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Popular Culture Review
belong in this Yuppie-culture, in this thinking of success ... in
our society. Exactly for this reason, there are so many
distraught and sick people, because there are no outlets any
more to deal with these negative things.)25
As a musician, he concludes, he can help his audience to kanalisieren (to
channel) (Kaschke 3) their fear and frustration. In other words, the band’s art is
intended to create a form of reconciliation in the troubled minds of its audience.
To summarize, there are several ideas of Nietzsche’s that the members of
the German Gothic band Das Ich find attractive and relevant for their own lives.
First, with the “Death of God” they seem to have lost their transcendental
anchorage that guaranteed meaning. As Nietzsche did, they consider this loss a
catastrophe. Second, Das Ich criticizes the rationalism of modem society with its
alienating effects on the individual. Third, they highly value Nietzsche’s
perspectivism and try to deconstruct the binary logic of good and evil, which,
given the technological advances of our time, could lead only to nuclear war.
Fourth, to escape the agonies of nihilism, they follow Nietzsche’s advice to try
to create new values through self-expression and self-transformation by means
of their art. Allan Bloom commented on Nietzsche’s relevance for Western
society at the end of the twentieth century: “A value creating man is a plausible
substitute for a good man, and some such substitute becomes practically
inevitable in pop-relativism, since very few persons can think of themselves as
just nothing” (144). His following thought is important for understanding the
strength and high self-esteem of the Gothic subculture: “The respectable and
accessible nobility of man is to be found not in the quest for or discovery of the
good life, but in creating one’s own ‘life-style.’ ... He who has a ‘life-style’ is
in competition with, and hence inferior to, no one” (144).
Southeast Missouri State University
Gabriele Eckart and Majhon Phillips
Notes
1 Gottes Tod
schwarz verbreitet sich in meinem kopf ganz aufgequollen mein
augenlicht zersetzt das herz verbrennt im weissen nichts und doch es
wird mein korper ist in stein gehauen im tiefen sog der ewigkeit dass
zeit vergeht ist mir entgangen und doch es wird es wird schon wieder
weiter geh’n gott ist tot eingesperrt im wald des wahns dunkles sein
gesaeht in meiner hand verstaubtes denken in meinem schaedel und
doch es wird mein Geist zerfleischt das tageslicht die feuersglut in
meinem hals erlischt ganz ohne halt mein fleisch zerfaellt und doch
es wird es wird schon wieder weiter geh’n gott ist tot mein gehirn
zum kerker wird ein kleiner stich hat mich gelaehmt der schrei in mir
unhoerbar schweigt und doch es wird mein seelenhauch der blitz
verschlingt mein suesses blut verfault im sand mein sinn zum leben