Was Nietzsche a Nazi?

Nietzsche was died nearly 30 years before the Nazi regime started. However, by many intellects today he is said to be the creator of Nazism.

Nietzsche believed that 'God is dead' and rejects all kinds of religion. He grew up as a lutheran. Lutheranism is a major sector of Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther. He commenced studies in theology in 1864 and joined as a member of the Burschenschaft Frankonia, and soon after lost his faith. He then made it his business to find out the truth and concluded that 'God is dead'. He says 'dead' because to him God was once alive and in existence.

Due to Nietzsche's lack of faith in religion, he regarded Jews and Christians as 'Untermensch' or inferior people. It is this point in Nietzsche's ideas that is misinterpreted by many, especially the Nazi's. Nazi's too had a dislike for the Jews, however they hated them racially, unlike Nietzsche's opposition to them which was purely theological. Nietzsche's philosophy has been misconstrued through means of consequentialism. Betrand Russell's theory of consequentialism denotes that it is the consequences of a action that form the moral judgement. Therefore, in those term, Nietzsche must have realised that his actions would have led to the consequence of being labeled as the creator of Nazism. Nietzsche's connection to Nazism is in fact simply an intellectual error.

A well known concept of Nietzsche's is the Ubermensch. He believed the the Ubermensch was a goal for humankind to aim towards, and poken of in his book 'Thus spoke Zarathustra'. The inferior people, being the untermensch, are groups such as the Jews who's religion imposes great limitations in their ability to ever reach the Ubermensch status. Their limitations lie in the unwillingness to live in this life and only live to look forward to their reward in their next life.

As well as being seen unintentionally as the creator of Nazism, Nietzsche is also regarded as the father of Existentialism. He regarded himself as an immoralist; someone who did not follow the moral schemes of his day. This follows on from the notion that 'God is dead'. Existentialists believe that the non-existence of a God entails that there i no being to conceptualise the essence of a human, and therefore existence comes before existence.

Jean Paul Satre - Existentialism and Humanism

Existentialism became a popular fad in France during the 50's and 60's, however it should be noted that it is more than a passing fashion.

In Satre's book 'Existentialism and Humanism' his purpose is to offer a defence to some of the criticisms that have been made against existentialism.

Communists criticise existentialism as an 'invitation to people to dwell in quietism of despair'. Also, communists claim that existentialists do not take the 'solidarity of mankind' into account and only consider the individual upon pure subjectivity.

Existentialists have been labeled as realists or 'naturalists'. However, this is surprising considering that many are horrified by the over-emphasis on the evil side of life, and when was the last time that someone was horrified by a book by Zola?

There are namely two types of existentialists - the Christian and the atheist. Heigedder and Satre are both examples of the atheist existentialist. Both Christian and atheist existentialists believe that existence precedes essence, and that we must begin from the subjective.

From the atheist point of view, if God does not exist there must be at least one being who existence precedes his essence, as there is no God to conceptualise human nature.

'Existence before essence' means that a person is born and purely exists, and subsequently defines himself. Therefore a person is born without morals, outside of the social structure of wrong and right. An existentialist goes through life constantly confronting moral dilemmas, for they live for the moment.

Although man chooses for himself it i also believed that the actions that one man takes, he takes for the whole of mankind. An example that Satre gives in his book is:
'...if I decide to marry and to have children...I am thereby committing not only myself, but humanity a a whole, to the practice of monogamy'.
This holds the individual responsible for creating an image of man.

In response to the first criticism that existentialists dwell in despair, Satre explains what is meant by anguish. When a man fully commits himself to something, in existentialist terms he is not only deciding for himself but for the whole of mankind, and cannot escape the responsibility that comes with this notion.

New Journalism

Tom Wolfe, the creator of the term 'New Journalism', started his career as a features writer for the New York Herald Tribune. Competition was fierce between feature writers. but as was commonly the case, they would run out of material by week 9 or 10 of the job, reverting then to the odd funny thing that happened around the house the other day a they squirmed and gasped for air.

The ultimate goal for any writer, according to Wolfe, is 'the novel'. The dream is to retire to a shack in the mountains and spend six months writing your revolutionary novel which would enable you to leave your eternal mark in the literary world. Many of these hopefuls would reach the age of 40 and realise that their time had been and gone. In the literary world the novel is, as wold be said in Nietzschian term, the Ubermensch or the superior form of literary.

