Nietzsche: The Antichrist & the Antipolitical

by Gwendolyn Taunton

Friedrich Nietzsche has had an enormous influence on the arts, politics, and even the occult realm. Moreover, this influence has not waned in the contemporary era. Despite this, Nietzsche remains widely misunderstood, primarily when he discusses religion and politics. Nietzsche: The Antichrist & the Antipolitical highlights the finer points of Nietzsche's opinions on religion, culture, and politics from an unbiased and neutral perspective.



The first section of the book explores the specific significance of Dionysus in both Greek mythology and the works of earlier German authors. For Nietzsche, Dionysus is not just a pagan god, but a symbol of the Will, a primordial power that is eternally reborn, which Nietzsche identifies with the Antichrist. Nietzsche: The Antichrist & the Antipolitical then explains how Nietzsche's portrayal of Dionysus is integral to understanding his opinions on religion and how it has altered Western culture.



The second half of the book concentrates on how Nietzsche's views on religion and mythology extend into political issues, and ultimately, his antipolitical philosophy. Walter Kaufmann once described Nietzsche as an "antipolitical individual who seeks self-perfection far from the modern world." However, Nietzsche's antipolitical individualism entails much more than merely abstaining from politics and being an individualist. Nietzsche's antipolitical stance is part of his broader cultural agenda, which Georg Brandes referred to as aristocratic radicalism.

160 pages, Paperback

Published November 17, 2020

About the author

Gwendolyn Toynton (real name Gwendolyn Taunton) was the recipient of the Ashton Wylie Award for Literary Excellence in 2009 for her first book, 'Primordial Traditions Compendium', which featured a collection of articles from the periodical Primordial Traditions which ran from 2005-2010. Northern Traditions is her second book. Her poetry is also featured in the 'New Zealand Collection of Poetry and Prose 2002'. She has written for numerous periodicals, including 'New Dawn Magazine'. Gwendolyn has recently also returned to fictional work with her latest short story published in 'Mythos: The Myths and Tales of H. P. Lovecraft & Robert E. Howard'. She also has an article in 'Occult Traditions' (ed. Damon Zacharias Lycourinos, Numen Books, 2012). Her most recent work is 'Mimir - Journal of North European Traditions'. Gwendolyn's first major work, The 'Tantrik Tradition' is also scheduled for publication in 2013.
Gwendolyn Toynton also holds a BA (Hons) in Religious Studies and has a strong interest in all spiritual matters and philosophy. Gwendolyn also has a interest in the arts and the humanities.

Gwendolyn Toynton is devoted to restoring the cultural values which should be at the core of our civilization and upholds the right for all indigenous peoples to preserve their cultural heritage. She is also firmly committed to the preservation of the natural environment and animal welfare.

Reviews

[Aleksandar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Experiencing Nietzsche through the writing of Gwendolyn Taunton was nothing short of an experience. The clarity with which she writes, weaving a fine thread which spreads throughout the Philosopher's intellectually-challenging, purposefully-confusing and comprehensively-dense thought, to present the views on religion, politics and culture (the most misconstrued aspects of his thought) in a coherent, almost a narrative form is exquisite. And to do this in less than 200 pages, is nothing short of mastery. It takes someone who is exceptionally familiar with its subject to be able to do that, and the author of this book certainly grasps the depth of Nietzsche's thought, something which not many can proudly claim. In doing so, the author is fully recognizant of the socio-historical and political context in which Nietzsche lived and wrote, thereby removing possibility of making him a champion of causes which he himself never endorsed. What remains is an unbiased "translation" of Nietzsche's ideas. Or to put it more contextually, she truly grasps "the essential spirit with which an author writes".

The book is divided into two main sections, with the first one examining Nietzsche's views on religion, which for him begins and ends in Hellenic mythology. Without going into detail of the contents of the chapter, in it the author looks at Nietzsche's ideas on mythology as the essence of culture, which in itself is the essence of politics. The ultimate goal for Nietzsche is cultural reinvigoration and this can be done through the use of myth, which is the basis for any common identity and unification in a community. Additionally, the section looks in depth at key concepts (such as eternal recurrence, the Apollo/Dionysus dyad, the Will to Power, the Antichrist, and others) and places them in both the socio-historical context in which Nietzsche lived, but also within the context of his complex writing. Furthermore, the author explores in-depth Nietzsche's animosity towards Christianity viewing it as the main cause for decline of Europe and the foundation for the "slave revolt" which sowed "ressentiment" against "master morality" eventually leading to inversion of aristocratic values and undermining of everything noble.

This leads the way into the second section which looks at Nietzsche's views on politics and has a detailed elaboration of his "Aristocratic Radicalism" - a term which he, himself, accepted. According to this view, the ideal society would consist of an aristocratic social structure, based on a hierarchy of rank, ruled by a noble class - though not a nobility of wealth or genealogy, but of intellect - a meritocracy. The enemies of this society are Christianity and democracy and socialism due to their levelling aspects, which hinder the possibility for the breeding of exceptional men, of Ubermensch. It thus follows, that Nietzsche's thought is antipolitical since he was arguing not for indifference, but against politics as is commonly understood - as the pursuit for political power. For him the purpose of politics should be a nobler form of humanity - and this is why he places this ultimate goal on culture. In Nietzsche's thought - culture is essentially antipolitics - as politics is the product of the mass (the Herd) and culture is the creation of the artist/philosopher - the Ubermensch. This is also closely related to the concept of Geistkrieg - the "spiritual" (read: intellectual) war between aristocratic radicalism and the decadent political ideas that have corrupted Western thought. And what is the purpose of antipolitics: to shape culture to replace the existing system - the purpose is ultimately metapolitics.

Yet, as the author makes it clear - and this is perhaps the greatest addition of the book to the existing literature on Nietzsche - is that all of this needs to be viewed in the "spirit" in which it was written. Therefore, any misappropriation of Nietzsche's thoughts and views and their abuse for any purpose (primarily ideological) is simply unjustified, historically inaccurate and intellectually void.

There are so many other aspects in the book which this review cannot address - one would have to read the full book - what is crucial is that reading this book will certainly clarify any misconception about Nietzsche's ideas, and will allow the reader to actually engage with his thoughts. If one is not an idle reader (in Nietzsche's words), one would certainly be encouraged and inspired to consider a world beyond politics. It seems somewhat bittersweet, that today, in a world where all human activity is highly politicized, all action is political action - being antipolitical is the ultimate act of radicalism. It thus seems, that even 124 years after Nietzsche's death not much has changed.