The Cult of the Superman

R., A. D.

doi:10.1038/160592a0

Books Received
Published: 01 November 1947

The Cult of the Superman

A. D. R.

Nature volume 160, page 592 (1947)Cite this article

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Abstract

THIS is a discussion of the cult of the hero considered as the shaper of human destinies; a cult started by Carlyle, developed by Nietzsche and continued by Wagner, Bernard Shaw, Spengler, Stefan George and D. H. Lawrence. The last three, though Mr. Bentley does his best to polish them up, are just dim. Shaw, who is anything but dim, is only a hero-worshipper spasmodically in his Wagner -ite moods. Wagner had great influence in his day, but still is only a lightweight. Were even the first two heavyweights? Mr. Bentley thinks they were or he would not have written this witty and provocative book. They have been labelled proto-fascists; but the label, even if it is appropriate, does not make their ideas negligible. Fascism takes account of elements in human nature which liberals and rationalists have refused to see. Carlyle and Nietzsche did see that mass-production of machines and the mechanization of the human masses was not the road to any paradise, capitalist or proletarian. They did foretell more about the twentieth century than any of their contemporaries. Marx and Engels unaccountably omitted to predict Lenin and Stalin; Carlyle and Nietzsche made a very good shot at them (not to mention Hitler, Mussolini and others). But, as Mr. Bentley shows, the doctrine of the hero has always been confused and inconsistent, and always been propounded by those whose attitude to life is ambivalent. Mr. Bentley himself is ambivalent towards his subject. He thinks that this sound and fury signified something but finds it difficult to explain what. He concludes with the mild observation that democracy needs leaders, an aristocracy of talent; a conclusion that would infuriate Carlyle or Nietzsche, who did not admire the characteristic democratic leader of the American or British pattern.

The Cult of the Superman

A Study of the Idea of Heroism in Carlyle and Nietzsche, with Notes on other Hero-Worshippers of Modern Times. By Eric Bentley. Pp. xxiii + 277. (London: Robert Hale, Ltd., 1947.) 12s. 6d. net.