Nietzsche was racist, but I suspect on the same level as Sam Vimes in the Discworld: he was racist, but hated all races equally, so it evens out.
Nietzsche's philosophy was about personal choice and responsibility being more important than what he saw as outmoded morals based on fear and guilt. He called them the Master and Slave mentalities. His Übermensch was one who had rejected the fear of punishment, and the guilt caused by the internalised fear of same, for personal choice. He could choose to do things which others would call evil, but if he knew what the consequences would be, had made the conscious and deliberate choice to do so, and was prepared to live with the consequences, then Nietzsche held that he had put himself outside good and evil as most people understand them, and was capable of feats which those bound by the Slave mentality were not. In such a system, there would be Übermenschen and Untermenschen (or Masters and Slaves), only insofar as the Untermenschen choose to remain subservient. For such a person, who chooses to sit and take what is given, Nietzsche held contempt.
Nazism, on the other hand, was not simply a group of Übermenschen taking what was theirs, it was the explicit setting up of a new religion, where the Nazis would tell the Germans (and ideally, everyone) what to think. Nietzsche loathed this concept, and his books were in large part talking about how conventional morality, as exemplified by religions generally, was a power construct which actively harmed human development. As the Nazi choice was 'do what we say, or we'll kill you and your entire family', it removed the possibility of human choice, and forced everyone into the rôle of Untermensch, 'Will to Power' notwithstanding.
He despised democracy because it gives a voice to Untermenschen which he felt is not deserved.
This is not to say that I agree with Nietzsche's philosophy (as Nietzsche extended the argument to include that the Übermensch has the right and duty to destroy those who get in his way, and that anyone who the Übermensch destroyed was therefore an Untermensch by definition), but both the Nazi's and these nutjobs have misrepresented him.
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Date: 2005-06-02 09:53 pm (UTC)Nietzsche's philosophy was about personal choice and responsibility being more important than what he saw as outmoded morals based on fear and guilt. He called them the Master and Slave mentalities. His Übermensch was one who had rejected the fear of punishment, and the guilt caused by the internalised fear of same, for personal choice. He could choose to do things which others would call evil, but if he knew what the consequences would be, had made the conscious and deliberate choice to do so, and was prepared to live with the consequences, then Nietzsche held that he had put himself outside good and evil as most people understand them, and was capable of feats which those bound by the Slave mentality were not. In such a system, there would be Übermenschen and Untermenschen (or Masters and Slaves), only insofar as the Untermenschen choose to remain subservient. For such a person, who chooses to sit and take what is given, Nietzsche held contempt.
Nazism, on the other hand, was not simply a group of Übermenschen taking what was theirs, it was the explicit setting up of a new religion, where the Nazis would tell the Germans (and ideally, everyone) what to think. Nietzsche loathed this concept, and his books were in large part talking about how conventional morality, as exemplified by religions generally, was a power construct which actively harmed human development. As the Nazi choice was 'do what we say, or we'll kill you and your entire family', it removed the possibility of human choice, and forced everyone into the rôle of Untermensch, 'Will to Power' notwithstanding.
He despised democracy because it gives a voice to Untermenschen which he felt is not deserved.
This is not to say that I agree with Nietzsche's philosophy (as Nietzsche extended the argument to include that the Übermensch has the right and duty to destroy those who get in his way, and that anyone who the Übermensch destroyed was therefore an Untermensch by definition), but both the Nazi's and these nutjobs have misrepresented him.