Get Over Yourself: Nietzsche for Our Times

by Patrick West

Many books have sought to introduce the writings of the infamous and influential philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, but Get Over Yourself puts matters the other way round. Rather than simply explaining his thought, it instead what would Nietzsche make of us? What would he think of our 21st-century, digital age? In our time of identity politics, therapy culture, 'safe spaces', religious fundamentalism, virtue-signalling, Twitterstorms, public emoting, ‘dumbing-down’, digital addiction and the politics of envy, the book introduces Nietzsche by putting the man in our shoes. Get Over Yourself both uses Nietzsche’s philosophy to understand our society, and takes our society to explain his philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy

130 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2017

Reviews

[Shane Bordoli · Rating 2 out of 5]

A chirpy little read but flawed mainly due to the publshers sloppiness. Although it's a fresh, modern, short and accessible book (just what we need for this day and age) it hasn't been proof read properly. "he received scar on his nose" - no 'a' or 'the' for this author. There's also an 'or' wrongly in place of an 'and'. This all occurs in the first few pages. Hence the 2 stars.

The authors insistence on a complicated and distracting initial and/or numbering system to place every quote in the chapter and book of its origin doesn't help matters either.

The blurb and prologue mentions "virtue-signaling" alongside lots of common phenomenon like dumbing down, but doesn't mention what this is until chapter 5. I had to Google is first.

If you can get over the fact it hasn't really been edited, presented or proofread properly it's a nice introduction to the man through a few short essays.

Maybe a second edition will rectify these issues. A missed opportunity.

[Jeremy Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was unfamiliar with English author and journalist Patrick West when I picked up a copy of this book, due to my emerging interest in Nietzsche.

In terms of 'high concept' philosophy, I love the conceit here - how would Nietzsche feel about our modern (circa 2017, date of publication) social context?

I remain somewhat unfamiliar with West after reading this ... his knowledge of Nietzsche, his ability to pull a relevant quote from a daunting body of work, are the highlights of this short, highly readable text.

But his ability to contextualize Nietzsche with reference to modern social trends - primarily on the left, in terms of identity politics, therapy culture, safe spaces, virtue signalling, cancel culture, etc - reflect only a conservative ideology (albeit a highly critical one), rather than insight into our modern era.

I learned from West's understanding of Nietzsche, and found myself agreeing with his premises, but wish that he had the same degree of understanding about the social trends he pits Nietzsche against as he does the man himself.

'Get Over Yourself' ends up being a brilliantly curated series of quotes from Nietzsche and the existentialists he inspired, applied to vaguely defined targets of contempt for modern conservatives or heterodox thinkers. Fortunately, for West and his readers, those targets resonate beyond mere politics.

The brevity of this book is a blessing and a curse, and ultimately, the weakness that leads me to rate a three rather than a four of five. West simply lacks the modern sociological chops to contend with his philosophically conservative arguments.

But for those interested in Nietzsche, or relatively 'modern' philosophy (aka, the sort you can quote meaningfully to explain the worldtoday), or simply a literary sheen to add to conversations with 'progressive' conformists, this is a fun, provocative one or two day read.