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Review: Nietzsche’s Jewish Problem [Part One of Two]

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‘Wagner himself asserts about Nietzsche that a flower could have come from this bulb. Now only the bulb remains, really a loathsome thing.’
Cosima Wagner, 1878.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s puzzling stance on Jews and Judaism has perplexed me for the better part of a decade, so I was intrigued and optimistic about Princeton University Press’s 2015 publication of Robert Holub’s Nietzsche’s Jewish Problem: Between Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaism. Broadly speaking, I’m sympathetic to certain elements of Nietzsche’s philosophy, particularly its rejection of equality and the concept of the ‘will to power.’ However, I can’t say I ever came close to describing myself as a ‘Nietzschean’ in the same way that the late Jonathan Bowden was fond of doing. One of the reasons for my hesitation in claiming affinity with Nietzsche’s worldview was that I couldn’t escape the impression that its nihilism was often destructive ‘for the sake of it,’ a quality that has endeared it to the Left, past and present. Then there was Nietzsche’s, to my mind unforgivable, habit of lauding the Hebrew over the German. More importantly though, I couldn’t perceive any true coherence or solidity in Nietzsche’s writing beyond his celebrated aphorisms. Taken as a whole, the philosophy of Nietzsche was apt to strike me as too intentionally fluid; too deliberately open to interpretation. Nowhere was this non-committal stance more apparent than in Nietzsche’s sparse, vague, contradictory and often quite opportunistic references to Jews and Judaism.

As one might expect of a philosopher as enigmatic as Nietzsche, his work has been approached awkwardly and suspiciously by scholars and ideologues alike. His attitudes towards Jews, in particular, have been debated, discussed and fought over from the very beginning of his public career. Nowhere, and at no time, was a consensus ever reached. During the Third Reich he was both ‘recruited for the cause’ by some, and rejected outright by others. His foundational place in the National Socialist philosophical canon was thus never assured, primarily because of his nihilism, his hostility towards Nationalism, and his ambivalence regarding Jews. Confusion still reigns. Modern scholarship has been divided between those who condemn Nietzsche outright as a ‘racist’ reactionary and a proto-Fascist, and those who highlight his vocal opposition to political anti-Semitism as thus seek his social exoneration and academic rehabilitation. As noted above, elements of Nietzsche remain strongly attractive to the Left. Therefore, where total exoneration of anti-Semitism has been found difficult, blame for ‘corrupting’ Nietzsche and shaping him as an ‘anti-Semite’ has been attributed variously to his one-time guru, Richard Wagner, or his sister Elisabeth, who married Bernhard Förster, perhaps the leading figure in nineteenth-century political anti-Semitism. The result of these battles has not been a clarification of the historical record, but an ever-thickening web of biased interpretations, white-washing, and pseudo-history. Read more

Kouchner’s Rage: Portrait of a Warmonger and Immigrationist

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koushner-kosovo

Kouchner laughs when questioned about reports of organ trafficking under his watch in Kosovo.

Bernard Kouchner is a senior French politician and has for decades been a common face in the media, typically promoting this or that “humanitarian intervention” in some part of the world. He served as France’s foreign minister between 2007 and 2010.

I was tremendously struck by a passage in Paul-Éric Blanrue’s book on Sarkozy and the Jews[1] in which he mentions Kouchner’s hysterical reaction to one of his friends mentioning “the Jewish lobby.” Numerous senior figures, including President François Mitterrand and Prime Minister Raymond Barre, have noted that the lobby is a major player in French political and cultural life.[2] Blanrue’s book more generally uses Sarkozy’s career to explore the secular trend in France of the steady replacement of vestigial Gaullist elites, still vaguely committed to French independence, by neoconservative and globalist elites.

