On Thu, 17 Jun 2004, Ted Winslow wrote:
> Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> > But here's the trap: the dominator always justifies domination by
> > pointing out his superior morals/values/norms. So in fact domination
> > is in fact imbricated with the notion that values can be hierarchically
> > arranged in a nonrelativistic way. Sadistic domination is not
> > (typically) a product of the "thorough going relativity of values".
>
> This isn't true of Nietzsche's and Foucault's treatment of sadistic
> domination .
>
> They treat it as the human end in itself (for abundant textual evidence
> demonstrating this, see James Miller's "Carnivals of Atrocities:
> Foucault, Nietzsche, Cruelty" in _Political Theory_, Vol. 18, No. 3
> (Aug., 1990), 470-491).
I've always thought Fred's "will to power" was pretty dodgy. In any case, this illustrates my point: Nietzsche justifies cruelty and domination by making reference to an all powerful, universal life-force (will to power). Again, the evidence is clear: domination and mistreatment are justified and maintained by a belief in the inherent superiority of one moral/value system over another. The Inquisition, the Holocaust, genocides, Abu Ghraib, the list goes on--these are not the results of wanton moral relativism; they are the direct products of the ideology of moral hierarchies.
Miles