The Nietzsche Podcast

My band Slumbering Sun releases The Ever-Living Fire today, on 2/24! This is a project composed with the themes of amor fati and embracing a world of eternal change. I wanted to tell all of you the story of how this band came into existence, how it fits into my story, and what it means to me. This is perhaps one of my most philosophical outings in music, about the choice to say Yes to life, live the tragic worldview, and fall in love with the world again. I included a song from the album at the end of this short, special episode. Cheers! Here’s our linktree: https://linktr.ee/slumberingsun?fbclid=PAAaauPYoaUrAzAghu407YOWXhDouGvvmBZB47bluZ-LFQItv7uAeR9sZUCUU

We've considered two out of the three main strands of 20th century political thought: capitalism and socialism. Fascism is the third, and it is both the most and the least important of the three to consider. I consider it the least important because fascism was defeated, and relegated to the fringes, and honoring its existence with a critique seems like a waste of time. On the other hand, when it comes to Nietzsche, it becomes particularly important to address because of how Nietzsche was tarred with the associations with the fascists, and blamed for their crimes. In this episode, we explore the reasons for this, including his sister Elisabeth, Nietzsche's association with Wagner, Nazi philosophers like Baumler who tried to reshape Nietzsche's ideas to his fit own, and critics like Ernest Newman who took the Nazi claims on Nietzsche uncritically. In fact, when we look to Nietzsche's letters, and many statements he'd made over the years about his break with Wagner, that the ideas of German nationalism and anti-semitism were repugnant to him - he goes so far as to say that it is opposed to his entire way of life. As such, we take a particular focus in this episode on addressing anti-semitism. Even though anti-semitism is not essential to all forms of fascism, the same patterns of harnessing the envy and resentment of the average, precarious person and giving him an evil enemy to fight can be seen in its example. We find that Nietzsche's philosophy is opposed to any essential idea of race, and that those who believed in such things often appealed to mystical or metaphysical claims about the races as descended from pure, separate species from an ancient Golden Age - such as the occult beliefs of the Thule Society. And finally, even against Mussolinian ideas of state-worship, Nietzsche exists in stark contrast, as we call to mind his concern of the state becoming the ends rather than a means, and the "iron-clamp" crushing down and stopping all productions of culture. For Nietzsche, the state is "the coldest of all monsters", and it is a lie when it claims to represent or stand for the people. This episode is unique among these three excursions into 20th century political thought in that it is the only one of the three where we'll seriously examine Nietzsche's life, yet again, and his personal relationships, since none of this can be understood without the story of Elisabeth Nietzsche. As sources, I've used Umberto Eco's Ur-Fascism essay in order to ground what we're talking about as regards fascism, and we'll look at some ways in which Nietzsche and he agree in condemning fascism, but some ways in which Nietzsche's ideas run astray of Eco's standards. I've also used Stephen Hicks' book, "Nietzsche and the Nazis", and some of the materials available on his website. We look at five ways that Hicks sees Nietzsche as opposed to the Nazis, and five ways they could be seen as similar. I disagree with Hicks on many points, though I feel his work to be valuable. I also cite Kaufmann's biography of Nietzsche at many points (albeit without providing page numbers), and even use Rob Solomon's introduction to Nietzsche, "What Nietzsche Really Said", for one quote.

After getting several suggestions in our comments sections, Stef and I touched based and decided to have a conversation. I asked him about his attempt to harness both the philosophy of Nietzsche with that of Carl Jung, since there are some contradictions between their thought that keep them from being easily reconciled. We discuss Jordan Peterson, why we both liked him once upon a time, but why he has, perhaps, 'lost it'. And throughout the conversation, Stef gives his vision of the "Promethean West" - that European civilization is fundamentally based on aiming for the stars, unlocking the secrets of the universe, inventing and innovating, stealing the fire from the gods. His thesis is that many young people have lost this fire, and his goal is to kindle it again. I understand from reading some of the comments that Uberboyo might be a controversial figure for whatever reason. I actually found him to be a compelling speaker and to have a good grasp of Nietzsche's ideas, and much of what he said didn't seem divisive or intentionally controversial, at least to me. Hopefully we're all mature enough to tolerate opposing viewpoints on this podcast, especially given that the next guest will bring some critical theory into the mix, and I don't want to hear any (bad faith) griping from the other side either. Some of the patrons have said this was one of the best conversations so far, so I hope the audience at large will enjoy it also.

