Philosophy majors and Nietzsche Fans

Rhetoric of Culture@ Berkeley; Fall 2006

The class is quietly apathetic; not so quiet conversations about the lack of interest in the class amongst some students is distracting me from reading thetext assigned (shown below). We are assigned portions of the text as required but the entire book is recommended. For the more anal among you the page numbers assigned are 47-137, 207-216. In class, the instructor seems to rely on some students having previously read The Geneaology of Morals and perhaps to have further knowledge than presented in the text regarding Nietzsche and his personal doctrine on the origins and superiority of Aryans. Well the majority of the class just stared and those who had an opinion just further confounded those of us without opinions.

I had an instructor at AVC who frequently mentioned material not presented in the class. It drove me nuts. I often had no frame of reference and thus was left out of the learning experience. I don't care what anyone says I am of the opinion if the text or material is not presented in the class then instructors should not assume previous knowledge or should keep it to a bare minimum ( except in the issue of prerequisites ).

Yeah, I digresss.

Ok so from the author's point of view Nietzsche laid the groundwork of the Holocaust with intention to create a superiority myth (consciously or unconsciously is not made clear to the reader, IMHO). (see how I assumed you know what IMHO means...in my humble opinion) :-))

In learning more on the opinions and viewpoints, I have thusfar determined that Nietzsche was appropriated by many schools of thought to promote their particular viewpoint on whatever topic. It seems as though his works are easily misinterpreted. It is not unarguable that his material is honest and direct and within historical context of the time period and not promoting a superior human Aryan mythos. Read in the context of modern United States and our historic views on race and gender and sexuality issues, Nietzsche could easily be construed a propogator of myth as an active agent.

I don't have any further opinion than what is presented above. If anyone wants to add their insight on the topic of Nietzsche and Aryan superiority or the road map from his views to the Holocaust....this would be a great time to have this conversation for me.

So feel free to post here or on foreversolitary.blogspot.com. This is cross-posted.

Currently reading : Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship By Bruce Lincoln Release date: By 03 April, 2000