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Hi Jim, It is 33 degrees C here in Brisbane at 10.30 am and I feel as if my brains are frying. I think there are two elements to this thread. My original contribution addressed Nietzsche on truth where he confuses truth and meaning and therefore was wrong; on morality where he substituted emotivism for personalism, again wrong; and power where in Bhaskar's terms he championed Power2, that is exploitation, domination and exploitation, again wrong. There other element in the thread and the one that has gotten the most attention is that he had a large and distinguished number of followers on the left. The implication here being, I suspect, that he couldn't have been all bad. If we were to hear precisely what the left find attractive or useful about Nietzsche then this thread could be advanced. comradely Gary On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 11:42 PM, Jim Farmelant <farmela...@juno.com> wrote: > ====================================================================== > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > ====================================================================== > > > > Clearly, there were many aspects of Nietzsche's message that would make > him an appealing figure to the far right. Nietzsche was an unabashed > elitist. He was outspokenly contemptuous of Christian ethics, especially of > its softer side which counselled compassion and taught that all people were > equal before God. Nietzsche taught that hierarchies of all sorts were > inevitable and desirable. On the other hand, much of his appeal to the far > right also came as a result of the distortions of his writings that were > perpetrated by his sister who was indeed a supporter of Fascism, and later, > National Socialism. To do that, she had to cover up Nietzsche's > philo-semitism and his occasional rejections of biological racism, as well > as his contempt for the Prussian Junkers and indeed, often expressed > contempt for the German people (Nietzsche seems to have thought, perhaps > incorrectly, that he had some Polish ancestry). > > And yes, we are still left with the fact that he has long been, and > continues to be, widely admired on the left. I have already mentioned that > even in his own lifetime he had admirers in the SPD, and supporters among > Russian Marxists, including Bolsheviks like Lunacharsky. Mention has been > made of Lukacs, whose own relationships with Nietzscheanism, were, to say > the least, complicated. The young Lukacs, who was one of Max Weber's bright > young men, was very much an admirer of Nietzsche. After Lukacs became a > Marxist, he repudiated his previous support for Nietzsche. Yet, arguably, > Nietzsche had left an indelible mark on the Hungarian philosopher. > > As you say, Foucault was an interesting case. After he was expelled from > the PCF and he repudiated Marxism, Foucault proclaimed himself to be a > Nietzschean, yet his relationships with both Marxism and Nietzscheanism > were complicated. Foucault's Nietzscheanism was apparent, such as when in > works like, Discipline and Punish, he wrote about pursuing a genealogical > analysis of the rise of imprisonment as the chief means for punishing > criminals. Yet, in that same book, he also made extensive use of Marxist > analysis too when he attempted to delineate the social functions of > punishment. > > Jim Farmelant > http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant > http://www.foxymath.com > Learn or Review Basic Math > > > ---------- Original Message ---------- > From: Gary MacLennan <gary.maclenn...@gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [Marxism] Nietzsche on MLK > Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 13:38:46 +1000 > > ====================================================================== > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > ====================================================================== > > > Hi Jim, > > Well you are softer on Nietzsche than I am. I admit though one has to > account for his influence on the left. One could point out that reading and > interpretation are creative acts and so it is not easy to predict what one > will get from a writer. > But that seems something of a cop out to me. > > Warren has argued that like Hegel, Nietzsche writings are politically > indeterminate and so can have followers across the political spectrum. The > problem is that I do not think that Nietzsche's politics are politically > indeterminate at all. They leap out at one from every page. > ____________________________________________________________ > Do THIS before eating carbs (every time) > 1 EASY tip to increase fat-burning, lower blood sugar & decrease fat > storage > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/52de799644fda799626d8st01vuc > > ________________________________________________ > Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu > Set your options at: > http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
