Queenbeestheph, I'm really enjoying what seems to be a conversation between only you and I (yet) and for the same reason I have a humble suggestion of forgetting everything you know about Nietzsche and consider these for a moment:
1) Nietzsche was not a nihilist. The death of God is an announcement one of his characters (Zarathustra) makes, but it is neither a lament or yahoo- it's a historical statement. This is something often misunderstood and Nietzsche's being (formerly) a philologist, writing very stylistically in German has a lot do with that misunderstanding. Nietzsche's critique of Christianity is precisely because of his dislike for nihilisim: after surveying the history of religions and history of Christianity itself, Nietzsche came to his argument that Christianity 'digged its own grave and happily so', because of what Nietzsche thought to be a very nihilistic understanding of God and world. Nietzsche was a Lutheran pastor's son so there's more to his critique of Christianity than some subjective dislike. I almost forgot, Jesus IS one of the fav historical characters of Nietzsche.. of all times according to him- yes, he's got the book Anti-Christ, but let's read that with Twilight of Idols, a little closely.
2) Nietzsche was great friends with Wagner, discussed philosophy and made music with him, until he came to the conclusion that Wagner is a romantic musician and a romantic thinker- it has nothing to do with Wagner's Christianity per se. Nietzsche and Wagner's notions of German culture differed in time and that's often the explanation given in historical canons. My man's no hater
3) Nietzsche has written very highly on Jews (in numerous books of his including Geneology of Morals and Twilight of Idols unless I'm mistaken). His idea of Overman (Uber-mensch) had no racist implications what so ever- the way racism is defined and understood today. And who do we owe this to? Nazism, of course. But note that it's the post-humous handling of Nietzsche's writings by his sister (married to a Nazi Party member) that has created the myth of Nietzsche pawing the way for Nazism. True that copies of his book titled Will to Power were provided for German troops on the line, but 1) that's a not a book but a compilation of unfinished notes of Nietzsche published after his death and 2) any reading of it would make it clear that there is nothing racist, violent or aggressive about that book, or the notion of will to power. It's a patch-work philosophical treatise, partially on critique of mechanistic understanding of nature and partially on nihilisim,
and will to power as a remedy against nihilisim,
not as a tool for further destruction. The damage Nietzsche's sister caused on the philosopher's reputation is widely acknowledged today and safe to say that proper translations and handling of his work cleared him of the proto-nazi accusation.
4) To me Nietzsche's like Iggy Pop in some aspects: we all know quite a lot about him, but few of them prove to be faithful hearings of what the guy's been trying to say
He's often quoted out of his proper context, multiple characters and styles he writes from within often gets unnoticed, he's judged for being insane and inconsistent, and we end up with sharp quotes that are too easy to judge. True that Nietzsche has quite a shady notion of gender equality, but it'd be a little too easy to call him misogynist. A whip can be used in many ways
(enter track Venus in Furs- Velvet Underground)
5) So why I think Nietzsche would be an interesting reading for Ben, or for any utopian-like island community (Dharma, or later Hostiles under Ben)? Again, ethics without morality; affirmation of life, nature and one's being without fear of some transcendental figure of reference, punishment or reward; and will to power, to proliferate and multiply life in a truly liberating, enriching and progressive fashion...Thinking of especially the social and political conjuncture of 60s & 70s, these and such notions would seem quite inspirational for communities and utopian projects like Dharma or Hostiles.
Nietzsche's also a very peculiar thinker in terms of the ways in which he combines psychology with culture and philosophy- he has a unique rendering of passions and forces of human psychology and he traces them throughout the history of West, to discuss how certain passions (in the sense of fear, resentment, hate, love, anger, courage etc) have been the instinctive fuel beyond individual psychologies of man, as well as of social and political structures, communities, religions etc in history.
I find some of these aspects of Nietzsche's thought resourceful or just fun re-consider when watching Lost.
I'm aware that Nietzsche wasn't on North America's best-sellers list for a significant amount of time, because of the popular myths I tried to mention above- but hey, Ben Linus is one exceptional weirdo (among all possible weirdos on and off the island) so he might as well get his hands on Walter Kaufmann's 'Portable Nietzsche' :P