Cynic Direct Action Blog

http://www.thespectacle.net/videos/mad.html

SUMMARY

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche argued that Western civilization’s scientific, technological worldview has to a large extent made the traditional conception of God unbelievable, resulting in a “devaluation of all values” accompanied by a monumental loss of meaning and purpose.

He dubbed “nihilism” the condition that results when a society’s foundational values become meaningless, and predicted great psychic and social cataclysms that must occur in the wake of God’s “death.”

The nihilism that Nietzsche prophesied provided the fertile ground for the emergence of the Spectacle, envisioned by Guy Debord as “the material reconstruction of the religious illusion.” Similarly, media critic Neil Postman has argued that the command center of Western civilization, once the Church, is now television (and by extension all mainstream media).

The Madman explores the idea that the Spectacle has become our new religion, providing meaning, visions of salvation, and instructions on how a “good” life should be lived.

Does the new Spectacle religion, grounded in images of material abundance in the here and now, represent an advancement over the rigidities and “illusions” of old-time religion, or does it constitute an all-out assault on the genuine experience of the sacred?

Is the Spectacle world order a precursor to “a higher history than all history hitherto” foretold by Nietzsche, or is it the last gasp of a dying civilization amusing itself to death?

Nietzsche’s incisive questions and controversial pronouncements continue to provoke outrage and debate, and are especially relevant today as we grapple with issues of religion in a techno-mediated age.

WORDS

NARRATOR:

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the marketplace and cried incessantly:

THE MADMAN:

I am looking for God!
I am looking for God!

NARRATOR:

As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there he excited considerable laughter.

“Have you lost him then?” said one. “Did he lose his way like a child?” said another. “Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? Or emigrated?” - thus they shouted and laughed.

The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.

THE MADMAN:

Where has God gone?

I shall tell you.

We have killed him - you and I. We are all his murderers.

But how have we done this?

How were we able to drink up the sea?

Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon?

What did we do when we unchained this earth from its sun?

Whither is it moving now?

Whither are we moving now?

Away from all suns?

Are we not perpetually falling - backwards, forwards, sidewards, in all directions?

Is there any up or down left?

Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing?

Do we not feel the breath of empty space?

Has it not gotten colder?

Is more and more night not coming on all the time?

Must not lanterns be lit in the morning?

Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God?

Do we not smell anything yet of God’s decomposition? - gods, too, decompose.

God is dead.

God remains dead.

And we have killed him.

How shall we, the murderers of all murderers, console ourselves?

That which was mightiest and holiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives - who will wipe this blood off us?

With what water could we purify ourselves?

What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent?

Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us?

Must we not ourselves become gods simply to seem worthy of it?

There has never been a greater deed - and whoever shall come after us, for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto.

NARRATOR:

Here the madman fell silent and again regarded his listeners; and they, too, were silent, and stared at him in astonishment.

At last he threw his lantern to the ground, and it broke and went out.

THE MADMAN:

I come too early; my time has not yet come.

This tremendous event is still on its way, still travelling - it has not yet reached the ears of men.

Lightning and thunder require time, deeds require time after they have been done before they can be seen and heard.

This deed is still more distant from them than the most distant stars - and yet they have done it themselves.

NARRATOR:

It has been related further that on that same day the madman entered several churches, and there sang a requiem aeternam deo.

Led out and quieted, he is said to have retorted each time:

THE MADMAN:

What are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers. . .
of God?

NEWSCASTER:

This just in. . .

God is dead.

NOW THIS

CREDITS

music and video:
Eric Goodman

words:
Friedrich Nietzsche

based on
Friedrich Nietzsche’s
The Madman

from his book
The Gay Science