New Man (utopian concept)

The New Man is a utopian concept that involves the creation of a new ideal human being or citizen replacing un-ideal human beings or citizens. The meaning of a New Man has widely varied and various alternatives have been suggested by a variety of religions and political ideologies, including the Bahá’í Faith, Christianity, communism, classical liberalism, fascism, and utopian socialism.

Philosophical and religious versions

Bahá’í New Race of Men

Bahá’í literature states that training children in the world-embracing teachings of Bahá’u’lláh will cause a "truly new race of men" to emerge. It is prophesied that a time is approaching when a new race of men will have been raised up that is "incomparable in character" and "inscrutable to all save God", who will "purge mankind from the defilement of the outcast and the ungodly", "subdue the peoples and kindreds of the earth", and inspire fear in the hearts of all the inhabitants of cities.[1] It is also stated that "souls will arise and holy beings appear" who will "labor ceaselessly", "scatter in the world, and travel throughout all regions", "raise their voices in every assembly, and adorn and revive every gathering", "speak in every tongue, and interpret every hidden meaning", "reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom, and manifest unto everyone the signs of God", "perfume and revive the souls of men", and "reinvigorate the peoples and nations of the world".[2] In the Lights of Irfan annual publication, philosophy scholar Ian Kluge provides a comparative treatment of Bahá’í and Nietzschean concepts, including the Bahá’í new race of men and Nietzsche's Übermensch.[3]

Christian New Man

The doctrines of Paul the Apostle speak of Adam both as the fallen "Old Adam" and a "New Adam" as referring collectively to the fallen Old Man of humanity and a resurrected "New Man" (Ephesians 2:15, The Holy Bible) following Jesus.[4]

Nietzschean Übermensch

Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of an Übermensch ("Overman") was that of a New Man who would be a leader by example to humanity through an existentialist will to power that was vitalist and irrationalist in nature.[5] Nietzsche developed the concept in response to his view of the herd mentality of and inherent nihilism of Christianity, and the void in existential meaning that is realized with the death of God. The Übermensch emerges as the new meaning of the Earth, a norm-repudiating individual who overcomes himself and is the master in control of his impulses and passions.

Political versions

Liberal New Man

Thomas Paine and William Godwin believed that the spread of classical liberalism in France and the United States constituted the birth of a New Man and a new era.[6]

Utopian socialist New Man

Utopian socialists such as Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier and Robert Owen saw a future Golden Age led by a New Man who would reconstruct society.[7]

Communist New Man

See also: New Soviet man

Marxism postulates the development of a New Man and New Woman in a communist society following the values of a non-essential nature of the state and the importance of freely associated work for the affirmation of a person's humanity. This is in contrast to an innate personality opposing view which is counter-productive to selfless collectivism that elevates austerities, discipline to true materialism in all its pejoratives and for an adherent to the self-regulating dynamic worker. Marxism does not see the New Man/Woman as a goal or prerequisite for achieving full communism, but rather as a product of the social conditions of pure communism. Che Guevara's essay "Socialism and man in Cuba" and Oscar Wilde's The Soul of Man under Socialism are two examples of the 'new man' archetype in socialist literature.[8]

Fascist New Man

Fascism supports the creation of a New Man who is a strong-willed, dynamic archetype, a figure of direct action and bellicose violence. An anti-individualist, he is characterized by a sense of confidence and masculinity, quiet dignity and self-worth, determination, and authoritativeness. With a detachment from romantic love, family background and schooling, his worldview is romanticized, passionate, serious and realist, preoccupied with the honoring of fallen heroes, a strong belief in personal responsibility, national rebirth and renewal. He regards himself as one component of a disciplined mass that has shorn itself of individualism, party politics discrimination, and cohesive class orientation in favor of a united, para-militarist effort. [9] One example of this was the idea of the Political Soldier, which was developed by the leaders of the Official National Front in the UK in the 1980s and became part of the ideology of the Third Position.[10][11] Society is the ultimate arbiters of an individual's personal inner striving's worth.

Transhumanist New Man

Transhumanism welcomes the creation of a literal new man by enhancements through cybernetics and other "human enhancements", and look to the singularity as that point in time when the new man arrives, his birthday if you will. Scholar Klaus Vondung argues that Transhumanism represents the final revolution.[12] Others have made similar observations.[13][14]

Criticism of the "New Man"

Poetic parody

The poem "The Unknown Citizen"[15] by W. H. Auden is considered[16] a parody of attempts to honor (and hence, to encourage) a certain kind of behavior in modern society. It challenges the "New Man" ideologies listed here and deprecates the meme of encouraging conformity via societal pressure.

See also

• Confucian Junzi
• Nirvana

References

1. The Universal House of Justice. A New Race of Men and the meaning of "Tread Under". 2013-09-13. http://www.bahai-library.com/uhj_tread_race_men
2. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá. http://www.bahai.org/r/517008437
3. Ian Kluge, "Nietzsche and the Bahá’í Writings: A First Look" in Lights of Irfan, volume 18, pages 351-424, 2017. Publisher: ‘Irfán Colloquia. http://irfancolloquia.org/130/kluge_nietzsche
4. Jung Hoon Kim, Chŏng-hun Kim. The significance of clothing imagery in the Pauline Corpus. New York, New York, USA: T&T Clark International, 2004. Pp. 182.
5. Hans van Stralen. Choices and conflict: essays on literature and existentialism. Pp. Brussels, Belgium: Peter Lang, 2005. 127-128.
6. Gregory Claeys. The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Pp. 11-12.
7. Gregory Claeys. The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Pp. 14.
8. Guevara, Che. "Socialism and man in Cuba". www.marxists.org.
9. Cyprian Blamires. World Fascism: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1. Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-CLIO, 2006. Pp. 466, 506.
10. "Political Soldiers and the New Man - part one". Community Security Trust. 26 April 2010. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
11. "Political Soldiers and the New Man - part two". Community Security Trust. 27 April 2010. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
12. Caringella, Paul; Cristaudo, Wayne; Hughes, Glenn (21 February 2013). Revolutions: Finished and Unfinished, From Primal to Final. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443846769 – via Google Books.
13. Saage, Richard (1 December 2013). "New man in utopian and transhumanist perspective". European Journal of Futures Research. 1 (1): 14. doi:10.1007/s40309-013-0014-5.
14. Knowing New Biotechnologies: Social Aspects of Technological Convergence, p. 77-91
15. "The Unknown Citizen". Another Time. Random House. 1940. Archived from the original on January 28, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
16. (see the Interpretation section of the Wikipedia article about that poem)