The Inferior Superman

Whom do you fear

Image Copyright © 2024, Moh’d Bilbeisi. All Rights Reserved. Collaborator with permission.

Whom do you fear, What holds you now, Questions unanswered Begin to resolve In ways you had not planned.

What have you heard, To whom can we turn, Each day, he brings new Mockeries and vanities, And little else to understand.

His vengeance is served As our daily sustenance, Those with another view Suffer for their obstinance, Every woman, child, and man.

The enemy is stilled, The hot cells of their prisons, From where all justice flew, Their voices in the distance, Unheard, yet still demand

Their lives are still as dear, Their spirits as alive, Their hearts, though wounded, Are determined to survive The brutality of the man.

Whom do you fear, What holds you now, When all the bones are broken, He has severed every vow, Are you here to stand against The inferior superman?

I know that I am.

Instead of response to the positive value of the other’s happiness and the negative value of his suffering, we find refusal of any response; instead of solidarity with the other person (i.e., the capacity to transcend oneself in order to suffer and rejoice with others), we find total imprisonment in self, an icy and brutal gaze looking beyond others. Instead of the victorious, selfless superiority of the man who is at the service of all, we find the inferiority of the brutal superman, and instead of generous forgiveness of injustices suffered, we find relentless vengeance.

von Hildebrand, Dietrich; von Hildebrand, Alice. The Art of Living (pp. 38–39). Hildebrand Press. Kindle Edition.

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Copyright © 2025, Robert G. Metivier. All Rights Reserved. Image: Copyright © 2024, Moh’d Bilbeisi. All Rights Reserved.