From: Tristich <Tristich-AT-aol.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 14:12:41 EST
Subject: Re: Replies


Doug Thacker writes:

> Doesn't it go without saying, that Nazism is not Nietzsche's fault?  And
>  further, that under the same conditions, German fascism would have arisen,
>  with or without Nietzsche (much less, his disgusting sister)?  But the form
>  that fascism took - the neopaganism, the "knightly-aristocratic"
>  pretensions, the worship of "strength" and mercilessness - and the
>  concomitant murder of tens of millions: could these have been so easily
>  appropriated (or, as you wish, misappropriated), without Nietzsche's
>  constant emphasis on race, his incessant talk of "Jewish revaluation,"
>  "Jewish hatred," "shortness of skull," and, not least, the "raging Germanic
>  blond beast"?  The "inextinguishable horror" of Europe is not extinguished
>  still.
>  
>  The value of Nietzsche lies in none of these things and does not require
>  them.  The value of Nietzsche lies precisely in his formulations of
>  "becoming" and "self-overcoming."  And just as Marx had to turn Hegel on
>  his head ("or rather, on his feet"), in order to extract his immense value
>  from the morass of metaphysics in which he had squarely sequestered
>  himself; so must we invert Nietzsche, to extract from him what is ours: a
>  "becoming" that denies the legitimacy of the "elite;" a "self-overcoming"
>  that contains the history we maybe have only to seek.   
>  
I think Doug Thacker has just answered his own indictment of Nietzsche.  It
does go without saying that Naziism was not Nietzsche's fault, and German
fascism would have arisen with or without Nietzsche, with or without his
sister, and with or without his sister's husband. But the form that German
fascism took also cannot be placed at Nietzsche's feet.  To say so presupposes
that all those brown shirted thugs, to say nothing of Hitler and even the
German populace as a whole, not only were the least bit familiar with
Nietzsche's writings, but that they took an understanding of them (albeit a
false one) for their guide to everyday conduct and for the pap on which they
nourished their bigotry toward anyone branded as "them" instead of "us."  We
could as well argue that German fascism took its cue from Ayn Rand.  It would
be much closer to the mark to say that German fascism took its form, right
down to its most base and  degenerate atrosities, from hundreds of years of
teachings of the Christian church, and  that the ["mis"]appropriation of those
teachings was made all the easier by the utter failure of _anyone_ in the
church to condemn Naziism as un-Christian or to point out the error in its
morality. How much easier was it for the Nazis to conduct their program,
moreover, by the out and out hospitality afforded the Nazis by prominent
church officials, including the pope?  What a shame it is that Nietzsche was
not more widely known and respected and that the sort of tartufferies he
condemned were not more widely recognized to be exhibited in contemporary
politics and pulpit?

Fritz


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