Date: Fri, 05 Feb 1999 16:21:42 -0800
From: Dave Hayman <dhayman-AT-igc.org>
Subject: Re: baby food


F. Nietzsche was not a Nazi (strictly speaking, he couldn't've been,
since he died before Hitler began his drive to power), nor a proto-nazi
(unlike his sister, who was some kind of fascist, or his brother-in-law,
whom FN loathed--this is all in Kaufmann's *Nietzsche*, which BJC seems
familiar with). But he did rave about the Ubermensch and the Great
Blonde Beast, etc; and the Nazis opportunistically used FN for their own
purposes. The Nazis did not use a great deal that was not useful to
them, such as his caustic criticism of the German imperialism of his
time, and his perspectivism. He disliked socialism and democracy, but
his fierce iconoclasm resembles much individualist anarchism. I and many
others value him for his keen dissection of European morality.
	He strove to show us how to live "beyond good and evil", which is easy
to misunderstand, but I feel that, while neither anarchist nor fascist
(he was one of a kind, actually), his philosophy as a whole is
antithetical to fascism and offers support for anarchism.

Brian's final question points straight to Kratter's misunderstanding of
anarchism and the theory of natural selection, but Kratter appears to be
gone, which may be for the best, since he seemed unable to understand
the constructive criticism he received.

Brian J. Callahan wrote:
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Original Message - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Walter Kaufman Jr. unleeshes:
> >>"The "Survival of the fittest" is an old program by old minds, if you know
> >>Nietzsche and the ideology of nazism."
> 
> >This pisses me off as it shows a total lack of understanding of Nietzsche to
> >link him in anyway with Nazism or the notion of Survival of the Fittest.
> 
> So tell us, oh great Nietzchean scholar, how one is to interpret Mr. N's Superman,  the great blonde beast etc.?  Simply innocuous and misunderstood references to philosophical principles?
> 
> If the central motivating force of life is an individual's will to power, how does that differ from the principles of survival of the fittest, particularly when Friedrich celebrates this principle and the struggles it engenders?
> 
> Look, if the principle of survival of the fittest is both central to us and a good thing (beacuse it's natural), how can you foresee a society that is not hierarchical and indifferent to indivivual suffering?