Jacques Séguéla, a wealthy French advertising man, recounts that he was on a cruise with Kouchner and his wife Christine Ockrent (then the head of France’s international state media, including Radio France International and TV station France24):

I incidentally mentioned, I no longer remember in what context, without any racist intent, the expression “Jewish lobby.” What had I said? Bernard jumped up at once and locked himself in his cabin. Christine [Ockrent, wife, DG of France Monde, TV5 Monde, France 24, RFI], went in as a scout, she came back bearing a Kouchnerian diktat: “I will leave this anti-Semitic boat first thing in the morning!” I didn’t sleep the entire night. At the crack of dawn, I broke into apologies without really knowing what had been my sin.[3]

This episode, I believe, will resonate strongly with many people who have had to interact with strongly-identified Jews whenever their perceived core interests are stake. Kouchner displays astounding emotional intensity and a sense that he is entitled to engage in unrestricted emotional blackmail against a friend for the smallest unintentional slight. But what is more terrifying, for a Jew, than the sight of goyim pointing out that Jews have a disproportional influence, or even form a “lobby,” in goyishe lands? Read more

Remembering Greville Janner on Holocaust Memorial Day

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The slogan for today’s Holocaust Memorial Day is “Don’t Stand By” — a reference to the widespread Jewish belief that many people in Britain and elsewhere turned a blind eye to Jewish suffering during World War II.

Just in case anyone misses the insinuation, the HMD website spells it out.

The Holocaust and subsequent genocides took place because the local populations allowed insidious persecution to take root. Whilst some actively supported or facilitated state policies of persecution, the vast majority stood by silently — at best, afraid to speak out; at worst, indifferent. Bystanders enabled the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and subsequent genocides.

This attempt to spread responsibility for the events of 1939–1945 from the perpetrators to Britain and every other White country in Europe has long been an aim of Jewish ethnic activists, and now it seems they have been successful.

A good example is the Holocaust Explained website, intended as an education site for schools and funded by Jewish organisations as well as municipal authorities. It explains that the British have much to be ashamed of in their treatment of Jews before and during the war. So British schoolchildren who up until now have been told their people had a “good war” will now learn another story: Britain is culpable. Read more

National Review’s Failed Conservatism of Values, Ideas, and Principles

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The National Review assault on Donald Trump brings up the issue of basing one’s political views on values, ideas, and principles. The problem is simply that these abstractions may or may not reflect fundamental interests, and the Trump candidacy is bringing this to the fore. The NR commentary is essentially a brief for the priority of principles, ideas, and values over interests. NR editor Rich Lowry sums up the theme:

If you truly are conservative, you believe in ideas and in principles, … It’s not just attitudes. It’s not just who you dislike. It’s limited government. It’s the Constitution. It’s liberty. Those are the things that truly make this country special. And they are basically afterthoughts to Donald Trump. He almost never talks about them.

For Lowry, the contrast is between ideas and principles versus not liking someone (?!). Concerns about “limited government” and respect for the Constitution are the main themes running through the comments. Trump just hasn’t been mouthing adherence to either of them, and his critics point to instances, mainly in the past, where he has strayed from these abstractions. (Yes, the Constitution is an abstraction, because as Joe Sobran said (and quoted by Gregory Hood), “the Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government.” It follows from this, and it is certainly true, that the Constitution does not pose any serious threat to the eclipse of White America.)

In all of this, there is no mention of fundamental interests that might  be compromised by adhering to the principles they espouse. As I noted in a recent article on the response to Trump, “Conservatism Inc. may argue that Trump is not a ‘conservative.’ But the reality is that Trump voters are focusing on his big issues—immigration first and foremost. Unless we win the immigration battle, none of the other battles can possibly be won.” Read more

Reality Shock in the American Classroom: A Guide for the Perplexed

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WaltersA review of Facing Reality in American Education by Robert J. Walters

There are over 1200 schools of education in the United States awarding upwards of 175,000 Masters Degrees each year. Prospective students are increasingly selected on the basis of demonstrated commitment to egalitarian ideology; in any case, all of them are  intensively marinated in that way of thinking for a couple years or more before being let loose in America’s classrooms. There, of course, they observe White, Jewish and Asian students outperforming Blacks and Mexicans—over, and over, and over again.

