Why is Nietzsche so Popular in Japan
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ย. 2024
- References:
Parkes, Graham (1991) “The Early Reception of Nietzsche’s Philosophy in Japan”
in the book “Nietzsche and Asian Thought” ISBN 0-226-64683-1
Parkes, Graham (1996) “Nietzsche and East Asian thought: Influences, impacts, and resonances”
in the book “The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche” ISBN 0-521-36586-4
Mishima, Ken’ichi (2000) “Nietzsche in Japan from right to left. Rethinking the East-West dichotomy in entangled modernity”
European Review, Vol. 8, No. 4, 569-589
DOI: doi.org/10.101...
My links:
tumblr.com/omniliquid
patreon.com/OmniLiquid
Some corrections: Rather than Hinayana Buddhism, the term I should have been using is Theravada Buddhism.
It also looks like my understanding of the zen point of view is even more naive than I had thought.
Lastly (for now), my pronunciation of nihilism is off. It should be closer to NILE-ism.
Thank you for correcting that pronunciation!
Niya-lism
Nietzsche is deeply embedded within japanese fiction, mishima, soseki. His kind of thought is very compatible with a developing society which finds Christian proclivities deeply alien.
Nietzsche is also very popular in South Korea too. There was one study that showed that Kant is most majored philosopher among Korean philosophy students, while Nietzsche is the most read philosopher among Korean people.
so they are losers?
@@Riza610 no
He is easy to read his pros are good. Very good writer no system tho
@@Riza610 The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.”
@AI-Hallucination could be the other way around but you'll never know become objective truth is not real right. 😂
We also must bear in mind that Nietzsche was very anti-nationalist, and thought that nationalism was destructive to any nation state; and back in the 1930’s the Japanese ere extreme nationalists and bigoted at the time.
Nietzsche like Goethe was a good European, very critical towards nationalistic ideologies.
I would say he was a euro pan nationalist. He admired unifiers. Napoleon and Bismark to name a couple. He also cherished the idea of city states. But he definitely has a very eugenics basis which is considered nationalistic to some.
I really appreciate the pauses you make between sentences. Gives room to breath.
Intellectual types are often very critical of their own culture
Its conflict within the self right
Read Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell: he nails why better than anybody.
Existential philosophy and Japanese culture are two of my favourites combined so gotta love your video
Nietzsche is quoted and cited by name in Nier Automata
Indeed, I considered mentioning that one as well. It's a great game, too.
Interesting stuff. I want to watch next video . I`m Japanese, and I always feel the economic power of 80`s Japan made our philosophical concept about power. This is why Japanese people apt to combine Nietzsche`s philosophy with the worldview of epic RPG games and cartoon films.
That makes sense and I'm glad to have the perspective from someone Japanese. I couldn't find a lot in English specifically on Nietzsche study in Japan after around the 1970's, so I was only able to take some educated guesses with the more general arguments I made, but if Japan's philosophical landscape became focused around power that would explain a lot.
@@OmniLiquid Glad to receive your reply. Sorry if my sentence is too short. And I don’t have enough knowledge about this too.
The Economic success and TV ,comics and videogames took cultural hegemony over youth population since the late 1970s was big impact. I think, this impact denied the need of old Japanese school of existentialism. This is why the study about Japanese philosophy since the late 1970s in English is little. Kanji Nishio lamented the absence of philosophy in modern Japan.
But I thought that the essence of German-Japanese existentialism was handled down to Japanese subculture from Japanese old philosophy. Japanese epic RPG games sometimes have some kind of existential mood. Hayao MIyasaki`s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind has a Storytelling that comes from plainly Nietzsche and Heidegger. And, most successful subculture critics of Japan since the late 1970s were sometimes nietzschean , like Shinji Miyadai and Tomofusa Kure.
@@user-ho9eh8oe1z That is immensely helpful information, thank you very much.