Today, we look at the other side of the coin. Nietzsche's critique of capitalism is in fact inextricably bound to his critique of socialism. What he finds beneath both approaches to managing human economic affairs is the utilitarian value structure and the view of the human being as homo economicus. Socialism, rather than the solution to capitalism, is the necessary end of the same internal logic, and further seeks to cut off avenues for man's will to power as we labor under the mistaken assumption that by reducing suffering we will maximize pleasure. The closer we proceed to an idealized, painless society, the more our individuality is smoothed over. Increasingly, the only avenue for the expression of power is through the only remaining hierarchical structure: the state. Originally created by mankind to be a means, the state becomes the ends. In a twisted irony, the likes of the socialists and anarchists - who desire above all for a classless, stateless society - bring forth an all-powerful state as the means of doing this, and become consumed by it. A neat aspect of the episode order here is that we're covering Nietzsche's political thought in a rough chronology - meaning that, while we might jump around from place to place, and occasionally grab a quote from Beyond Good & Evil, we're moving from the second and third book of Human, All Too Human into covering a lot more material from Daybreak, while still drawing on sources from elsewhere in the middle period. The next episode - Nietzsche's critique of fascism - covers around the same period, in terms of the letters and statements he made about Wagner and Elisabeth during his breaks with them, in addition to drawing on passages from throughout his work.  Ian Wright's article, "Capital as a Real God": https://ianwrightsite.wordpress.com/2020/09/03/marx-on-capital-as-a-real-god-2/ Thomas Brobjer's studies showing that Nietzsche knew Marx: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110170740.298/html My essay on Star Trek: https://untimely-reflections.blogspot.com/2021/05/neverending-frontier-star-treks.html

No episode this week! Here’s why.

Join me, and my friend Mynaa Miesnowan, for a discussion inspired by the work of Alan Watts, and his "Wisdom of Insecurity". We compare Watts' own approach to the insecurity of life to that of Nietzsche's, and generally analyze Watts' ideas from a Nietzschean framework. Ultimately, we diverge wildly from the topics covered in Watts' work, and the starting topic is really more a guidepost for the various directions that our thought takes us. However, contained in this are a couple of fun and fascinating looks at the contrast between Watts and Nietzsche, as regards their thought on leisure v/s productivity, and sobreity v/s intoxication. We also touch upon the critiques both men made of language, and the metaphysical assumptions of our society in its materialistic atomism, and how the human perspective inevitably delimits the boundaries of thought. 

Our economy, comrade! Silly cover images and slogans aside, this week we'll consider one of the most peculiar aspects of Nietzsche's political thought: his non-Marxist critique of capitalism, which is mostly found in Human, All Too Human, Books II and III. Since Nietzsche is writing during an experimental period in his thought, he's willing here to entertain thoughts which might not have interested him during his later career. He's willing to give advice to democrats on the best ways to preserve their system against the excesses of capital, for example, or to explain to the rich how their lack of virtue is the very thing that will bring on the revolution against them. Ultimately, Nietzsche's argument centers on the idea that capitalism implies socialism, as both ideologies are founded on utilitarian principles which will drive them towards this end, so long as the value of utility is unmoored from any other concerns: moral, spiritual, national, or individual. I begin the episode with an overall criticism of capitalism based on Nietzschean principles, then we study the textual evidence for these positions and the ways in which Nietzsche considers 'the property question' to be the most dangerous of his time - for remedying it is itself dangerous. The only paths he sees open for society to continue, and survive what he believes to be a cataclysmic movement towards socialism or anarchy, are the following surprising measures: for the wealthy to rediscover virtue, for the institutions of democracy to ban the parties and expel the rich and the destitute from governance, to nationalize the financial sector, and for mass production to yield to a guild or trade union system. I'm sure this episode will anger most extremists: i.e., the Marxists and the libertarian capitalists. To those free spirits who haven't a care for orthodox opinions, for whom this episode really belongs, join me, and explore the Nietzschean criticisms of capitalism.

