On the Land of Culture is a chapter wherein Zarathustra reflects on his experience of flying to far into the future, which filled him with a feeling of dread. Overwhelmed, he returned to the present, finding himself among the people of the today in the “Land der Bildung” (Land of Culture or Education). He observes these contemporaries with newfound eyes and a yearning heart, only to be struck by their superficiality. The people appear to him as excessively adorned, with “fifty blotches painted over their faces and limbs,” surrounded by mirrors that flatter and echo their colorful play.

Zarathustra notes that these individuals are heavily masked, making genuine recognition impossible. They are covered with signs of the past, overpainted with new symbols, effectively hiding themselves. He depicts them as insubstantial, made of colors and pasted scraps, lacking depth and authenticity. All eras and peoples seem to peer through their veils, and all customs and beliefs speak through their gestures, rendering them indecipherable and hollow.

Daubed with fifty blotches on face and limbs: thus you sat there to my amazement, you
people of the present!

Zarathustra criticizes the present people for their unbelievability and infertility, suggesting they cannot believe because they cannot create. They are like half-open gates where gravediggers await, embodying the sentiment that “everything deserves to perish.” He observes their emaciated ribs, with some even wondering if a god had stolen something from them in their sleep to create a woman, marveling at the strangeness of their own poverty.

Amidst his observations, Zarathustra admits a desire to laugh at them, especially when they marvel at themselves. He resolves to lighten his burden by not letting these present people add to his heaviness, comparing them to beetles and winged worms that settle on his bundle. Feeling homeless and a stranger in all cities, he looks toward his “children’s land” in the most distant sea, an undiscovered country. He intends to compensate in the future for his displacement from the lands of his fathers and mothers, dedicating himself to his progeny and all that lies ahead.