Trouble with Nietzsche is he argued for and against pretty much everything. His genius was skepticism - the Socratic mind. But then come people ( his fascistic Catholic sister first) wanting to sound clever so they pick what they want to justify their POWER urge. If you understand Nietzsche as a skeptic, as in someone with the power of mind! to deconstruct received wisdom towards a better understanding then you can see why he hated reactionary politics and fascism and all forms of mob mentality. He wanted nobility, not grifter paradise.
He believes in natural aristocracy (monarchy) and nobility. He also has a strong taste for eugenics. Twilight of the Idols has many passages alluding to eugenics. I would say Nietzsche is most definitely a reactionary. He is just a modern reactionary. He’s definitely not a liberal or of the left that’s for sure. He despises both democracy and liberalism.
@@RaHeadD10 if you've actually read twilight of the idols you wouldn't call him reactionist
Nietzsche is not a skeptic, especially if you compare him to a real skeptics from antiquity like Sextus Empiricus and Pyrrho. The word "skepticism" just got misused so freaking much over centuries by different thinkers and people in general, it's crazy. Nietzsche is not even nihilist or pessimist. He clearly has his positive philosophical program that should lead humanity further beyond what it already got. It's just that in order for it to work, in Nietzsche's mind, the christian values and european tradition (Socratean/Plato's, to be more specific) of thinking must be discarded/revalued.
@@RaHeadD10it is important to note, that to Nietzsche the historical context and historical feeling as he calls it, is more important than statements like "liberals are bad", that were stated by others even before him. Basically, it means that depending on the context of history, different regimes can be taken to use and implemented to make humanity walk further, strive higher things, e.t.c. So, in essence, even liberalism and communism can be seen as "good" by someone like Nietzsche, only if it serves the purpose, that I described before.
I also noticed a lot of German words, names and references in anime. And was interested why that’s a case.
Great video, keep posting, I think your channel will blew up. This video appeared in my recommendations.
There are also German loan words in Japanese language. It should be considered if they had a period with cultural exchange.
What if Japan saw in Germany a kind of a brother neat-and-tidy nation? Eh, at this point I just digress, don't take it so seriously.
Japanese people love Germanic philosophy and Mediterranean aesthetics
Nietzche criticized Nihillism, which the Japanese embrace because they are very critical of Nihillism. Their Yokai tradition emphasises support for Nihillism and cosmic indifference towards humanity. The Japanese follow Shinto, which is in alignment with Nietzche´s ideology. Nietzche would have held covid - 19 sceptics in very high regard, and as examplars of what to be - the Ubermensch, he who uses reason above all to overcome superstition and exploit his personal fear of the unknown. The Japanese are also awed by Nietzce´s critique of Christianity, which echoes covid - 19 sceptics´ critique of corporatism, in particular of medical fascism and the forced medicine movement. Thanks for the video!! Best wishes to you from Iceland!!
Im getting more irony from your comment than anything, cause japan was one of the countries that didnt really bat an eye to the so called 'demic. Didnt bend over backwards to the point of say, ireland, but they sure af didnt push back much if at all.
yukio mishima not mentioned?
Unfortunately, I was not aware of him. Thank you for bringing him to my attention, it's an interesting case study.
Great work! You sound honest and clear!
Good stuff. So refreshing to see someone talking about Nietzsche who has actually read him!
That's still a work in progress, though I suppose I've been going at it for close to a year. I wouldn't know half as much about Nietzsche without the videos of www.youtube.com/@WeltgeistYT and www.youtube.com/@untimelyreflections , though.
@@OmniLiquid I already knew weltegeist , thankyou for the 2nd recommendation tho 😃
*Hinayana* is a pejorative, "lesser vehicle". And all schools of buddhism teach that one attains nirvana in this world and ends the cycle of rebirth. You might be confusing the concept of the bodhisattva of Mahayana Buddhism, including Zen.