Stream my new song on CvltNation: https://cvltnation.com/experience-the-doomy-grunge-melodies-of-slumbering-sun-dream-snake/ This episode gets us back into reading Nietzsche, and here I think our prolonged focus on influences and previous thinkers will bear fruit. We’re picking back up with Nietzsche’s middle period, starting from his work in Human, All Too Human. In a chapter from this work, Nietzsche addresses himself to the ideas of Rousseau, Machiavelli, Thucydides, and Plato. He attacks democracy and egalitarianism, but treats them ambivalently, as a resistless force that cannot be stopped and with which the free spirit must make his peace. He treats war as essential for mankind, but acknowledges the ways in which a European peace would advance civilization. Above all, he rejects the Kantian notions that free expression of all would improve society, and equally so rejects the Rousseauian notions of abandoning the Enlightenment advances in art and culture. While this chapter lays the groundwork for Nietzsche’s later politics, it is a fascinating time of experimentation that is difficult to contextualize without seeing the entire picture of his development. Join me this week for A Glance at The State.

This episode concerns the least celebrated aspect of one of the most celebrated philosophers of the European Enlightenment: Kant’s politics. Immanuel Kant is responsible for launching the thread of philosophic inquiry known as German Idealism. At the time, perhaps Kant was merely trying to address the skepticism of those such as Hume. Nevertheless, his philosophical attempt to delimit the bounds of reason - to reveal to humanity what we can, in fact, know by use of our reason - launched a revolution in philosophy. It continues through Hegel, Fichte, Schopenhauer, and, yes, Nietzsche. We have avoided a comprehensive episode on Kant’s philosophy because that would require not an episode, but a podcast, and have limited our inclusion of Kant to a few important aspects insofar as they’ve related to past topics. While Kant’s politics are generally considered among his lesser contributions to the philosophical world, I will advance the case here that we see his ideas reflected in the political ideologies of the modern world: his political optimism, his belief in reason as a governing principle, and his belief in perpetual peace. While Rousseau may have been about as far apart from Nietzsche as possible while sharing his romantic orientation towards history, Kant and Nietzsche are diametrically opposed in terms of their starting principles. Kant is arguably a match for Rousseau in terms of Nietzschean antipodes, but as to which is more opposed to Nietzsche than the other, I’ll leave that to the audience to decide.

In this conversation, my friend Quinn and I dare to journey into one of the most labyrinthine passages ever to come from Nietzsche's hand: the 1873 fragment, Zeitatomenlehre, usually translated as the "Time-Atom" or "Time-Atomism" Fragment. Providing a description of this passage in any concise way will be about as impossible as summarizing this conversation, and our interpretations of it, but at the very least, I will offer that this essay is a radical re-evaluation of how we could consider reality, in which the underlying spatial nature of our thought is challenged. Nietzsche follows philosophically in the footsteps of the Pre-Platonic figures, and makes a daring attempt at a metaphysics so outlandish that there is nothing else like it in western thought. We approached this conversation knowing that figuring out the passage is very difficult, and decided to work through it as best as possible - although I think Quinn had it down more solidly than I did. While this conversation bears no relation to the overarching topic of this season, that's perfectly fine, since I've wanted to do this episode for a long time, and it makes sense for it to be "out of time" or "out of tempo" with the rest of the season anyway. I would actually put a warning label on this conversation to suggest that if you're new to the podcast, this might be too much to follow. For previous episodes that may help in approaching this one, check out episode 5 in season one and episodes 45 & 46 in season two.