Date: Mon, 8 Feb 99 15:38:12 EST
From: "Brian J. Callahan" <Brian=J.=Callahan%MT%DFCI-AT-EYE.DFCI.HARVARD.EDU>
Subject: re: does Nietzsche like baby food?


Mokey writes:
>you know, i really hate it when people pick on Nietzsche and call him the
>father of Nazi-isms.  It shows a complete lack of understanding of anything
>(in fact, everything) that he has written.  You see, Nietzsche was one of
>those great individuals who just turned around to the rest of the world and
>said "I don't give a fuck."  Yes he was radically anti-democratic, yes he
>believed that the lower forms of individual should sacrifice themselves for
>the sake of the Ubermann.  And does this mean he is a Nazi?  No, not at all.

No, he may not be the "father" of natzism, but his basic elitist belief in 
the will to power as the central motivating force in human life is all too 
compatible with Natzism and other unpleasant right wing political ideologies.
He liked "winners" and despised "losers".  He did not see humans acting 
collectively as a good thing.  His thought is simply antithetical to 
anarchism, and he was specifically insulting to anarchists.  That's not to 
say he doesn't provide some valuable philosophic insights.   But, we 
shouldn't try to reinterpret his philosophy to make him seem nicer.
                                                             
>Because the one thing that Nietzsche despised above all else was what he
>called the "herd mentality"  And what is nazi-ism but a playing out of this
>mentality.  In fact, Nietzsche would have hated Hitler and Hitler would
>have hated Nietzsche.  And that's all there is to it.

Well, there is a strain in Natziism that is elitist and also reflects the 
belief in power as the ultimate abiter of good and bad (which of course, is 
beyond good and evil).