[lit-ideas] Re: Nietzsche and Nazism
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- Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 20:54:00 +0200
On 30 Mar 2014, at 20:02, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Who was the main philosopher of the Nazis ?
Perhaps the best comment I can make on Nazi 'philosophy' is by simply quoting
Alan Bullock (from his entry for Hitler in THE FONTANA DICTIONARY OF MODERN
THINKERS):
"Hitler's ideas were banal."
It is not the 'philosophy' that is important, but the 'mindset' of the 'true
believer'. One who has been seduced by fascism has given over thinking for
action.
According to Safranski, Heidegger broke off his analysis of philosophical
ecstasy in his Plato seminar of the winter of 1931/32 with the remark,
"darueber ist nicht weiter zu reden, es ist lediglich zu tun" [roughly "There
is nothing further to say about it, there is only 'to act'"]. Safranski opines
that for Heidegger, the rise of National Sozialism in Germany meant that 'this
ecstasy appeared suddenly to be also possible in politics'. Heidegger later
said to Jaspers, "Man muß sich einschalten" ['One must join in'].
Alfred Baeumler, a friend of Heidegger's and 'philosopher' of National
Socialism, outlines this foregoing of thinking for action - setting 'political
man' against' theoretical man'. According to Baeumler [again roughly], the
political man imagines himself living in a 'higher spiritual world', as a
'primarily acting being', where ideas and ideology play no decisive role.
Action does not mean to decide for something, for that assumes that one knows
what one has decided for; action means, rather, to follow a direction, to join
a party, etc. - in other words, not to think or talk things over, but 'to do',
to 'join in'.
Perhaps this 'de-intellectualizing' (of even otherwise 'thoughtful' persons)
which seems an essential element in fascism can be no better illustrated than
by Heidegger's response to Jasper's question as to how an
'uneducated/uncultured' ['ungebildeter'] man like Hitler could rule Germany:
"Bildung ist ganz gleichgültig ... sehen Sie nur seine wunderbaren Haende an!"
[Education/culture is irrelevant ... Just look at his wonderful hands!]
There is also some interesting commentary on the rise of fascism and the
'crisis of modernity' in the first and last chapters of Detlev J.K. Peukert's
VOLKSGENOSSEN UND GEMEINSCHAFTSFREMDE - ANPASSUNG AUSMERZE UND AUFBEGEHREN
UNTER DEM NATIONALSOZIALISMUS (which has been translated by Richard Deveson
into English under the title INSIDE NAZI GERMANY: CONFORMITY, OPPOSITION AND
RACISM IN EVERYDAY LIFE):
"The diagnosis of the crisis was vague; the goals were obscure. The actual
practice of the 'movement', and its extreme dynamism were therefore all the
more important."
Chris Bruce,
Kiel, Germany
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