It looks like Graham Parkes was using the term Hinayana when he should have been using Theravada, at least through 1996, leading to my misusing the term. I meant no offense, and am sorry if I did offend anyone.
I think you may have the right of it in my confusing nirvana and the ability of all to attain bodhisattvahood, as well.
It just seems to be the natural conclusion. What I mean is, when you get to the 1800's, and the major religious convictions that people used to have are stripped away, and with it the dissolution of any notion of objective morality, where else is someone going to look other than to look towards the direction of existentialism?
And BTW existentialism is self contradictory anyway
@@Saber23 ? How
@@Saber23explain
@@Saber23 why?
@@solinvictus2045through which an objective morality is posited - in being towards death - then reflected back into the innocent which nietzsche called master-slave morality they try to control you with it, you can control them - Kant would argue it's all over eating bugs in early child development because you don't know its a bug but he synthesizes the concept of a living thing
Not only Nietzsche. Existentialism in general was extremely popular in Japan from 50s to 70s.
Sartre was prolly 20x more popular than Nietzsche due to his more agreeable political views.
Lately I've been fascinated by Nietzsche's influence in k pop. That might be a little surprising if you think of k pop as just being about pretty faces and materialism. But I've discovered a Nietzschean strand in k pop that goes quite deep actually. I might have to write about it someday.
Please do
Any examples of such?, I'm interested
@@littleantukins4415 Thanks for the interest.
The group LOONA / 이달의 소녀 has been following stages corresponding to the camel, lion, and baby metamorphoses. I believe the phrase "Burn Yourself" from their "So What?" era comes from this line in Zarathustra:
"You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?"
Also one of the members, Yves, made a book list which included Schopenhauer, one of Nietzsche's biggest influences. And she had a criticism of Schopenhauer on the value of suffering which looks forward to Nietzsche.
It appears to me that the creator of that group, Jaden Jeong, feels a close connection with Nietzsche. He even has an appropriate nickname: Superman.
Nice content. Willing to see more on youtube
great work man keep it up
I will! Thank you very much :)
Interesting stuff, I'll check out Keiji Nishitani and the two books you mentioned. This is a complex topic and it's impossible to cover it wholly or make any statement without likely misrepresenting someone's intention, thought, or idea. Kudo's for tackling it and thanks for the video.
Man this is great, i really liked your vídeo, You have a new sub
I have always been curious on the history of Nietzsche's thought in Japan! This video was very enlightening. Thanks for making it!
I know Yukio Mishima was heavely inspired by Nietzsche, and may have helped further Nietzsche's growing popularity in Japan? If you read Mishima's philosophy book "Sun and Steel", before read Nietzsche's "Birth of Tragedy". Mishima obviously took a LOT from it, and I believe his mother put a copy of it at his grave(I haven't checked for a source on that though)
Thanks for the recommendation, I wasn't aware of that one
this is a great video man!
"Angel's Dance" has references, and ties Nietzsche and Zen in a fun late 90's movie, Jim Belushi's character lives in a beautiful modern house in Santa Monica, and after researching the house "with the yellow stairs", I found the zillow listing mentions it is the house from the game GTA, which I don't play, but find interesting to see connections between these ideas.
I'll have to look into that, thanks for mentioning it.
The Economic Calculation Problem makes it impossible for there not to be capitalism. That’s why the Soviet Union had such a large black market.
This is kind of beside the point since capitalism can be both inevitable and bad, but I'll engage anyway.
I hadn't heard of the economic calculation problem before this, but it looks to be a criticism of centrally planned economies, and even if one were to assume that the argument holds, and holds strongly, it would then only deny alternatives to capitalism that are centrally planned.
I will readily agree that centrally planned economies are bad, with or without the ECP, as they are inherently heirarchical and I believe heirarchies should only exist with strong justification.
However, this does nothing to argue against alternatives to capitalism that are not centrally planned. You'll need a different argument, one that argues against those systems, if you want to show me that capitalism is necessary.
