Even though he may be appalled to learn of this but why are the extreme right and the Trump era alt-right fascinated with Friedrich Nietzsche?
By: Ringo Bones
It is well-known that Friedrich Nietzsche is very critical
of the bronze-age precepts that form the foundation of most existing organized
religions. This sentiment is also shared by every self-respecting rational
people, but why is it that the extreme right – which is not shy in expressing
that their concept of right and wrong dates back to the what learned people of
the Bronze Age knew of the world around them – seems to be fascinated by, and
very specifically, the anti-Semitic leaning religious critiques of Nietzsche?
Given the horrible uses made of his treatise by others –
particularly during Nazi era Germany – it is important to realize that,
although he blamed the invention of the concept of slave morality on the
ancient Jews, Nietzsche was never a religious persecutor. By today’s standards,
Nietzsche could have been a religious satirist frequently pointing out hypocrisies
committed by contemporary organized religion.
As a case-in-point of Nietzsche’s strive to avoid
misunderstandings of his treatise, Thus Spake Zarathustra could have been his
lone magnum opus that stands on its own merits, but he realized that that his
ideas required further explanation to guard against misunderstanding. To that
end, he published in 1886 probably his greatest work, Beyond Good and Evil, and
in 1887, Toward a Genealogy of Morals. But given the penchant for demagoguery –
as opposed to reason – by the current trump era alt-right, Friedrich Nietzsche’s
work would thus continue to be politically perverted by the politics of the extreme
right.