Nietzsche, Europe And The German Question

Written on October 11th, 2015 in politics Comments Off

Pubished on Social Europe, by Sinob Glendinning, Oct 9, 2015.

… Nietzsche is a German philosopher best known for his radical critique of Europe’s historical (and especially Christian) morality of “good and evil”. However, it is less well known that his efforts to go “beyond” the Europe of those values is still made in the name of Europe, and specifically with reference to the coming of a new “supra-national and nomadic type of man” that he calls “good Europeans” (154). These Europeans will have achieved independence of any “definite milieu” (153), and belong to a Europe that “wants to become one” (169). In what follows I want briefly to raise the question why Nietzsche retains this stress on Europe. Why does Nietzsche speak of “we Europeans”, and not simply, say, “we whoevers”? … //

… Germany, attaining itself in this appropriative way – through the authentic repetition of the inimitable rather than the mere imitation of the classics – would enable Europe too to attain to “the innermost course of its history” which, as Heidegger will insist, was “originally ‘philosophical’” (31). Again, in the mimetic rivalry played out in this Franco-German duet it barely makes a difference whether the German “key” is sounded through an affirmation of the Germanisation of Europe (though a union that would overturn Latinity) or the Europeanisation of Germany (through the authentic repetition of the originary, non-Latin, source of Europe).

Only it is not a duet. Geophilosophically speaking there is an invariable, if sometimes set aside, third hand in this drama of the modern political in the form of that most semi-detached of European states: Britain (or rather what Nietzsche, like most who recall it, calls “England”). Always on the verge of some kind of European Brexit, always ready to oppose itself to a “Continental Europe” that is itself (primarily) the divided German/French Europe, Britain too will have its say.

I cited Stephen Mulhall’s remarks on the sword-in-the-tree called “Nothung” a moment ago in part to help prepare get this into view: for he goes on to note that the British Arthurian legend embodied in the (not actually the) sword-in-the-stone called “Excalibur” represents a myth of British national identity “that is historically constructed (and repeatedly reconstructed) in opposition to the very aspects of Northern European culture…with which [Wagner] proposes to reconstruct German life and values” (22) – and hence, we might now say, with which he proposes to reconstruct European life and values.

In this light it is tempting to imagine an exemplary Britain in the “mimetic rivalry” we have been following here. Unlike Germany, Britain had been thoroughly Romanised. But there was a decisive break with Rome. And it came (not with a religious revolution but) with the demand of an English King not to be dictated to by a Pope. (He wanted a divorce.) One might wonder if the modern “English” model of liberty as a political concept has its own corresponding and commendable form: not as “sovereignty” and not as a fantasy of “autochthony” either, but, perhaps, as “non-domination”. With respect to the mimetic agon this would also imply a third way: that one can learn from the ancients – or indeed other moderns – but without thereby feeling oneself obliged to imitate them … //

… (full text).

Related Links:

  • Friedrich Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, composer, and Latin and Greek scholar. He wrote several critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor[2] and irony …; /See also; /External Links;
  • Jürgen Habermas ( born 18 June 1929) is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theories on communicative rationality and the public sphere. Global polls consistently find that Habermas is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading intellectuals …; /See also; /External Links;
  • Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe (March 6, 1940 – January 27, 2007) was a French philosopher. He was also a literary critic and translator …; /See also; /External Links;

mimetic rivalry (authors/items named in en.wikipedia by this key-word):

  • René Girard (born December 25, 1923) is a Franco-American historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science whose work belongs to the tradition of anthropological philosophy. Girard is the author of nearly thirty books (see below), with his writings spanning many academic domains …; /See also; /External Links;
  • Tamir Bar-On (born June 23, 1967)[1] is a scholar studying the French Nouvelle Droite (ND) or European New Right (ENR) and its relationship to fascism. A Canadian citizen, Bar-On is a Full Tenured Professor in the Department of International Relations and Humanities at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), Campus Querétaro, Mexico.[2] He is also a member of the SNI – Sistema Nacional de Investigadores – Mexico’s National System of Researchers …; /External Links;
  • Liminality;

Long Text: Mimetic Desire and Mimetic Rivalry, on Imaginary Visions of True Peace, by a Benedictine Monk, not dated; (a bit about me);

Other Links:

TPP would cost lives: WikiLeaks unveils full intellectual property chapter, on Russia Today RT, Oct 9, 2015;

Le Salaire à Vie (Bernard Friot), dans AgoraVox.TV, par Pyrathome, le 5 oct 2015;

Disputing Citizenship, a review, on Basic Income Earth Network BIEN, Oct 5, 2015;

Ireland: Renua wants to abolish the TV licence fee, and get black economy users paying tax, on news talk, Oct 5, 2015: Under the new political party’s budget plan, everybody would pay 23% in income tax;

India: Linking PAN with cash transactions will hit blackmoney hard, on The Financial Express, by Santosh Tiwari, Oct 5, 2015 - about FM Arun Jaitley’s Facebook post;

Pirate Party candidate files in Parry Sound – Muskoka, and it’s about online piracy, not actual pirates, on Parry Sound North Star, by Stephannie Johnson, Oct 5, 2015;

France: LES CHEMINS DE LA TRANSITION, dans l’EST républicain, le 4 oct 2015: seconde édition de la Journée de la transition énergétique et écologique, hier matin, place Duroc;

IEET Audience Divided on Minimum Wage and Technological Unemployment, on IEET.org, Oct 3, 2015;

Etat espagnol-Catalogne, pour un Oui ou pour un Non – une gauche en fausse opposition lors du 27S catalan, dans à l’encontre, par Alencontre, le 3 oct 2015;

Canada: Debate-ducking? It’s debatable, on The Kingston Whig-Standard, by Paul Schliesmann, Oct 2, 2015: a debate on poverty had to be cancelled this week because two of the main federal candidates for Kingston and the Islands chose not to attend. Now the four main political camps — Conservative, Liberal, NDP and Green — are blaming each other for the spotty attendance at organized election events around Kingston …;

Propagandaschlacht um die Ukraine – Christoph Hörstel bei SteinZeit, 45.58 min, von NuoViso.TV am 2. Okt 2015 hochgeladen … derzeit herrscht eine vermeintliche Waffenruhe im Donbass – auch wenn fast täglich weitergeschossen und gebombt wird. Wenn in den kommenden Wochen und Monaten die ukrainischen Truppen erneut mobilisiert und mit – wahrscheinlich amerikanischen – Kriegsgerät ausgestattet und bewaffnet wurden, dürfte der offizielle Waffenstillstand vorbei sein. Denn am Frieden ist man in Kiev wenig interessiert. Zu verlockend sind die großen Gebiete der Ostukraine, welche sich bereits die Firmen Shell und Monsanto gesichert haben;

DER FEHLENDE PART: Das Duo des Zorns – und was macht Dich wütend? auf RT deutsch, 16. Sept 2015;

video mit CHRISTOPH HÖRSTEL: Flüchtlingsdrama als Chaosmanagement der NATO, gewollt, geplant, organisiert, 14.58 min, auf News Front.info, 16. Aug 2015;

Leaked TPP document shows US favoring Big Pharma, on Russia Today RT, July 1, 2015;

Geopolitik 2015 – mit Christoph Hörstel, von NuoViso.TV am 9. Jan 2015 hochgeladen: Teil I, 45.17 min; Teil II, 36.33 min – im Gespräch mit Franz Höfer;

Christoph Hörstel:

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