e diminution, of man, making him mediocre and lowering his value"(1240). A nation-state in which the overmen ruled the masses would therefore seem to be the only tolerable governmental system. And we see that the police state totalitarianism of Germany, complete with secret police, ruled by Hitler, who was presumably the supreme overman, fits the bill of a total non-democracy rather well. The Nietzsche-Nazi parallels are striking. ‹Of course, as all people do, Hitler and the Nazis may have forgotten some of the passages of Nietzsche, such as "certainly the state in which we hurt others is rarely as agreeable, in an unadulterated way, as that in which we benefit others; it is a sign that we are still lacking power..."(Oaklander 82). This would imply that Hitler, indeed, was a weak man, and that Nazism was weak, for it brought suffering on millions of others, including the population of Germany. Indeed, a great deal of being an overman is being recognized for it--distinguishing oneself--but Nietzsche might argue that Hitler was a barbarian. As Nietzsche says, "the barbarian imposes on others on whom and before whom he wants to distinguish himself"(Oaklander, 82). By killing his own people, by invading other countries as swiftly as lightning and as certainly as death, Hitler proved himself to be quite weak, from a Nietzschean standpoint. And, if one applies what Nietzsche says about philosophies to overmen and "overnations", one can see that when an overman begins to believe in his own incredible greatness, he will fall, for he will be blind to the truth, and when a nation believes in its own invincibility, than to the dust shall it return.‹Hitler, by making his people believe in him, made them small, for as Nietzsche concludes, "the man of faith, the believer, is necessarily a small type of man. Hence, `freedom of spirit' i.e., unbelief as an instinct is a precondition of greatness"(Oaklander 79). And yet, as German ...
