Marc Andreessen on the heros we’re allowed to have

The anti-hero is the portrait of the Nietzschean superhero that we are allowed to have. Tony Soprano, Walter White, Don Draper. We can have someone who does Great Things, so long as that person is fundamentally bad by the standards of modern morality.

We are not allowed to have the full version of the Nietzschean superman doing something outstanding. We’re not allowed Napoleon figures, the building of the pyramids, Beethoven, or even the person who built the transcontinental railroad, the car industry, that sort of thing.

The full Nietzschean superman is the person who says I really am going to rule the world, and rule it much better’. Those narratives are gone. They’re too scary. They’re absolutely frightening, because if we rediscover that kind of morality it would upend our entire order.

quote marc andreessen