(Part 2) Top products from r/Nietzsche

For Nietzsche, a revaluation of values does not take place at the individual level. At the very least, this is not Nietzsche's focus. What he is more interested in is such a revaluation taking place at the level of culture, for an entire culture. Even though Nietzsche celebrates certain individuals, and even though Nietzsche constantly complains about herd mentality, he is not really concerned with all this "personal growth," self-mastery or self-help nonsense. He is not a Tony Robbins.

To properly understand Nietzsche's project of the revaluation of values, it helps to understand the context. The context is culture, or society as a whole. Nietzsche abandoned his planned book vaguely organized around the concept of 'will to power' and instead replaced that project with a new plan: a series of books that would comprise the Revaluation of Values. The ultimate purpose of these books was to combat the onset of nihilism. That is the key. Thus, the revaluation of values would be (generally speaking) a book(s) about the cultural response to nihilism.

The Antichrist is actually Book One of this project. Nietzsche created and recreated a number of plans and outlines for the Revaluation, and here is one sample to give you an idea of what he had in mind:

1. The AntiChrist - Attempt at a Critique of Christianity
   
2. The Free Spirit - Critique of Philosophy as a Nihilistic Movement
   
3. The Immoralist - Critique of the most completely ill-fated kind of ignorance, morality
   
4. Dionysius - Philosophy of the eternal recurrence
   
   As late as 1888 he still planned on this four book series, as he intimated in a letter to Overbeck.
   
   Nietzsche was concerned about nihilism, about its corrosive effects on society and culture, and how nihilistic values would ultimately lead to man's ruin. To combat this, Nietzsche sought to critique philosophy, religion, and morality in order to uncover and unmask all the guises of nihilism, and then to overturn nihilism by 'revaluing' those values that have allowed it to fester. By clearing the ground in this way, humanity might even be able to generate a new, higher type of being that would justify man's suffering - the ubermenschen. This is a rough sketch of the context, but you should get the idea.
   
   How do you do it? What does it look like? Nietzsche himself answers this question, and gives Renaissance Europe as the prime example of a near total revaluation of values. For specifics, you'll just have to study the period. I will point out that here Nietzsche was influenced by his friend Jakob Burckhardt, so reading this book will give you an idea of what Nietzsche has in mind.
   
   As for your other questions, maybe I can get to those later.
   
   Edit: I should add, that Nietzsche considered Greek culture to be the highest, most fully developed European/Western culture to date. He sees the first "revaluation of values" when Christianity becomes ascendant - master morality is overthrown and replaced by slave morality. The "slave revolt in morals" is the initial revaluation of values, according to Nietzsche. Later, during the Renaissance, Nietzsche believes that at least a partial revaluation of the revaluation took place, but that ultimately Christian values became dominant again. He sees the flourishing of the Renaissance as an example of what is possible if European culture(s) would throw off the yoke of Christian morality.
   
   All this to say, that when Nietzsche talks about a revaluation of values what he has in mind are the values of an entire culture. He is concerned with the values that predominate within a given culture, as those values determine what kind of men emerge from that culture. In short, he is not at all concerned with what happens to individuals, about what a 'revaluation' means at the individual level. Of course, it takes individuals to reject Christian morality and develop some alternative, but it is the aggregate effect of this upon a given culture that concerns Nietzsche,

Thanks. Yeah, I think that being self-sufficient seems like somewhat of a myth if you consider ideas in the book The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Illusion-Never-Think-Alone/dp/039918435X (I'm skeptical about a lot of psychology research, but they still make some interesting points, I think). I mean, I think that maybe valuing solitude, taking time to yourself and also being with other people at times (finding a balance) is a good idea. Solitude seems to help with creativity at times (some amount of it) and not falling into a herd mentality. But hey, I do think Nietzsche is worth reading.

