Not looking for happiness
The narrator in the first part of the book writes about the rest of the people and how everyone is obsessed with the desire to find happiness. Ironically, the narrator points out that a person who is an intellectual should do anything he or she can to avoid this, namely to not chase only happiness in their lives.
Not the crown jewel
One of the common beliefs in our world is that humanity and us as humans are the crown jewel of evolution and that we are at the top of the food chain because of the intelligence humans possess and the capability to rationalize. In the fourth part however, the narrator points out ironically that we are not the higher level of evolution as we previously believed and that we are actually below the people from the past whom we looked at as being uneducated and at times even savages.
Humans are not looking out for their best interest
In the book, the narrator points out time and time again how humanity nowadays is engaging in practices not beneficial for itself. Among the practices mentioned is pity and also Christianity which goes against the natural tendency of self-preservation. In the narrator’s mind, this is ironic because no other species puts others above them and instead everything they do has the clear aim to assure their and their offspring’s survival.
Why is there no new God?
When the narrator talks about God, it is clear that the narrator does not agree with the concept of religion or faith. He sees religion as a fairytale believed by everyone and not as something that is true and has meaning. To mock religion even further, the narrator asks why no new God appeared in the world in the last couple of hundreds of years. For him, this decrease in the imagination of humanity is also a sign of degradation.
Lack of religion makes us more modest
Another ironic idea presented in the book is the idea that in the moment when humanity gave up religion, they became more modest. The reason why they became more modest is because once the idea of God was forgotten, man realized he was just another animal and thus, nothing special.
