Tag: nietzsche
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Whipping Ourselves and Weeping
This broad tendency among the Western left, from the end of the French Revolution to the present day, is fueled by an impulse towards self-flagellation. The question then is: why does the left feel the need to lash itself in penance? This is not a thorough study but I have been thinking about this for…
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Against Ressentiment
Few concepts which Nietzsche developed have been less controversial than ressentiment. I view this as a problem. It’s not unusual to find that ressentiment (and its cousin bad conscience) are at the core of Nietzsche’s thought. It’s also not unusual to observe that Nietzsche was stridently elitist and aristocratic. It’s interesting, then, that people never…
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Juice: Will to Power and al-Kindi’s Stellar Rays
The concept of Juice is meant to help model how all interpersonal interactions work on an individual level: how does one person persuade another, for instance. Traditional philosophy doesn’t seem to deal with interactions at this particular level; it deals in ideals and generalities. For this reason, traditional philosophy did not give me the tools…
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Aphorism 7 – The Good King
When discussing Nietzsche and ressentiment, those who want to save Nietzsche often make the point that ressentiment is a key part of the idea of justice. In response, I would like to tell a story about The Good King. There once was a good king. One day, a man came to him and said that…
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Aphorism 4 – Nietzsche on Jewish People
I expect that it will be some time until I can do a full treatment on this, but I want to make my case in brief just so I can say I made it. The case I want to make is that Nietzsche was an antisemite. I feel it’s important to make this case because…
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Aphorism 3 – Genealogy
I call myself an anti-Nietzschean but I must be fair. To begin in being fair, I’ll be fair to Foucault and many others in that I did need this pointed out to me (I can’t recall from where). Now to be fair to Nietzsche: in On the Genealogy of Morals he is not doing a…
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Aphorism 2 – The Clean Man
Many people have used concepts that Nietzsche introduced (or, at least, that they were introduced to by Nietzsche) and achieved great things with them. Foucault as I’ve mentioned, Deleuze, Derrida, Weber, Jung, Bataille, Heidegger, and so on. Do I reject concepts like ressentiment and master/slave moralities not because they are untrue but because they are…
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Aphorism 1 – Ressentiment
If Nietzsche gets to misapply the word aphorism then I’m going to do it, too. I’ve heard about the bird of prey, let’s say a hawk, and the lamb. I have questions. Let’s say that the hawk has eaten too much so it’s slow, or that the lamb that he’s following is very fast, and…
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Against Nietzsche
I must be direct: if you have any respect for Friedrich Nietzsche, you’ve fucked up. There are three options. The best is that you’re the victim of a con. The next best is that you’re at least a bit stupid. The worst is that you’re consciously a monster. There aren’t other options. I don’t base…