Both of those are two sides of the coin named utilitarianism
Ave Maria
I don't think its necessarily global capitalism that has spurred on nihilism. I think its a combination of things. And global capitalism is just the obvious scapegoat.
I misread your comment entirely 😂 feel i should leave this reply either way, food for thought for others
captialism has been dead since ww1, fully since the end of ww2. Hell here in the states you could argue it started to die out during reconstruction. The buzzword of captialism we hear of today is just corporatism/managerialism, the other "side" of the coin being socialism/communism. They really aint any different, & at this point theyre merging into a (dystopian) global technocracy. Could easily argue we're already living it now. Whatever youre views on the topics, global privacy basically ended after 2001, & now bodily autonomy itself in on the table with all the so called 'demic treaties
tldr; nihilism is more & more prevelent because of this beast of a system, threatening to swallow us whole. I think carl jung put it best when he warned of the greatest danger being man himself. Just as on the individual level, man refuses to confront his collective shadow. Hope that makes sense man, cause the reason that cancerous mindset persists aint got anything to do with the (sadly) dying concept of "freedom OF trade"
It's Japover.....
Imagine getting over the times rather than under them
80's anime is literally nietzscheanism for kids
Sieg Zeon!
@Doria6 dude that's like the one popular 80's (or '79 to be specific) anime that's not nietzschean
@@KimeruDerHund Gundam doesn't need to be dogmatically interpreted as an anti war anime. The singular appeal of Gundam is its militarism. Its operating under the same dynamics as Legend of the Galactic Heroes, even more explicitly so. Two systems of government, autocracy or a principled but failing democracy, the former kind is essentially prohibited in western media, Gundam doesn't advocate for anything but it does show and suggest. Which side does nietzscheanism fall under?
@Doria6 I don't consider gundam to be anti-nietzschean. What I consider worth noting is just how nietzschean was the medium to the point of gundam being particular for the lack of his influence, I feel just looking at real robots in comparison to nekketsu (like Hokuto no Ken or Saint Seiya) you can see how one outright states nietzschean positions while the other takes more from the liberal tradition
@@KimeruDerHund Focusing on Gihren particularly reveals a resounding influence that's 'worth noting' and outright stated. You dismissed my first comment then pivoted the discussion. As with your two examples Gundam 'takes' from two diverging political schools and presents their flaws and upsides in interesting and brave ways. I haven't heard of Saint Seiya but it looks interesting.
Great Video! 👌
If you're interested in Nietzsche in Japanese media, I recommend playing Xenosaga trilogy. It's a masterpiece ✨
beautiful ending summary
"God is dead" had literally nothing to do with global capitalism.
Great video! Keep it up
It's not palatable, but it clearly worked, too well. Now they need to overcome the prison of simulated relationships.
very nice! subbed
‼️It’s clear why Nietzsche wasn’t looked down upon after WW2 because the imperial army killed 30 million civilians across the pacific. For much of the 20th century they enacted and enforced strict eugenics laws. These heavy handed government interventions into a populations natural breeding behaviors are what cause population collapse. We’re now seeing it in Europe as well. Al Andalus was a mix of Jews, Arabs and Christians, in 1512 the Catholics had exiled just about everyone but white Catholics.
Genial aporte Omni, gracias.
Awesome
New to the channel and enjoying the content. Thanks a lot.
Is he? Had some conversations and it seems that Freud is all the fire.
I suppose a more accurate title would be "Why do I keep seeing Nietzschean themes in Japanese video games?", lol.
freud's views defintely fit japan better either way
This Video should be 2:45:00 at least
Thanks for sharing the wisdom, I love your videos especially the endings "now go out, make the world a better place, as I know you will".
Have you play Dragon's Dogma 2, anything to talk about it?
Thank you! I have played Dragon's Dogma 2. The gameplay isn't as good as the first, but there is a lot there to analyze, and a lot of it I still don't think I have a good grasp on. I had been thinking possibly something Jungian, like the brine is the unconscious, but somebody in the comments here mentioned Freud is popular in Japan now, so maybe that's a clue. It's certainly something to think about, though.
