Similarly, human beings in the modern period are called homo pemphigus because they can consume everything, indiscriminately, without benefit and decision. In contrast, the ‘coming philosophers will have ‘teeth and stomachs for the most indigestible’, meaning will be able to deal with – and indeed form a new mode of life out of – dangerous truths. Excrement, the product of digestion, is a strong metaphor also. Pessimists only view the world’s ‘backside’. Writing is, therefore, a necessity, like having to relieve oneself – which is a joking elaboration of the idea that ‘my writings speak only of my overcoming’. Third, to consume or digest means to make something one’s own, and thereby have power over something.