I appreciate your thought-provoking response, and you raise some great points. In fact, I should probably write an article on your question of whether the worthy sort of existential heroism can ever occur on a large scale in society. There's a Romantic theme in my writing, which is that the relevant heroism is countercultural. It would be great if neoshamanic creators, prophets, gurus, and the like could join a society of likeminded folks, and feel at home. And of course, there are small clans of artists and "salons" here and there that stimulate their work. But I'm concerned about the politics of managing large-scale endeavours. The diabolical "law of oligarchy" takes over, and suddenly the art or philosophy becomes a business.

I'm ambivalent about Nietzsche. I reject not only his quasi-conservative deference to nature, but also his postmodern relativism. But I think he should be read more as a poet than a systematic philosopher, which means we're free to be inspired by any of his aphorisms that strikes us.