> Jim Farmelant
Nietzsche's Bolshevik admirers were attracted to his ideal of the Overman. However, whereas Nietzsche saw this ideal as realizable only by a select few, the Bolshevik Nietzscheans argued that it would be realizable by the many in a communist society. Leftwing Nietzscheans have always been intrigued with his analysis of the geneology of morals. Many people have seen this as compatible with historical materialism and with Marxist critiques of morality as ideology. ^^^^^ CB: Recently I discussed N. with my brother-in-law. He mentioned that for him, in his youth, he had not even thought of morals as being something with a geneology. So, it was eye-opening for him to read Nietszche. I can see that my coming out of anthropology makes me unusual in taking for granted the relativity of our moral system. Cross-cultural review makes obvious that our moral system is not the only way to set things up. But for most people who don't major in ethnology, this would not be necessarily be obvious. I can see , also, that in the period of the Bolsheviks, certain versions of social darwinism have a materialistic ring to them, and at that time social darwinism as the basis for rightwing ideologies was not as clear. Also, Nietszche obviously put his atheism upfront, as discussed in the recent Landa essay. I think Nietszche has some credibility on the left because of his libertarianism, just as today we have a sort of meeting place of the left and the right in some libertarianism. Chomsky considers himself a left libertarian, I think, using that term (?). And then the his centerining his philosophy in aesthetics, being a philosopher for artists, dovetails with our tendency to think of "art" as sort of inherently left as a seat of creativity, libertarianism and revolt. Also, Nietszche's libertarianism lends itself to reading him eccletically, that is picking and choosing parts. So, the Nazis didn't have to adhere to his every principle, but in selecting parts of him actually read him in his own style of "free spirits", artists. The structure of art and the art world really does parallel aristocratic society. There are always stars and geniuses, a talented elite. Aesthetics-based politics tends to elitism. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
