Nietzsche and Anarchy: Psychology for Free Spirits, Ontology for Social War

by Shahin

How is it possible to live free and joyful in this world of domination? The key idea Nietzsche offers us is this: don't hide from struggle in fantasy worlds or imaginary futures, but affirm life, say yes to life here and now. With all its violence, cruelty and loneliness; and all its encounters of tenderness, wildness, delight and possibility.

The first part of the book is a reading of Nietzsche's philosophy of individual self-making. It begins with his radical psychology of "drives", which understands human beings as always multiple and always open to change. It works through his theories of incorporation, herd instinct, the sovereign individual, and slave morality, to reach the image of the "free spirit" who stands against the norms and creates new values.

The second part builds on these Nietzschean ideas with others from more recent thinkers, to develop an "ontology for social war", a framework for thinking through relations of conflict and affinity, power and domination. It addresses questions such as: how do we form groups that are not conformist herds? How do we spread anarchic desires, without becoming advertisers or missionaries? How do we fight, without becoming cruel or cold?

While the first part of the book can be read as an accessible introduction to core aspects of Nietzsche's thought, this is not a work of scholarship but one individual's use of some Nietzschean ideas as weapons for self-transformation and social struggle.

Genres: Philosophy, Anarchism, Politics, Theory

288 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eh. I think the theory and reading/interpretation of Nietzsche (and Foucault, who is talked about nearly as much as Nietzsche) is pretty sound, but it gets kind of boring just nodding along in agreement the whole time. For anyone who has deeply read or studied these two already, little in here will come as new or a surprise.

The second half of the book leans more towards how to act within the world, yet it's spoken about in the most general vagaries ("live joyfully," "engage in projectuality," "projects that are joyful, effective, achievable") that are cool and inspiring when you first read Bonanno or Venomous Butterfly, but ultimately become sort of trite and dull over time. Perhaps I'm too much of a pessimist, but with literally zero concrete examples, I don't feel inspired (nor does it really leave much to argue against or poke holes in). It's also sort of unclear to me why the author consistently comes back around to fighting these big monsters while at the same time recognizing Foucaultian micro-powers as being just as (if not moreso) influential. It's probably worth mentioning as well that the focus on Foucault is his middle Power period rather than the more interesting care-of-the-self period.

[C. Quabela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a worthwhile and thought-provoking book. Nietzsche has been a source of inspiration as well as a bogeyman for many revolutionary causes. I feel it could have gone much farther than it does in its commitment to extrapolating what is an ultimately failed attempt to make of Nietzsche an anarchist, but it does a good job at teasing out those elements that can be used towards (mis)appropriating him to that end. I am no stickler for maintaining an illusory integrity to a thinker. Nietzsche was against anarchism, and no matter how flawed his understanding of the movement there is no getting from his philosophy to a course of political action that does not ultimately distort his project. But that is not reason enough to disregard his insights. The part of this book that works for me is its focus on the middle period free-spirit ideas. The cultivation of the individual in the face of external forces is, I feel, what this author gets exactly right in comparing Nietzsche to anarchy. Ultimately, however, Nietzsche will always fail to provide a cogent code for political action. He does not provide an ontology that would accommodate the Other – which is what in the end any political theory demands. Nietzsche is a cultivation of the self. Anyone who revers him holds him a at a breath’s pace from their own innermost desires. Which is why I feel this book would have done better to abandon Nietzsche at a latter point. Where Nietzsche himself fails is in his Enlightenment clinging to a belief in the infinite expansion of the human animal. Socialism and anarchism begin where the world ends. And the world does end. There is no abyss but our own intergirded fates. Nietzsche still works because he is able to dig into the individual and plum the abyss within each of us but fails to reconcile the conflicts we have with each other in a finite world.

[Mister Oolong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly worthwhile read, really highlights what aspects of Nietzsche's philosophy can be applied to the everyday lives of anarchists and socialists, even if Nietzsche did not think too highly of them.

[Cal · Rating 4 out of 5]

First half of the book is an excellent summarization of Nietzsche's views on human psychology and the self. Second half is an average exploration into potential political practices informed by Nietzsche's psychology using primarily Foucault. Overall the book was a great and enjoyable read, but I would have liked a bit more in-depth exploration into the political uses of Nietzsche, potentially by using Deleuze and Guattari's politics. I still highly recommend this book.