Thus Spake Geothustra

When Geothustra was 18 years of age, he left his home in the valley of Zero-Master, and went up to the mountains, where he enjoyed a niche in solitude. But in the year 2001, on his 30th birthday, he felt the need for human company, and so he descended into a valley town which was holding its market day.

“I wish to buy apples,” declared Geothustra to a vendor, but was told, “there are none today. There has been a shortage for many months. But they would be cheap if there were any.”

A young man was leaning against a tree. “And what work do you do?” asked Geothustra.

“I am unemployed,” said the young man. “There are not enough jobs.”

“Have you not heard?” Geothustra shouted out. “The market is dead!”

“What? We have markets,” said a young maiden. “Do you not see vendors selling and folks buying?”

“May I set up a tent and also sell goods if I find an empty plot?” asked Geothustra.

“Only if you get a permit and pay rent and taxes,” replied the maiden.

“I bring you new values,” said Geothustra. “If you understand, you will be superior beings who cast off all permits and taxes.”

“We like our values just as they are,” said an old man.

“What is this foul stench I smell?” asked Geothustra. He went to the edge of the merchant shop zone, and there he saw a mountain of garbage, and toxic water flowing from it.

Geothustra called out to the town folk: “You are despisers of life! Your desecration of the earth is madness. Why do you do it?”

“Our leaders have promised to clean it up,” said the unemployed young man.

“And yet,” said Geothustra, “the stench remains. Your chiefs walk on crooked legs.”

A man in a purple uniform came up to Geothustra and said to him, “Be careful of what comes out of your mouth, just as you watch what comes into it.”

“Then I will let my body speak,” Geothustra replied, and he disrobed.

“You are in violation of the law!” shouted the policeman.

Geothustra replied, “I speak without words to those who despise the body. For they disrespect what is human, so very human.”

“Come with me,” said the policeman,

Replied Geothustra. “I bring new values, and force cannot confine them.”

“Why are you such a trouble maker?” asked the policeman.

“A noble man always stands in the way of tyrants,” said Geothustra.

“Say what you will,” said the policeman. “I represent the state, which represents the will of the people.”

“What you represent,” said Geothustra, “is the will to power. The state prohibits theft, yet it is the biggest thief. The state is a cold monster. Its first lie is that it is the will of the people.”

“This is sedition. I’m going to arrest you,” said the policeman.

Geothustra put his arms forward to let the policeman shackle him. “You can take me to prison, but your crown is made of mud.”

“Let him go!” said the maiden. “He wears no garb because we are his friends.”

“If you were a god, what would you wear?” Geothustra asked the policeman.

“But I am not a god,” he answered.

“Yet you play a god,” said Geothustra. “Are you a tyrant? If the agents of the state are tyrants, they cannot be friends of the people.”

“Unshackle him, please!” cried the maiden. “I want to hear what are the new values.”

“I shall unshackle him if he puts his garb back on,” said the policeman.

“You have it backwards,” said Geothustra. “First I will be free. Then I shall of my own free will put on the garb, since my body has had its say.”

After he dressed, the town folk crowded around him. “The new values!” they cried, “What are the new values you bring us?”

Said Geothustra: “Let people become themselves. Be skilled with arrows. And share the earth.”

“Share the earth?” asked a vendor. “Are you against private property?”

“Possess what you will,” said Geothustra, “but share equally in the benefit of the earth.”

“We like our values just as they are,” said the old man again.

“He’s a communist,” said the unemployed man.

“The old values despoil the earth and despise the human. The old values have no goal,” said Geothustra. “But your will to power rejects new values. Enjoy your stench.”

Geothustra turned and began to walk back to the mountain.

“Will you return?” asked the maiden.

Geothustra stopped and turned towards the maiden. “I shall return, when I can celebrate with you.”

“This was an experiment,” said Geothustra as he walked away, “and experiments never fail. Do not remain my student. Go beyond me, and find a yet greater truth.”

Thus spake Geothustra.