Nietzsche's response to the problem of nihilism, and the crisis of authority it gives rise to, is a complex one. He devises the figure of Zarathustra to represent the ‘self-overcoming of morality’ and to teach the meaning of the overman. He inquires into the origins and descent of moral values and legal notions in order to combat a Christian and moral reading of history and man's evolution. I would argue that there are essentially two kinds of politics Nietzsche offers his readers. One is a less well-known ‘politics of survival’, which consists not in legislating new values and law-tables for man, but in playing in parodic and ironic fashion with the ideals of humanity. Here Nietzsche does not foresee a simple solution or end to nihilism, but devises strategies for its endurance. The other is the more familiar ‘politics of cruelty’ associated with Nietzsche's aristocratic radicalism. Here the aim is to gain control of the forces of history and produce, through a conjunction of philosophical legislation and political power (‘great polities’), a new humanity.