The New Dignity: Gnostic, Elitist, Self-Destructive Will-to-Power: “Human dignity is grounded in our ability to defy nature—to go beyond natural limitations and thereby create ourselves anew. But in a world with no clear origin, no purposeful end, and no intrinsic meaning, human dignity is founded on nothing more than a self-creating will to power that is, in the last analysis, self-destructive.” Students can consider whether this position is an accurate reading of our times or is overstated. (Recall Man Makes Himself, Childe, 1951, and The Naked Ape, Morris, 1967.)
