Re: The Will To Power

Steven G. Harms — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 11:05:20 -0000

I'd be very wary of the WTP and its integration into the larger Nietzsche's ouvre. N. presented very many dynamite ideas and, owing to his Dionysian affiliations, presented them with a great amount of, shall we say, gusto.

It's when these ideas are linked together that some very unfortunate consequences get justified as extensions of Nietzschean philosophy (or get associated with the actual historical philosopher).

The WTP is one of those ideas. Surely N. mentioned this idea in many spots, but thanks to his proto-Nazi redactrice of a sister some of the dots got connected in ways that I don't believe Fred would have intended. Surely National Socialism would have been something he would have hated owing to the cult of personality, the religious overtones, etc. This was not a man who could be bridled ( except in a certain famous photo of he Paul Ree, and "Lou" (Louisa) Salomé).

I think that the real root of N. ideology that underlines the WTP is this: responsibility. As the legacy states of imperial Europe prepared to march off to their undoing and the commercial class helped quicken the nation state Nietzsche's message was one of hope and promise: You can live your own life, and in exchange for this absolute freedom sans monach, class, rank, etc, comes absolute responsibility.

I like to think that the will to power is a will to responsibility, or a will to ruthlessness (i.e. fastidiousness, focus, unrelentingness).

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Re: The Will To Power