Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2000 12:05:47 -0700
Subject: Re: Nietzsche list


I could be wrong, but it seems to me that you may have missed Nietzsche's
point. 

In the same section you cite, prior to what you quoted, he writes:

[. . .] Once we possess that common economic management of the earth 
that will soon become inevitable, mankind will be able to find its best
meaning
as a machine in the service of this economy--as a tremendous clockwork, 
composed of ever smaller, ever more subtly *"adapted"* gears; an ever growing 
superfluity of all dominating and commanding elements; as a whole of
tremendous
force, whose individual factors represent minimal forces with minimal values
(WP: 866, emphasis added).

Certainly Nietzsche's position on adaptation and his observation of the
increasing 
superfluity of of the dominating and commanding elements--those "form-giving"
forces--that he valorizes suggests a disdain for being a machine or, as you
put it,
an instrument for production. Such a reading is supported when one reads
the part that follows immediately:

*In opposition* to this dwarfing and adaptation of man to a specialized
utility,
*a reverse movement is needed*--[and here's where you begin the quote as if
it was the beginning of the sentence] the production of a synthetic,
summarizing,
justifying man for whose existence this transformation of mankind into a
machine
*is a precondition* [and not a desired final state as you imply], as base
on which
he can invent his higher form of being. [. . .] (WP: 866, emphases added)

It seems clear to me that Nietzcshe sees the "machine-ization," if you will,
of humanity as inevitable, given his evaluation of economic forces, and not
as some desired state to force people into. But given this imminent state
of affairs, 
in Nietzsche's eyes, a "movement" is necessary to produce the kind of
people who 
will use these conditions as resources for further transformation, for
practices of 
self-overcoming--just as we can work with the values and forces of slave
morality to
(continually) become-otherwise.

cheers,
dan s.

At 01:50 AM 8/27/00 +1200, you wrote:
>Nietzsche writes:
>
>"The production of a synthetic, summarising, justifying man for whose >existence this transformation  of mankind into a machine is a >precondition, as a base on which he can invent his higher form of being" >(WP:866)
>
>In the face of the above, how does one justify the claim that Nietzsche >was not into bullying, domination etc.?  Surely transforming mankind >into a machine treats mankind as an instrument of production - dominated >and bullied into service? 
>
>Cheers
>Peter
>
>
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