Thus Spake Zarathustra

Everyone finds something to object to in Nietzsche. Obviously conservative Christians find his anti-Christian attitudes objectionable, but even his most enthusiastic followers do not follow him on every point. Nietzsche takes it for granted that the Enlightenment analysis of religion is correct, and that religion is a comforting but limiting self-delusion. He infers that all values (including religious values) are the creations of human beings and that therefore we are all responsible for creating high values and living up to them. Yet these values need not be shared. He is a thorough relativist, arguing that one person's virtue is another's vice. Nietzsche writes sneeringly, imperiously, in a way that Americans in particular, with their national preference for self-deprecation and humor, find objectionable. It may be pointless to waste much energy objecting to his tone; his message has been found appealing to many people who don't share his emotional attitudes. Your task may be to discover what it is in this message that has caused it to be so influential in the modern world.