@@OmniLiquid I guess the brine represent some rules restricting people's thought and do not let them explore, such as religon and traditional norms, or internet sencorship in some countries (ie. Plato's allegory of the cave). At the beginning it is for avoiding people take risk and hurt themselves, but evetually becomes the tools of authorities or benefitial parties to maintain their own status and survial.
@@PaulFung-w1t You may be onto something there.
As a indian hindu RW neitzchea is the only westerner that I think has any value (outside material science and technology).
hey man, I just wanted to say that this video made my day :)))
Fav game story is KOTOR 2
Interesting video! Interested in seeing your futute uploads.
i've wrote a big commentary and it was destroyed in the abyss of "F5".
So i won't do it again but i gonna summarize a bit, because the video deserve it. (at least for the youtube algorithm )
So i did some research on Keiji Nishitani and it turn out the man was a disciple of Kitarō Nishida, a famous japanese philosopher. I walk his famous "philosopher path"' in Kyoto last year, so i knew a bit about him.
Also i agree on principle on your claim with zen bouddhism but i don't know much about Keiji Nishitani so i'm interesting if you wanna go deeper into this
PS: i'm a japanophile and i've a diploma of philosophy so no wonder why i'm here ^^. I've only read 2 books of Nietzsche so i'm not an expert at all and yeah, i like Heidegger a bit (i like Sartre more) . Cool video, thanks for your work.
Buddhism is also existential wisdom
Great video, man! Some thoughts:
Nietzsche is probably one of the most interesting individuals to have ever lived. Much like others who admire him, I take issue with a good amount of what he's said. The most relevant in this case is his classification of nihilism as a transition period. In my view, nihilism is the start and the end. Where Nietzsche declares "god is dead" with worry, I see it as an essential metaphysical truth claim. We cannot find our way out of nihilism because nihilism is all there is and all there ever has been. Meaning that you construct may feel meaningful, but it is still meaningless. We are biological machines that run on pleasure; we don't need this concept of meaning; what we need is stimulus. What do you do when god is dead? Embrace life! The utter collapse of meaning is the utter embrace of life. To live, is to open yourself to the indifference of the world.
I think I mostly agree with your assessment, except that your definition of nihilism isn't the same as what I think of it as. As I see it, nihilism is the state of despair that comes upon realising God is dead, and once you realize that you must therefore embrace life, you are no longer in a state of nihilism (since you have the value of saying yes to life). The essence is the same, the definition is different.
There are certainly areas where I disagree with Nietzsche, too. But he's very interesting, he wrote on a great many subjects, and he influenced a lot of people, so I can talk about many things with him as a basis. I don't know if I'll keep doing that indefinitely, but I at least have 1 or 2 more things I want to talk about around him.
@@OmniLiquid I see what you mean, and it seems we basically agree then. Nietzsche is likely my favorite philosopher, so I always love seeing his ideas discussed. He has a great variety of work, especially since his thoughts changed from book to book, and one could honestly cultivate a whole channel based on his works.
Well, nihilism could also be the natural and inevitable result of a wrong turn away from God, the other "start and end," the Alpha and Omega, and possibly the ultimate and only source of meaning. So here we are floating above Kant's metaphysical wall separating the noumenal and the phenomenal, oscillating between the meaningful and the meaningless. Either way, you pick where you fall with naught but faith. Nietzsche or Kierkegaard, there is a God and we are not "Him" or stare into the nothingness and embrace its embrace of you.
@@plentigaff It's certainly possible to do, but there are ideas I want to explore that Nietzsche may not be a great fit for. I'm hoping I can keep enough people interested even when I move to other philosophers and topics.
