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Ein Heldentod, a hero's death - My new video


Lorin Jenis

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Once again I dare to post a video on Unexplained Mysteries. This time it looks as though I may escape the gauntlet of critics with my sanity and my life, for this is history and not the fantasy world of my "Aldebaran at the Gates". Everything looks trim and proper in "Ein Heldentod" and even the college history professor will give it his nod of approval. Of course, I do not include references but they are not usually required in a video. 

But wait---someone is bound to notice that on the first slide, which serves as an introduction to the story, I have the audacity to say---now let me get this straight---that I myself am an Übermensch. OK . . . maybe Lorin is just up to her usual tricks. She always says something to upset the pure empiricist. She likes to play. Or she wants to pick a fight. Or she just wants to annoy us. Alright lady, I will take up your challenge---why are you an Übermensch?

Lorin is ready to fight, and Lorin responds by saying, "Why are you not an Übermensch?" The very last slide reveals the little known fact that a real person served as the inspiration for the idea of the Übermensch. It was Johann von Goethe. For the women among my readers I would like to suggest the names of two females who also qualify for that august title---Lou Salome (whom Friedrich Nietzsche knew personally), and someone who is likely to be more familiar to us because of the movie Agora, Hypatia of Alexandria. Lorin admits that "Lorin Jenis" is not a famous name---but she will soon publish a book of essays. Even so, if fame were the measure of an inner evolution then Kim Kardashian would be No. 1 on our list. It is possible to conceive of an Übermensch in obscurity. It is even possible to conceive of Übermenschen (notice the plural "en" in German) everywhere you go, behind the counter at the 7-Eleven store, changing your tire, delivering your mail. Or even teaching a philology class at the University of Basel, Switzerland. So again, why are you not an Übermensch? It only requires continual self-overcoming. But do you watch television? Or spend hours a day texting your friends? Or surf the web, looking for something fun and easy to read? Or do you listen to popular music? Why don't you listen to the late quartets of Beethoven instead? Why not spend hours alone looking at autumn leaves and tree branches moving in the wind? Do you think that those superficial friends will help you? Maybe you are afraid to be alone. Can you perhaps be alone with a friend like Anton Bruckner while you listen to his 8th symphony? Or maybe you can be alone with the stars at 2 AM when you cannot sleep. You, the Übermensch, looks at you in the mirror every time you go into the bathroom---but your tired eyes do not see anything except the usual. You know that you have an unfathomable potential just because you are a human being. The Übermensch is right there, in the mirror. The Übermensch is not so much the Superman or Superwoman but the Superior Human Being. Superior to what? Superior to what you think you are are and what everyone else thinks you are. You are already superior to all of that. Just dust off the diamond. You are already a diamond.

Despite the playfulness of the first slide and this introductory statement, the mood of the video is tragic and unrelieved by even a single ray of light. It is the same mood that we find in The Turin Horse by Béla Tarr. We meet the actual Turin horse in slide No. 5. The relevance of my thoughts about the Übermensch to the painful events of January, 1889, is that the Friedrich Nietzsche who thought that Master morality was best, discovered in himself a very human compassion, compassion for a horse. He was a stubborn man and it did not come easy---but at this penultimate moment of sanity he discovered that he was a human being. But tell me, how can you be a Superior Human Being if you are not first a real human being---a real mensch, as they say in Yiddish. Here is the woman's secret---it is der Wille zur Liebe, the Will to Love, not der Wille zur Macht, that is the key. Take it from a female Übermensch, and see the evidence of it in the life of Hypatia of Alexandria. Friedrich Nietzsche may have been the philosopher and the prophet of the Übermensch, but I am an Übermensch and my word on the subject is authoritative. In the very last slide we see the same dichotomy between the Will to Love and the Will to Power---the choice between Johann von Goethe and Adolf Hitler. Friedrich's sister Elisabeth made the wrong choice and thought that Adolf Hitler was the fulfillment of her brother's ideal. Despite his inaccurate idea Friedrich's instincts were right and he chose Goethe.

Here is the URL: https://vimeo.com/220242680  

Ein Heldentod 2nd slide.jpg

Edited by Lorin Jenis
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I am having trouble with my Vimeo account, probably because I signed up for the free membership. You may watch my video on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/GKt0_WZsaZ0

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I finally managed to upload a good copy of the video to Vimeo. Vimeo has a better picture quality than YouTube, so this is the version to watch. In addition, I took the opportunity provided by this confusion to improve the text and the pictures in several places. https://vimeo.com/220495883

This is the first slide, which serves as an introduction to the stroy:

Ein Heldentod 1st slide.jpg

Edited by Lorin Jenis
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Well done video Lorin :tu: Very enjoyable and thought provoking. I must admit, I am more familiar Nietzsche's notions and writings than I am with his life. I was unaware of the aspect of his sister purportedly skewing his works and words.

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@rashore Naturally I could not include all of the details of her "editorial" activities in a video like this. But she actually forged 30 letters in his name. Imagine her sitting down and writing 30 letters in his name by imitating his handwriting. So we cannot say that she simply misunderstood her brother's ideas, or "connected the dots" in The Will to Power whenever his notes were incomplete. It would appear that her misuse of her brother's name and fame for the propagation of proto-Nazi, anti-Semitic ideas was deliberate. Absolutely deliberate.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/10/2017 at 11:46 PM, Lorin Jenis said:

@rashore Naturally I could not include all of the details of her "editorial" activities in a video like this. But she actually forged 30 letters in his name. Imagine her sitting down and writing 30 letters in his name by imitating his handwriting. So we cannot say that she simply misunderstood her brother's ideas, or "connected the dots" in The Will to Power whenever his notes were incomplete. It would appear that her misuse of her brother's name and fame for the propagation of proto-Nazi, anti-Semitic ideas was deliberate. Absolutely deliberate.

My understanding is that her husband predated her in these attitudes.  How utterly ironic that the great brother and his work would be, in the end, completely under the control of the mediochre sibling and her brute husband.

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