Thus Spoke Zakoyeh: Standing On the Shoulders of the Overman

“I am not a man. I am dynamite!” ~ Nietzsche

Zakoyeh is my sacred clown name. It was “whispered” to me in my out-of-body-experience initiation into the order of Thunder Shamans. It’s simply the letter “Z” with an inverted heyoka added to it. Zakoyeh is to Gary Z McGee as Zarathustra is to Friedrich Nietzsche. So be it.

In the Nietzschean spirit of being “dynamite” rather than merely a man, Zakoyeh is the personification of being a force of nature first, a man second. As Nietzsche said, “There are no facts, only interpretations.” We are mythological creatures born into sociological conditions. Our mythologies transform our sociology (cultures), and vice versa.

The way we interpret reality is vital to the overall evolution of the species. Through Zakoyeh I have chosen to interpret reality from the perspective of a sacred clown standing upon the shoulders of the Übermensch (Overman).

Where Nietzsche’s Zarathustra chose to climb down from the mountains and teach the Overman to the Last Man, Zakoyeh chooses to climb upon the shoulders of the Overman and attempt to see further than he did.

Zakoyeh as Sacred Clown:

“While we may be forced to accept the myth-less condition into which we were born, it does not follow that we must endure a meaningless existence as a result.” ~ Academy of Ideas

As a sacred clown, Zakoyeh begins from the premise of no premises. Nothing is too sacred that cannot be questioned to the nth degree and reduced to the profane.

Nothing has too much power that it cannot be deflated of that power. Nothing is so extraordinary that it cannot be whittled down to its ordinary parts. No “God” is immune to being existentially mocked. Nothing is perfect. Everything is fleeting, impermanent, transitory. Nothing is infallible except for the universal laws that govern the cosmos.

By correctly interpreting a “language older than words,” Sacred clowns use these universal laws to leverage health into otherwise unhealthy cultures. They use the golden rule to overrule man-made rules. They use the nonaggression principle to fiercely overwhelm power constructs that have become extreme, entrenched, overreaching, violent or corrupt.

Sacred clowns are cultural leveling mechanism par excellence. With thunder in their blood and lightning in their words, they are the wild avatars of the Trickster archetype. Society is their canvas, and they refuse to hold back their insurgent art. Filled with unconditional humor, they are exemplary at deflating overblown egos and animating oppressed souls. They poke holes in outdated reasoning while lifting the spirit of the downtrodden through insouciant courage and daring humor.

Zakoyeh as sacred clown is not here to obey. He is here to mix things up. To transform the banal into the novel, using shock and awe. To have a laugh — at gods, at demons, at “love and light,” at shadows and abysses.

As Oscar Wilde said, “Disobedience was man’s Original Virtue.”

Indeed, Zakoyeh would rather die laughing at entrenched power than bend the knee and live under its tyrannical thumb.

Zakoyeh as Overman:

“Your mind is programmable – and if you’re not programming it then someone else will program it for you.” ~ Jeremy Hammond

Lest I become programmed by someone else, Zakoyeh is my cultural leveling mechanism: the personification of my own mythological programming (Self-inflicted Mythology)…

As a potential Overman, Zakoyeh manages the evolution of the self by perpetually overcoming the self. The self is masks all the way down perceiving delusions all the way up. Zakoyeh embraces this concept by constantly questioning all masks and all delusions. Especially his own.

The art of self-overcoming — of constantly overcoming the fixed and rigid self by embracing the flexible and adaptable self — creates a cosmic catharsis that leads to cosmic heroism. Cosmic heroism is a type of heroism (Fibonacci sequence) that a potential Overman utilizes in his effort to evolve toward the Overman (enlightenment, Phi).

As such, Zakoyeh is a dynamism of self-overcoming. Overcoming the outdated self in order to discover the updated self. Overcoming the ordinary world in order to discover extraordinary worlds. Shaking up the orthodox in order to unleash the unorthodox, and vice versa. Standing on the shoulders of giants in order to see further than they did.

If, as Czesla Milosz said, “We should go and proclaim without cease and remind people at every step of what we are: that our capacity for self-delusion has no limits and that anybody who believes anything is mistaken,” then it stands to reason that we question our own delusions first and the delusions of others second.

The delusion isn’t the problem. The problem is belief. The key is to not “believe” in the delusion but rather to use the delusion as a tool for self-overcoming.

Zakoyeh as Overman represents delusion without belief. He is the personification of questioning self-delusion through the medium of self-overcoming. So as not to be “mistaken” Zakoyeh skips the rigid belief phase and goes straight to the flexible consideration phase.

By thinking rather than believing, by questioning rather than relying on answers, by self-overcoming rather than leaning on the outdated self, Zakoyeh as Overman becomes a perpetual wheel of self-correcting evolution.

The irony is that Zakoyeh is my delusion just as Zarathustra was Nietzsche’s, but the beauty of both Zakoyeh and Zarathustra is that they are delusional tools that a philosopher uses to leverage self-overcoming, self-improvement, and conscious evolution into the world, which will help perpetuate a healthy and progressive evolution for our species.

Since Zakoyeh is standing on the Overman’s shoulders in an attempt to see further, Zakoyeh is always becoming never become, always progressing never stagnant, always questioning never relying upon an answer, always stretching comfort zones never content with comfort, always flexibly vulnerable never rigidly invulnerable, always open-minded never dogmatic, always anti-fragile never fragile, and always entertaining a thought without accepting it.

In the end, Zakoyeh is a sacred clown who manages to fill the nihilistic and humorless gaps in the Nietzschean Overman philosophy. Through High Humor (sacred clown), he laughs at the cosmic joke. Through High Courage (potential Overman), he modifies the equations that underlie the joke. Through both he gets power over power and bridges the gap between man and Overman.

Image source:

Heyoka

Artwork by Burton Gray

Featured image – Thunder Beings by Nicole Lemire

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Gary Z McGee
Gary Z McGee
Gary 'Z' McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide awake view of the modern world.
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