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Clancy Martin on Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Episode 5

The Last Man Checks His Credit Score

Featuring Clancy Martin

Audio episode · 19 min

Clancy Martin on Thus Spoke Zarathustra

After the private jets and the diamond-trade chaos, all Martin wanted was a quiet house on a quiet street and a little something to take the edge off. Nietzsche has a name for the person that wish produces, and Zarathustra offers the portrait to the crowd as the most contemptible thing a human being can become. Martin refuses to sneer at it, because he has sat for it. Asked point-blank whether he ever risked becoming the last man, he answers with his Volvo, his credit score, and his banking app. If comfort is the trap, what would count as getting out?

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