Date: Tue, 9 Feb 99 10:43:29 EST
From: "Brian J. Callahan" <Brian=J.=Callahan%MT%DFCI-AT-EYE.DFCI.HARVARD.EDU>
Subject: re: does Nietzsche like baby food?


The one who was foolishly let off his leash:
>"he was specifically insulting to anarchists."
>
>Yes, he was. And maybe his critiques should be listened to.
>
>I too hate moralistic missionizing anarchists as well.

But it wasn't just "moralistic missionizing anarchists" who he hated.  He 
hated the very essence of anarchism because it stank of the "herd".  Any 
philosophy that felt that we should care about each other (not just a friend 
or two to help us overcome our self) invited his contempt.  He saw the 
essence of anarchism as just Christianity in disguise.   As such, it was a 
"slave" philosophy designed to replace the "slave" religion, Christianity.

N's strength, IMHO, is that he was one of the first to see the existential 
(love that word, it can be dropped anywhere to spiff up a sentence) void that 
yawns before us when we realize there is no God to order the universe.  It's 
just that N's answer to this dilemna was simply not a good idea.   

Anarchism is all about the great mass of humanity coming together to build a 
better society.  N's philosophy is all about an individual struggling to 
create a new system of values (the revaluation of all values) that has no 
place for weakness or human "decency".  He wanted to go beyond good and evil 
to create a new system of good and bad, aesthetic judgements rather than 
moral/ethical ones.  If you believe that humans are just individualistic 
creatures that strive against each other constantly, then this makes sense.  
If, on the other hand, you believe that humans are social animals who have 
both a will to power *and* a will to mutual aid, then anarchism is the way to 
go.