Whenever I read someone talking about how people need to get meaning, I just say that for some people, they don't get any more meaning than 42 in Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
Berserk mc is literally the mangaka interpretation of uberman (a good one). He even qoute Nietzsche few time.
I was interested on the philosophies behind all the suffering the mc goes through and that how i know Nietzsche
That's good to know, means I probably wasn't hallucinating the Nietzsche connection to Dragon's Dogma, as that was heavily inspired by Berserk. (I tried Berserk but couldn't really get into it. It's a bit dark for my tastes.)
I for real thought he was an Asian guy
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?
- Nietzsche
Nice video man. This is still the saddest statement made by Nietzsche. Just wanted to share.
It's definitely one of my favorite of his statements, too, sad as it is. Like our parents are gone now and we must become the adults ourselves and have those responsibilities thrust on us, so too we have the responsibilities we used to put onto the gods thrust onto us since we have killed all the gods.
Thanks for sharing and thanks for the compliment :)
😂 this is funny because no God is not dead most of the world is religious check the data and charts around the world people are religious doesn't seam so dead to me its just that western people instead of having a real open mindedness it is closed mindedness that we have, we have to stop playing this game that our lifes have no meaning and actually look for it instead of falling in this trap and making a echo Chamber of it and repeating it over and over and over.
Why do you have more more registered religious people in Japan then actual people?
This is a bit of a non-sequiter, I think. I don't recall talking about any specific numbers of religious people in the video.
That said, without looking anything up, if there are in fact more religious registrations than people, and it isn't just some AI hallucination or something, then it follows mathematically that some people have more than one religious registration by the pigeon-hole principle.
My suspicion is that a lot of people are both buddhist and shinto, or perhaps that whatever measurement you're referring to is registration by temple or something of that nature. I'm sure whatever source you are using to get that there are more religious registrations will provide a clue to who is getting double counted and why.
They use all the traditions. some people are registered for 4 religions in Japan I think its beautiful you can get married a Christian your funeral can be Buddhist your birth can be Hindu. No hallucination its sort after tag tho haha
Nishintani he studied with heidgger which Sartre wanted to be introduced. He just didn’t have time..
I disagree that Nietszche can be anything other than of the right..His Socratean concept of ubermensh as also the zen path to individual enlightenment are fundamentally meritocratic in nature,so of the right..A rejection of both marxism and equally left religion which both argue for egalitarian outcomes for the faithful either here or in the afterlife..I say marxism not socialism because you can argue that unbridled capitalism is in itself an obstacle to meritocracy,a road block to Darwinist survival of the fittest..While at the same time as understanding that a free market is the best guarantor of merit being recognised and rewarded..As for Jordan Peterson being Nietszchean you are missing the fact that the former admired Dostoevsky because he was faith driven the latter despite it !..So like all preachers Peterson tells his flock what they want to hear,not what they need to..Plato would have thought him an opportunistic Sophist..His craven support for Israel,lukewarm for Ukraine desptie his anti Stalinist rants,shows exactly that.
Whether Nietzsche himself was on the left or right is immaterial to my own views. Nietzsche had some very interesting ideas, but I am a leftist (an anarchist, specifically) more than I am a Nietzschean. However, to your point, the will to power does not imply meritocracy for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is descriptive, not prescriptive. Second, as humans are a social species, the main type of power among humans is social power, and social dynamics are not generally meritocratic. In fact, the prevalence of prejudicial systems is only possible because social power is not meritocratic.
If meritocracy was implied by will to power and suvival of the fittest, then meritocracy would be fact (since all is will to power), and those who rule would be those most fit to rule. As this clearly is not the case, then either will to power does not lead to meritocracy, or will to power is bunk. Since will to power is a framing that I believe is both useful and (understood properly) tautological, I must conclude that it does not lead to meritocracy.
To go further, I find the entire idea of "merit" to be suspect on its face. Those who thrive rather than starve do so due to circumstance, and their intrinsic qualities may play a role, but those qualities help them in their specific circumstance and are not some universal good. Survival of the fittest means those most fit to their particular circumstance, not those most fit to live, and certainly not those most fit to rule.