Wolfe's first experience of what is now called New Journalism was found in a copy of Esquire and was titled 'Joe Louis: the king as a middle aged man'. It carried the tone of a short story, much like the literary tone of a novel. This writer, Gay Talese (a former reporter for The Times) had reported on the little things, such as personal interaction and things that to the normal journalist would seem irrelevant, and this style was a far cry from the 'who, what, when, where' format us journalists are instilled with. Many journalists and intellectuals responded to this unfamiliar format of reporting as "he must have made it up!".

Soon enough other had caught on to this idea that a features writer could indeed leave the office and venture out to do his own reporting. arriving at the events early to note novelistic details such as jewelry worn by the subjects, or their perspiration or even the smell in the air. This is certainly what Wolfe's coworker Breslin did, to much resentment from the rest of the Journalistic world. This new type of Journalism was viewed as a cheap imitation, and people who participated were seen as cheats of 'the novel' dream.

Wolfe first realised that there mat be something 'new' in journalism when he accidentally made his entry into the arena in 1963 . What interested him was the possibility of using traditional literary devices such as dialogue or the stream-of-consciousness, whilst simultaneously producing an accurate piece of non-fiction.

One of the criticisms put towards new journalism is that it's non-critical. It merely provides entertainment for the reader as pointed out to Wolfe by a fellow panelist, Pauline Kael. However, on the other hand, are we then to assume that serious literature such as hard new has a duty to give moral instruction? Surely it is the job of a journalist to remain impartial and provide all the facts so that the reader can make their own judgement.

Keynesian Economics

Keynes, who died in 1946, made his biggest impact in the third quarter of the twentieth century. It is true to say that many of the great thinkers and teachers leave their biggest mark after their death.

It is said that the recovery from the Great Depression in the 1920's was due to the adoption of Keynesian policies, however this was not actively recognised at the time. During the 50's and 60's there was a noticeable boom in the economy and bad years were rare and not so bad. This boom is by some associated with Keynesian policies, however some associate it with the combination of technological advancements and socialism. But when the economy started to falter in the late 60's, it seemed that instead of producing steady economic progress these policies had produced inflation.

Keynes expertise were in the narrow and technical field of monetary theory: what money is and what it can do. He believed that money is a commodity like any other and has a price determined by supply and demand, e.g. the interest rate. If people wanted money, but there was a choked off supply, then interest rates would rise and if you flooded the economy with extra money then interest rate would fall.
Classical economists use the rising and falling of interest rates is one of the key determiners od the rate of economic development and believe that the value of money is central to economic prosperity and growth.
On the contrary, Keynes said the lack of money supply could choke off the growth of the economy and it was necessary to decrease the value of money to keep up with the amount of goods in the real economy.

The Keynes theory falls into three parts
1. The effect of investment on income and employment - the Multiplier theory
2. The effect of interest on investment - the Marginal Efficiency of Capital
3. The effect of money supply, or of monetary policy, upon rate of interest - Liquidity Preference

As the most influential economist of the 20th century, Keynes attracted a lot of criticism. As he was seen as being anti establishment he received most of that criticism from the right. However, whilst he was trying to persuade them of the benefits of a more progressive policy, he received even more criticism as he was seen as a supporter of capitalism.

One of Keynes biggest critiques was Friedrich von Hayek who asserted that the Keynesian model of a large and active state taking a major role in the economy is a revival of Feudalism and a step back towards the dark ages of socialism, etc.
Hayek's book 'The Road to Serfdom' Hayek is refering the to socio-economic condition known as 'serfdom'. Serfdom is the socio-economic status of unfree peasants under Feudalism - Feudalism being a political, economic or social order which resembles a medieval system.

Hayek and Freeman said that the economic boom was basically one big party and deflation was necessary as the boom was going to have to be paid for eventually.

Keynes managed to save the capitalist economy from the great depression, however then subsequently managed to destroy capitalism by devaluing money and undermining social values.

Books used:
Th Crisis In Keynesian Economics by John Hicks
A Guide to Keynes by Alvin H.Hansen
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek

Gonzo Journalism - Tim Cutter, representitive of TUSC

This is an example of Gonzo Journalism, which I will explain in depth in a subsequent blog.
I have also added an interview that I had with Tim Cutter on the end, which departs from the idea of Gonzo Journalism, however I think it adds to the content of the video.
Many of my fellow students got the chance to follow a political candidate whilst they went canvasing, however I only got to go to a TUSC (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) public debate which was held in preparation for the up coming general election.
From this video you can gain an idea of the core ideas of the party.