What do we really want when we say we want happiness? In this episode of Becoming Übermensch, we continue our deep dive into Nietzsche’s conception of happiness—not as a passive state of pleasure, but as something dynamic, something earned through overcoming and self-overcoming.
We examine again the hidden structure beneath our desires discovering which expose them as mere proxies for deeper, more fundamental impulses. We explore Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs and uncover its limitations—challenging the idea that fulfilment is a linear ascent to transcendence. Nietzsche had his own vision of what lies at the root of all desire, and in this episode, we begin dissecting it.
We’ll also examine how resistance and struggle determines value, why success so often feels anticlimactic, and the inescapable cycle of wanting, striving, achieving, and adapting. Is true fulfilment possible, or are we doomed to perpetual longing?
Join us as we strip back the layers of human motivation, redefine what happiness really means, and prepare to go even deeper into the anatomy of desire in the episodes to come.
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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
Music choice: Soma Centre by The Ishmael Ensemble
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