Posted by alexandra_k on November 3, 2005, at 0:20:26
In reply to Re: ((((Muffled)))), posted by alexandra_k on November 2, 2005, at 23:46:40
> Given his disgust with anti-semites, it's very ironic that Nietzsche has been so misused by them, by men and women whom he would have despised. A large part of the blame for this lies with his sister, Elizabeth Förster-Nietzsche, who was Nietzsche's literary executor and biographer, and who shared her husband's anti-semitism. Not only did she misrepresent Nietzsche, but late in life she gladly lent Nietzsche's name to the Nazi cause. Thus it's not terribly surprising that a great many of those who, for instance, have seen the photo of Hitler posing by a bust of Nietzsche at the Nietzsche Museum have come to the conclusion that Nietzsche shared Hitler's anti-semitism and political views. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth, and it's highly probable that Nietzsche would have outright hated Hitler. An additional reason for thinking that this is so is that Nietzsche despised the German Reich, which was being consolidated by Bismarck during Nietzsche's adult years.
But the mistaken impression that Nietzsche was a Nazi precursor lingers, and probably will for decades to come. It's a useful myth for both left-wing and right-wing totalitarians who wish to confuse Nietzsche's strident individualism with anti-semitism and Nazism.
At the same time, it must be admitted that many portions of Nietzsche's writings lend themselves to misinterpretation. This is particularly true of his writings on the Superman. The very word seems to conjure up images of blond-haired, blue-eyed Hitler Youth and goose-stepping stormtroopers. But what Nietzsche had in mind was very different: a being who has abandoned crippling Christian "slave-morality," who has full mastery over himself and always acts in his own interests, who looks at the world as it is, free of illusions and irrational beliefs, and who says a triumphant "yes!" to life. In short, Nietzsche's Superman is very much his own man, and is the antithesis of the slavish, blind follower of Hitler.
[yes, that was how he characterised christianity. but in general and with respect to what christianity praised as the virtues etc - its not about particular people]
> But again, it must be emphasized that part of the responsibility for the misinterpretation of his works lies with Nietzsche himself. Unfortunately, he repeatedly ignored the maxim, "Good writers have two things in common: they prefer being understood to being admired, and they do not write for the critical and overly shrewd reader." Nietzsche was a fine stylist, and seemingly couldn't resist a good turn of phrase or play on words—sometimes to the detriment of clarity of meaning. He was also prone to hyperbole and often wrote for effect, especially to shock. (Large portions of The Anti-Christ, notably the concluding section, are good illustrations of this.) All this lends itself to misinterpretation.
> So, Nietzsche is not entirely blameless for the misuse of his works. If George Orwell's dictum is correct—that political (and by extension philosophical) writing should be as clear as a pane of glass—then Nietzsche's writing fails the test in many places. If his writing were clearer, there would be no need for the numerous exegetic Nietzsche texts, no need for books such as What Nietzsche Really Said. (In contrast, there's no need for exegetic texts for philosophers such as Bertrand Russell; if one wants to know what Russell meant, all one needs to do is read his works—Russell's meaning is almost always plain.
[Well... Comparatively I suppose]
> Because of this, one cannot imagine Russell's writings being misused by, for instance, anti-semitic cretins; and one cannot imagine a book titled What Bertrand Russell Really Said.)
> Still, this has not stopped many of Nietzsche's defenders from trying to exculpate him entirely. Some even attempt to present his failings as virtues. A good example of this can be found in the generally quite useful What Nietzsche Really Said, in the section in which the authors attempt to dismiss the contradictions in Nietzsche's writings: "What sounds like a contradiction is actually a sign of our ongoing engagement with reality." By this, they apparently mean that because Nietzsche's meaning is sometimes unclear, the reader will be forced to think through the contradictory ideas Nietzsche at times presents—thus lack of clarity and self-contradiction become, in their view, a virtue.
[And this is why analytic philosophers tend to write off continental philosophers...]
> Another example of apologetics is provided by noted Nietzsche translator and biographer Walter Kaufmann in his otherwise admirable The Portable Nietzsche:
Doubtless Nietzsche has attracted crackpots and villains, but perhaps the percentage is no higher than in the case of Jesus. As [Jacques] Maritain has said: "If books were judged by the bad uses man can put them to, what book has been more misused than the Bible?"
This defense of Nietzsche is at least as suspect as the sophistic claim that contradictions are "sign[s] of our ongoing engagement with reality." In the first place, has the Bible really been misused? While it is a mishmash of myth, history, absurdities, contradictions, and mind-numbingly dull recitations of genealogy, it's also extremely difficult to read numerous passages, including Exodus 22:18 ("Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live") and Leviticus 20:15 ("And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast"), as anything other than direct incitements to murder. (One might add that the sentence imposed in the latter verse seems manifestly unfair to the poor, sexually abused beast.)> And even granting the dubious proposition that the Bible has been "misused," is this a point in its favor? If a book can be easily misinterpreted so as to justify mass murder and mayhem, is this a point for or against it?
> The same applies to Nietzsche. Again, one can only wish that Nietzsche had consistently followed the useful maxim concerning " being understood [rather than] being admired" and not writing "for the critical and overly shrewd reader."
> In contrast to the above apologetics, Mencken is on occasion refreshingly critical of Nietzsche. On pages 85 and 86 of this volume, he attacks as an "imbecile flight of speculation" Nietzsche's comments (most notably in The Anti-Christ) that the Jews "revenged" themselves by imposing their "slave-morality" upon their masters; and on page 95 he attacks Nietzsche's "atheistic determinism," pointing out that if Nietzsche really believed in determinism he would never have bothered to attempt to convince anyone of anything, let alone spent his precious energy writing polemical books.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:574702
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20051025/msgs/574778.html