I could say more, but let's quickly address the Peterson in the room. I merely brought him up in the video because I am aware that he mentions Nietzsche from time to time and I knew if I didn't, then the comments would fill up with "What about Jordan Peterson tho?". I don't agree with him on much of anything as far as I know, though I don't really pay him that much attention, since he seems to me to be, as you implied, just an opportunist.
@@OmniLiquidSurvival of the fittest is a generalisation,chance subterfuge etc tend to spoil the ideal but those societies best suited for survival generally win out,that is why Native Americans live on tiny reservations..So societies are very meritocratic.Hegel shows us in the Philosophy of History that the smartest tribes moved and fought over milllenia to gain the most advantageous geographic locations..Also seeking islands or penninsulas as easier to defend..Thats why the Celts here and the Ainu in Japan got muscled out,and given the fact us Anglo Saxons seem to have lost the plot lately it may be our turn next.So no surprises that the Europeans,Chinese,Japanese and Indians are so advanced,whereas the desert and jungle dwellers lag behind.. As for the idea that the will to power isn't prescriptive,you have it back to front..It is a philosophy of action not contemplation..It prescribes ie sets out a method of living your life that gives it greater value or merit..And the first lesson is to reject religion precisely because it is merely descriptive as it is an abstraction rather than a guide to personal development..And the second is to talk,think and do way more than read..You don't achieve anything concrete through reading descriptive fiction or overdosing on meditation either. Nietsche also attacks egalitarianism directly pointing out that individuals have differing abilities innately because he was an evolutionist and an admirer of Dostoevsky who was certainly not an egalitarian.Why on Earth would he use the word overman wrongly translated as superman if not advocating they lead the rest out of nihilism as per the Socratean idea..He strives for the ultimate meritocracy as did the great philosophers of Ancient Greece..Plato thought women deserved equality with men as was actually the case among Spartans but not Athenians or the ancient world in general,but no one in their right mind then thought the uncivilised were their equal..And one last thing if you had anarchism it cannot have an egalitarian outcome,simply because if you abolish hierarchical government and have a cooperative society people will still pay more to see a good band,a good football team or for a well designed product..In fact the only way you get equality is when you use force,the more gifted then lack incentive and we get action replays of the Soviet system.Like airships..Good in theory..
Please use paragraphs, that wall is difficult to read.
Anyways, you pretty much confirmed my concern: it's a small step from promoting meritocracy to eugenics and racism.
Let me lay some of my metaphysics of "merit" on you. "Merit" is a made up thing. Nobody deserves anything, at all. Nobody has ever earned their birth. That we exist at all is a gift from the universe and its chaos. That we continue to exist is because we help each other and in so doing grow our own power. Because the power of the group is greater than the power of the individual. Thus, while will to power means we are called to grow our own power, it also means that we best do so by helping each other. Cooperation builds more power than competition, so in freedom, more people will choose to cooperate than to compete.
Anyways, I hope that made some semblance of sense.
@@OmniLiquid Merit is simply earned reward through productive action..If it didn't exist then we wouldn't have a word for it..Of course difference denyers and nihilists have no use for the word since it drives progress,innovation and competition which you don't get in communes where no one dare be different..
No one has earned their birth that is of course the responsibility of the parent in selecting the most suitable mate,job,location,healthy lifestyle etc he or she can..We are NOT accicidents of birth,the quality of our dna is down to the choices of generations of ancestors..If you don't believe this then you cannot explain reality,like why are South Korea and Japan an economic miracle and many other countries with more natural resources basket cases..Any nutritionist will tell you their diet alone plays a large part,non religion too frees up time for productive endeavour....