My suggestion is to abandon podcasts and videos. I have not watched or listened to very many, but the ones I have bothered to listen to or watch (on various philosophers and topics) have generally left me unsatisfied. The material is usually superficial at best, and may only add to one's confusion by giving bad interpretations. Maybe other people have found good material and can offer suggestions.

Nietzsche's style of presentation makes things difficult for first-time readers. One of his frequent rhetorical methods is to present the reader with conclusions first (often rather startling ones), sometimes barely showing the lines of reasoning, often times withholding any context or background whatsoever. This is an unconventional method of presentation in philosophy, to say the least. The only way to remedy this is to have a strong philosophical background so you can just follow along and more or less "get it." To accomplish this, you need to study Kant, Schopenhauer, and especially Friedrich Lange.

There are a couple of good reading guides out there, and a ton of secondary literature as well. The one that comes to mind is by Pearson and Acampora, and although I never finished it, I did think it was a good guide for BGE. Another guide is Brian Leiter's Nietzsche On Morality, which is a guide for reading the Genealogy, but the introduction gives a good summary of the philosophical themes and background for Nietzsche's major concerns in both BGE and GM.

A caveat: The Will to Power is derived from Nietzsche's late notebooks. That's a nice collection of his late journals put together by Cambridge. This is what's referred to below:
>The Cambridge Hist. of Phil edition of his 'later notes' is superior imho.

Reading the following books will give you a clear picture of what Nietzsche's philosophical project was all about and thinking though the ideas in these books will help you sort out the Nazi BS and the BS appropriations from people like Jordan Peterson:

1. Untimely Meditations (1874)
   
2. Beyond Good and Evil (1886)
   
3. The Gay Science (1882)
   
4. On the Genealogy of Morality (1887)
   
   Read Genealogy or The Gay Science if you're only going to read one book.

Hope you all enjoy, I'm surprised how little the influences, especially his impact on Japanese culture, is discussed. I've even linked to a book that discusses his impacts on Asian culture in general. I'll share below too.

https://www.amazon.com/Nietzsche-Asian-Thought-Graham-Parkes/dp/0226646858

Here are two good ones i've read, neither of them shy away from treating the obvious anti-egalitarian/elitist strain in Nietzsches thinking:

https://www.amazon.com/Nietzsche-Politics-Aristocratic-Radicalism-Detwiler/dp/0226143546

https://www.amazon.de/Nietzsche-Biographie-Denkens-R%C3%BCdiger-Safranski/dp/3596151813

My friend also recommended me this one, i haven't read it yet though:

https://www.amazon.com/Nietzsche-Aristocratic-Rebel-Intellectual-Balance-sheet/dp/9004270949

As for Nietzsche's connection to Nazi ideology, i saw that Alfred Bäumler was already mentioned, which probably is a good start. Other than that you might want to read Armin Mohlers "Die konservative revolution im Deutschland" which doesn't treat Nietzsche exclusively, yet the author draws a connection between the crypto-nazi "revolutionary conservative" movement and Nietzsches thought. I highly recommend it.

https://www.amazon.de/Die-Konservative-Revolution-Deutschland-1918-1932/dp/3902475021

If you're interested, this book discusses Nietzsche's ideas regarding his conception of Darwinism:

https://www.amazon.com/Nietzsches-New-Darwinism-John-Richardson/dp/0195380290/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=

You might want to check out this book: Nietzsche and the Political

http://www.amazon.com/Spake-Zarathustra-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486406636

If you're serious about your post, this is for you.

https://www.amazon.de/Nietzsche-Ethics-Immoralist-Peter-Berkowitz/dp/0674624432

Ayn Rand was a writer and philosopher. Objectivism is the philosophy.
I imagine you have never read the no-fiction about the philosophy or you are just dishonest.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Objectivism-Philosophy-Ayn-Rand-Library/dp/0452011019/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540044626&sr=8-1&keywords=Objectivism%3A+the+Philosophy+of+Ayn+Rand