Some teachers’ beliefs are unaffected by even a lifetime of observation contradicting what they have been taught; such close-minded ideologues are the successes of our ed school system. But for many of their colleagues, cognitive dissonance is painful, and their inability to “make a difference” in the lives of their young Black and Brown charges can be deeply discouraging.

The education establishment makes sure these well-meaning teachers have nowhere to turn. Some become cynics who go on mouthing the platitudes they have been taught while learning not to care about their students. More than a few drop out of the profession entirely, at a considerable sacrifice of time and money invested. Very few, we can be sure, ever stumble across American Renaissance or any other publication that might allow them to make sense of their experiences. Read more

Jewish Fear And Loathing Of Donald Trump [2]: “New York Values” vs. Muslim Immigration

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Trump-Cruz

Previously posted at VDARE.com.

See also: Why So Much Jewish Fear and Loathing of Donald Trump?

The uproar over Sen. Ted Cruz’s jibe that Donald Trump reflected “New York Values” said a lot about contemporary American political debate.

Given New York is the deepest of blue states, Cruz was quite obviously insinuating liberalism. But commentators seized on it as veiled anti-Semitism e.g. By ‘New York values’ did Ted Cruz mean ‘Jewish’? by Mark Silk, Religion News Service, January 15, 2015.

As a child of the Heartland, I can testify that this interpretation simply didn’t occur to most Americans. And it’s particularly fantastic given that Cruz has assiduously courted the Israel Lobby, famously saying “those who hate Israel also hate America, that those who hate Jews also hate Christians, and that anyone who hates Israel and the Jewish people is not following the teachings of Christ” [Ted Cruz speech to Christian group cut short by boos after Israel comments, by Sean Sullivan, Washington Post, September 11, 2014].

But there’s a very low threshold for accusing someone of anti-Semitism. Read more

A Review of “Why the Germans? Why the Jews?” — Part 3

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Part 1
Part 2

Götz Aly’s selective application of his “pathological envy” thesis

While asserting that German hostility toward Jews has its origins in a pathological “envy,” as a fervent leftist Aly would never extend this line of reasoning to account for the hostility of American Blacks or other non-White groups toward Whites. Aly can safely posit that “intellectually inferior” Germans who “lacked confidence in their identity” had an envy-driven hatred for “intellectually superior” and upwardly mobile Jews, yet never assert that intellectually inferior Blacks have an envy-driven hatred for intellectually superior and upwardly mobile Whites. Instead he would doubtless affirm the bogus narrative that Black hostility to Whites is a legitimate response to an insidious White “racism” that has impeded their social and economic advancement. This, of course, is despite that fact that this supposedly ubiquitous and malign force has somehow failed to hinder the social and economic advancement of East Asians in Western societies.

A National Socialist poster: “Bolshevism is Jewry”

A National Socialist poster: “Bolshevism is Jewry”

 

Nor would Aly extrapolate his pathological envy thesis of intergroup hostility to explain the vastly disproportionate Jewish participation in the Bolshevik Revolution and the other oppressive communist regimes of Eastern Europe. This despite that fact that, in response to legal restrictions in Tsarist Russia that limited their economic and educational opportunities, millions of Jews gravitated to Zionism and Communism. That envy and resentment were key factors behind the overwhelming Jewish attraction to radical left was obvious to Norman Cantor who noted:

The Bolshevik Revolution and some of its aftermath represented, from one perspective, Jewish revenge. During the heyday of the Cold War, American Jewish publicists spent a lot of time denying that—as 1930s anti-Semites claimed—Jews played a disproportionately important role in Soviet and world Communism. The truth is until the early 1950s Jews did play such a role, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. In time Jews will learn to take pride in the record of the Jewish Communists in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. It was a species of striking back.[i]

Read more