To have and to want to have more-growth, in one word-that is life itself.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power
A man walks home as night descends, the light gradually draining out of the world, the sun seeming to weep as it and its rays retreat behind the horizon. His heels make a lacklustre scrapping sound against the grey pavement as he walks past the gutters filled with cigarette buds. His face is haggard and pale, as though it has been slapped, stretched, and punched over several years, or even lifetimes, and is still being tormented. His eyes are similarly in anguish, but also have an evasive quality like that of a frightened rabbit, looking in every direction in a series of desperate twitches. Every direction, except forward. His mind continually goes over the events of his day, as if to torment himself. He had let his obnoxious co-worker abuse him at lunch, despite his furious indignation at the unjust treatment. He had meant to ask for a long overdue raise from his boss, but didn’t and just walked out of their office. He wanted to ask the gorgeous woman, Andrea, who worked in the cubicle across from him out on a date, but he just watched her walk away without saying a word.
When he finally reaches his disappointing home, which he could leave for something better but is too afraid, amongst the clutter in his bedroom, he finds an old Superman comic. He has kept it since he was a kid, for some reason he only feels as a kind of inexplicable attachment, an impulse to not let this comic go, as though he is clinging to something more than just paper. Like a dream, a vision, an ideal.
He sits down to read it, and it is as if a mask has been stripped off. His face seems illuminated as he looks at the beautiful pictures, of the epic struggles of a hero strong enough to overcome anything. He almost looks like a new man, reborn.
Then, he puts it down. The mask comes back on, and the man stares vacantly at nothing in misery as he tells himself that it’s all fantasy and he’s an idiot for thinking he could be, or even wanting to be, like Superman.
Well, you can.
The word super is Latin for above, over and beyond. It is a word that immediately brings to mind upward motion, growth and being more, greater.
Like Superman we all face difficulties in our lives, problems, obstacles that block us from getting where we want to be, wherever that is. Although yours probably consist more of stuff more like high school, university, work, relationships, as opposed to battling evil geniuses and saving the planet. Regardless, we all want those problems to be removed, gone, sometimes maybe wishing there was a magic wand that could make them just, go away…But it’s not that easy.
Despite the innovation of DC Comics, they cannot claim to have invented the word superman when they thought up the Superman. The word and concept of the superman was invented by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
For Nietzsche, the superman was not a super-powered man in a cape, but a state of mind, a way of living. The superman was Nietzsche’s vision of the ideal way of living, the ideal human being, which we should all strive towards. It is a vision of a way of life where the individual is unrestrained by anything, be it the herd-mentality of peer pressure or the constraints of religious orthodoxy (both of which he was highly critical of) or fear or guilt, that holds them back from achieving their goals and happiness. A state of life that is given a symbolic rendering in DC Comics’ Superman, who is “able to leap tall buildings in a single bound” and is “faster than a speeding bullet”[1].
To such a being, problems and obstacles seem insignificant, easily destroyed by the superman’s life-affirming strength, and it is this reason that many of us find such a state of life desirable. And the truth is that many of us could live like this, live super.
The way to live super is in fact the same answer to the question of how to overcome those obstacles I mentioned before, and it can be said in just three words: Just do it.
Just go and study and ace that test or exam. Go and ask that person you like out on a date. Go into your boss’s office and have that conversation about getting that raise. Forget the word failure, stop worrying about what could happen if you mess up. Plan you’re approach, and just do.
If there is anything my own experience has taught me, no matter how much thinking you do, “How should I? When should I? What if this happens, what if that happens”, in the end it is a simple manner of do or don’t.
With each act of do, with every obstacle and problem you overcome, chances are that you will grow even more confident at facing more of them head on. Once you stand up to one bully or ask one person out on a date, the next one will seem easier, and the next may even seem easier, and eventually it may seem no more difficulty than breathing, because like breathing it will have become part of who you are. You will grow, take that one more step toward being able to overcome anything. Towards being Superman.
If your reaction to this idea is to jump backwards, if you still feel you don’t want to commit that act of overcoming, that’s okay. There is no law, no rule or dictate that says you have to or is forcing you. But if you don’t at least try, you should know what state of existence you will condemn yourself. A state of living like that of the man I described. One of recurring fear of facing your problems, of haunting sadness at the thought of the glorious life you could have had but did not try to reach, and seemingly eternal misery as you try to convince yourself that you never can achieve that dream, both the thought of this lie and knowing it is a lie making your heart scream in cold agony.
To live super is not easy, that’s what makes it worthwhile. It is a constant struggle to knock down barriers in your path and climb mountains to the peak you want to reach. But it is worth it.
So go and do it.
William Barker-Writer and Philosopher 
This was excellent!
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Thank you.
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