It is also the people with most merit that lead,know how to get people working together for common benefit,but under your system there is no material incentive for them to do so, so the last thing it is is progressive,it's regressive in outcome..Only extremely primitive societies are communal,even monkeys have a social hierarchy,the females even known to make priimitive spears to ward off males who doesn't merit their mating with..And we are wired like them not sheep,being an advanced species..Men in particular love football because it combines cooperation within the team combined with competing against the opponent..We evolved to play it as it reflects our nature not our ideals or it would be a goalless borefest aimlessly passing the ball around..As for your idea that no one deserves anything,the left insist everyone deserves equality..I would argue against entitlement and complacency it is on my side of the argument..Life is a struggle we are designed for..
By the way, another country extremely inspired by Heideggerian Philosophy was Iran after Khomeinis revolution. Khomeini had advisors who studied under Heidegger and the Iranian Idea of Westtoxification (Gharbazadegi) is basically Heideggers Idea of the Gestell applied as political propaganda. According to that, the Western lifestyle only works with Technology and relies on Technology, thus, spreading of Westernisation spreads the Gestell. Thus, Westernisation is spiritual toxification.
Pakistan was in turn inspired by Nietzsche.
Your historical research and your connections are great. I also theorised that the Kyoto School is the reason for the popularity of Nietzsche and Heidegger in Japan. (I got on this trail due to Final Fantasy 7 featuring a character named Heidegger and Xenogears relying on Nietzsche.)
You got the Philosophy of Heidegger and the Kyoto School extremely wrong though. (And Heidegger does NOT deny the guilt of WW2. The Gestell is not an excuse to argue that nobody was at fault for the second world war. In fact, there are many on the european right who use Heidegger as an Argument why the Third Reich is bad. For example Alain de Benoist and Alexander Dugin. Both say the Third Reich was bad and was in itself a terrible idea, because the third reich was one manifestation of the Heideggerian Gestell. But the Communists and what they did was also a manifestation of the Gestell, and todays Liberalism too. They think basically, all 3 Ideologies, Liberalism, Communism and Fascism needs to be questioned and abandoned because all of them are a manifestation of the gestell. And thus, any form of fascism, communism and liberalism will end in the Gestell and in totalitarianism. )
By the Way. Marcuses criticism of technology and his idea of the one dimensional man was inspired by Heideggers idea of the Gestell.
Ironically, I know PLENTY of libertarians who hate Heideggers theory of the gestell, because they think "people should not see technology so negative. Technology is awesome and the free market is awesome for leading us towards such awesome technology"... Fools..
Yeah, I definitely need to get a better grasp of what Heidegger is on about. I get bad vibes from him and it makes it hard for me to take the time and effort to take him seriously, though.
FF7 also has Dr. Gast, who I assume is named after the guy who compiled Will to Power alongside Nietzsche's sister. Not sure what they were trying to say there exactly, just kind of thought it was interesting. FFX has much clearer (to my mind) Nietzschean messaging. I still haven't played Xenogears though.
@@OmniLiquid I strongly suspect Professor Gast is a reference to a dutch scientist and leader of the SS Organisation Ahnenerbe, Hermann Wirth.
Wirth searched for a lost civilisation living on the North Pole. (Just like Gast). And some of Wirths esotericists friends later thought that this civilisation was destroyed by Jehova.
Wirth later came into conflict with the Nazi Regime and became victim of an intrigue by another researcher.
And look up Wirths Face and hairstyle. Gast looks EXTREMELY similar to that guy.
The Names Wirth and Gast are related by the way. Wirth is derived from Wirt and Wirt meaning owner of a restaurant or pub. Gast often means guest, but often, it also refers to a customer of a Wirt. Because of this, there is also the Word Gastwirtschaft as a reference to restaurant and pubs.
That's pretty interesting. Thank you for enlightening me.
NILE-ism. Not neal-ism. Please verify for yourself how to pronounce nihilism and decide if you want to use the common one or continue your version to set up future engagement baiting of pronunciation fascists like me
Noted.
Linguistics is an apolitical science.
Thirtythird!