten post submitted that Matt Yglesias is the Nietzschean Superman because he is the one person forming a synthesis between slave morality and master morality. Nietsche’s concept of “slave morality” is about making yourself smaller. Its avatars are the early Christian saints who constantly humbled themselves, fasted, took vows of silence, and flogged themselves for ever having a prideful thought. Master morality is about embiggening yourself through power, glory, and mastery. It’s avatar is Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors, the best looking, with the most beautiful women, who fights for pride and glory.
The failure mode of slave morality is Tall Poppy Syndrome, AKA crabs in a bucket, AKA Harrison Bergeron, where the goal of society becomes making everyone equal by tearing down anyone who is good at anything. The failure mode of master morality is Andrew Tate, a former kickboxing champion turns “influencer” whose primary output is bragging about his expensive car and abusing women.
Nietzsche is pretty unclear about what the Ubermensch is supposed to do, but in some places he suggests that the goal is to synthesize master and slave morality. Scott says Matt Yglesias fits the bill here because he constantly preaches that good things are good, wants to maintain American greatness, but also believes in democracy and caring for the poor. In Scott’s view, the compromise is that the rich and talented can keep their skills and rewards, but have to act humble and emphasize how privileged they were.
My nomination for the Ubermesch is TracingWoodgrains, the notable gay furry formerly of the Blocked & Reported podcast and currently notorious on Twitter for his provocative essays. When I read Scott’s essay, he was the first person I thought of. One of his highest values is excellence. It informs everything he does. He is constantly advocating for the metaphorical poppies to get taller, and rages against our education system that encourages equality by holding back the more talented kids. He makes no apologies for it and doesn’t begrudge anyone pride in their achievements. But he also maintains an ethic of civic duty, and feels an affinity with his former Mormon community over their mutual desire to improve the world, create thriving communities, and engage in mutual aid. A true Nietschean master concerns himself only with his own excellence, but Trace is constantly encouraging and supporting others to become more excellent. This is on clear display in his essay on why he is voting for Kamala Harris despite the fact that she represents a political machine that is an anathema to his values.
While Yglesias manages to balance a desire for greatness with humility and egalitarianism, Trace balances the bronze age values of excellence, honesty, and individual merit with the liberal values of pragmatism, fairness, and broadly distributed prosperity.
To be clear, I think all of this is nonsense, and I don’t think any of this matters, but if you’re the type of person who feels they need a moral compass, you could do much worse than Trace.