The Most Falsified Idea

Deep in Book Two, the sermons stop and the singing starts: a night song, a dance song, a song sung over graves. Clancy Martin hears in them Nietzsche's break with the philosopher he once followed, and an answer to why the despairing, of all people, need to sing. Then Martin takes up the phrase that has been lied about more than anything else Nietzsche wrote: the will to power. A sister, a cocktail napkin, and eventually Hitler taught a century to hear domination in an idea that really names the hardest kind of self-questioning. What the idea costs comes last, and the price Martin counts is his own.

Content note: this episode includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you love is struggling, or thinking about suicide, you don't have to carry it alone. In the United States, you can call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, any time, or chat online at 988lifeline.org. Outside the United States, findahelpline.com lists free, confidential support lines by country.