Nietzsche and the Politics of Reaction: Essays on Liberalism, Socialism, and Aristocratic Radicalism (Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism)

This book is intended as a major interdisciplinary contribution to the study of Nietzsches thought in particular, and the political right more generally. Historically the assessment of Nietzsches politics has ranged from denouncing him as a forerunner to Nazism to claiming he effectively did not have articulated political convictions. During the latter half of the 20th century he surprisingly became a major theoretical influence on a variety of post-structuralist radical critics, who saw in his perspectivism and genealogy of power useful tools to critique existent structures of domination. This collection of essays reframes the debate by looking at Nietzsches constructive political project defending aristocratic values from the levelling influence of the herd and its liberal, socialist, and democratic spokesmen. The essays will also explore how this defense of aristocratic values continues to have an influence on the political right, inspiring moderates like Jordan Peterson and far right authors and activists like Aleksandr Dugin and Steve Bannon. Matthew McManus completed his Ph.D. in Socio-Legal Studies at York University, Ontario, in 2017 under the supervision of Dr. Lesley Jacobs. After completing his postdoctoral research and working on the Committee for International Justice and Accountability, Matthew assumed a Professorship teaching politics, international relations and law at Tec de Monterrey in the State of Mexico. Matthew McManus teaches at the University of Calgary and is the author of The Rise of Post-Modern Conservatism amongst other books Acknowledgements Contents Introduction Nietzsche and the Political Right Nietzsche’s Critique of Egalitarian Post-Christianity Introduction Part I: The Post-Structuralist Account of Nietzscheanism Deleuze’s Radicalization of Resentiment Nietzsche Contra Foucault Why Its Time to Give up the Post-Structuralist Reading Part II: Aristocratic Radicalism Theorizing on Nietzsche’s Politics Democracy, Plato, and the Rise of the Rabble Between Christ and Anti-Christ Liberalism, Socialism, and Democracy vs Aristocratic Radicalism The Great Politics of an Aristocratic Radical Conclusion Bibliography Nietzsche, Politics, and Truth in an Age of Post-truth Bibliography Nietzsche as Muse to the Extreme Right Democracy’s Rise and the Fate of Genius Nietzsche’s Endorsement of Aristocracy and Its Implications From Fascism to Free Markets From Libertarianism to the Alt-Right Nietzsche, the Far Right, and the Crisis of the West The Crisis of Democracy and the Nietzschean Moment on the Right Embracing Ressentiment Bibliography The Genealogy of Socialist Morality: Some Preliminary Thoughts on Nietzsche, G.A. Cohen and the Argumentative Value of Moral Disgust References Marx or Nietzsche? On Self-Actualization and Its Modern Discontents Marx on Modern Self-Actualization and Its Discontents Nietzsche on Modern Self-Actualization and Its Discontents An Unbridgeable Gap: Marx Contra Nietzsche and Nietzsche Contra Marx Bibliography Nietzsche’s Critique of Modernity Nietzsche on the Enlightenment and the French Revolution Introduction Interpretations of Nietzsche on Enlightenment Nietzsche and Voltaire The French Enlightenment and Their British Predecessors Rousseau’s Break with Locke’s Enlightenment Patronage and Enlightenment Losurdo’s Anti-Liberalism Bibliography Not Beyond Politics: The Metapolitical Dimensions of Nietzsche’s Anti-Democratism in Beyond Good and Evil An Interpretive Experiment On Kaufmann’s “Antipolitical” Nietzsche Metapolitical, not Antipolitical: BGE and Its Anti-Democratic Task Bibliography “Unhappy the Land Where Heroes Are Needed”: Nietzsche’s Overman in Dark Times Nietzsche Redux Master/Slave Morality, Equality, and Ressentiment The Politics of Ascetic Priests: From Trump and Spencer to Yarvin, Vance, and Beyond Trump and Spencer Yarvin, Vance, and Beyond From Right to Left Nietzscheans (and Back Again) Last Men, Overmen, and Wannabes Bibliography Nietzsche, Aristotle, and Aristocratic Being Section I Interlude Section II Conclusion Bibliography The Aesthetic Politics of Value Nietzsche’s Dionysus vs. The Nihilism of Social Media Shitposting Introduction Nihilism Misrepresented Nietzsche’s Radical Yay-Saying Shudder as Antidote to Being Memed Towards a Dissonant Meme Bibliography Animals Sick with Language: From Syntax to Socialism in Nietzsche Introduction Everything Everywhere All at Once: Or, ‘All Things Are Enchained, Entwined, Enamored’ The Multiverse of Madness: Political Philosophy via Mind and Language The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: Nietzsche’s Self-Reflections I’m Thinking of Ending Things: Qualifications and Conclusions Bibliography Recurrent Reaction: Nietzsche and the Thought of the French Middle Strata The First Death of Nietzscheanism The Student-Subject of May ’68 Free Spirits of the French Middle Strata Deleuze and the Eternal Return... of Capital Delinking from Deleuzo-Nietzscheanism Bibliography Negative Politics: Nietzsche 1: Prologue The Anti-Political Nietzsche Various Political Sketches of Nietzsche 3 Hannah Arendt: The Political The Genesis of the Conflict Between Philosophy and Politics Politics as a Miracle Epilogue: Nietzsche’s Negative Politics Bibliography The Warnings of Nietzsche’s Works: Rhetorical Persuasion in Triumph of the Will (1935) and Death of a Nation (2018) Bibliography Index