Dionysian Politics: The Anarchistic Implications Of Friedrich Nietzsche's Critique Of Western Epistemology

Book chapter inside I Am Not a Man, I Am Dynamite!: Friedrich Nietzsche and the Anarchistic Tradition, edited by John Moore and Spencer Sunshine. Introduction: Anyone who has more than a passing interest in Friedrich Nietzsche might be surprised to find a discussion of his work in the context of anarchism. Nietzsche repeatedly criticizes anarchism, along with socialism and Christianity, for being naïve and ignoring the natural inequality of human beings. The result, he claims, produced a dysfunctional political order. To Nietzsche, the anarchist, socialist, and Christian are the decadent purveyors of an unnatural and destructive interpretation of the human condition. However, one must be careful not to jump to a hasty conclusion on the issue of anarchism precisely because of Nietzsche’s association of it with socialism and Christianity. When Nietzsche speaks of anarchism, he associates it with the ideals of equality and empowering the powerless discussed by anarchist writers such as Proudhon, Godwin, and Kropotkin. Thus, Nietzsche sees a similar thread to the “blessed are the wretched” ideas contained in Christianity. To him, this form of anarchism, along with socialism, is a “modern” addendum to the slave morality presented in Christianity.