Music is a pretty abstract form of art, and one may well appreciate, say, the Tristan (but please, not Parsifal!), without sharing a single bit of Wagner's ideology. However, Wagner epitomizes what I find most worrying in the roots of at least part of the modern left: its connections to the Romantic tradition, via Hegel and/or Rousseau (often unduly classified under the tradition of Enlightenment). Myths like "state of nature", or concept like "people" and "national culture", become a replacement for the improvement of quality of life and individual liberty, and lend themselves to be used by governments as tools to build consensus without delivering anything beyond words.
There is one book by Nietzsche that I especially love, "Human, all too human". He wrote it in 1878, shortly after his break-up with Wagner, and his new friendship with Paul Rée and Lou Salome; it's undertitled "A book for free spirits", and is dedicated to Voltaire ("Ein Buch für freie Geister. Dem Andenken Voltaires geweiht zur Gedächtnisfeier seines Todestages, den 30 Mai 1778"). One of the most striking aphorisms (which unfortunately I can't quote offhand) remarks how socialism (today we would say communism) is the true heir of monarchic absolutism, and eventually its disregard for liberty will cause its downfall. I thought about it when the Berlin wall came down, and again when I learned of Mao's predilection for the Legalist school and his admiration of Qin Shihuangdi. Significantly, the Qin dinasty (the "Kingdom of tigers and wolves") lasted only fourteen years. Mao's system about thirty.
Anyway, that book (which, by the way, has nothing good to say about Rousseau, and much about the Jews) became an instant object of hate for the Wagner entourage: whose antisemitism, far from being "alleged", was extremely real. Cosima commented sourly: "A thumbing through and a few significant sentences were sufficient for me and I laid the book aside... Much accounts for the sad book! Finally Israel came to it in the form of a Dr. Rée, very smooth, very cool, at the same time captivated and subjugated by Nietzsche, in truth however duped by him (Rée), a microcosm of the relationship of Judea and Germany". His sister Elizabeth, married to another antisemite, in this occasion broke up with him too. Elizabeth especially disliked Lou Salome, a truly fascinating figure who later in her life loved Rilke and befriended Sigmund Freud.
Back to state, nation, citizens and land. There is one ancient counterposition (or, if we want to use Marxian jargon, contradiction) that often strikes me for its universality over time and space: the one between land and sea cultures. I saw it present in many different contexts, running deep in human societies. Land people tend to see sea people as comparatively mercantile, unreliable, amoral, thieving, profiteering, mean. Conversely, sea people see land people as lazy, un-entrepreneurial, lacking cosmopolitan sophistication, uncouth and/or plain dumb. Every time the two groups get in contact, misunderstandings and conflicts are the norm. In the land group you may find, e.g., central Europeans, Russians, Northern Chinese. In the sea group, Mediterranean cultures, Jews, English and especially Scots (significantly qualified as "canny"), Overseas and coastal Chinese. In the microcosm of northern Italy, Piedmontese and Ligurian stereotypes fit perfectly the two sides of this equation.
Land people believe in all sorts of solidariety, and are dismayed at its utter disregard by sea people. I talked once to some Mainland Chinese relatives of a friend of mine, who had just discovered of having been overcharged by a shop in Hong Kong. They felt offended for two reasons: first, they felt that there is such a thing as a "right" price, and if someone charges more even after a free negotiation, that's tantamount to fraud. I noted similar reactions as very common in Germans. Second, they resented the fact that they were Chinese like the offending sales people, but no "national solidariety" had shown up.
Typically, socialism is best accepted in land cultures. So does fascism. Sea cultures, on the other hand, often see any state intervention and regulation as an unwelcome intrusion in free trade and free enterprise: and that may be one cause of the resilience of liberalism in Anglo-Saxon environments, and of the prompt acceptance of reform in China's coastal areas.
Cheers --
Enzo
-----Original Message----- From: Henry C.K. Liu <hliu at mindspring.com> Date: Saturday, December 12, 1998 8:09 AM
>Enzo:
>
>Careful what you say about Wagner.
>Richard Wagner was the greatest composer ever.
>Der Ring des Nibelungen, began in 1848 when Wagner was 35, was not only
>revolutionary musically and operatically.
[...]