``On the other hand, maybe I do get it. Most intellectual classes down through the ages have been agents of their ruling classes. In fact, ruling classes originate in the old antagonism between predominantly mental and predominantly physical labor. Philosophers are typically not with slave classes. Nietzsche may be a route for modern intellecutals to return to their true classical roots as agents of ruling classes...'' CB
--------
This going to be long and confused. The trouble is I haven't re-read Nietzsche in a long time. I don't quite know how Nietzsche functions in relation to Strauss, except as an adversary. But like many of his other encounters, Strauss picked up some part of Nietzsche. The other gaping hole in my understanding Strauss, is Weber. I've never read Weber, except a few essays some where. But I am pretty sure understanding Strauss's later attacks on the social sciences is dependent on reading Weber.
As you know, Nietzsche was part of a general intellectual movement to define the new Germany, which had just been formally united (dominated by Prussia) under Bismarck (1871?). So his cultural role was to set the ground work for a new German modernity and its intellectual identity---part advocate, but part critic. At that particular moment Germany was in the process of turning itself into the greatest power in Europe. Its geo-political or imperialist struggles against the English and French were matched almost point by point with its culture wars against both. Bismarck created a secular public education system (dragging the existing education system out of the clutches of Protestants and Catholics) with the goal in mind of creating a technocratic elite to man industry and state, as well as the arts and sciences. So I suspect Nietzsche rants on the herd were a reaction to these developments. And I suspect the emphasis on the classics was part of the intended secularization of education. There was some kind of institutional battle going on over whether or not Theology could be taught in the public system, since this would allow an entrance way for the old Protestant and Cathodic systems to re-gain their foot hold. (Strauss originally wanted to study Theology, but took Philosophy instead. And Cohen retired from his professorship in order to start up a theology institute. But this part of my historical knowledge about the German education system is very vague and might be wrong.)
On an unrelated point, when I was reading Spinoza, I went looking through indexes of some of Nietzsche looking for references to Spinoza, but didn't find any by very passing mentions. After going over some Spinoza, I thought, if Nietzsche thought God was dead in the 1880s, he should have checked out Spinoza, who for all intent and purposes abolished the old dude back in the 1660s.
So where I am going with this is that the postmodernist interest in Nietzsche reflects a kind of historical parallelism between two empires. Postmodernism seemed to devote most of its efforts to critiques of what it selected as representative of the establishment intellectual milieu---completely excluding any interest in the material conditions of the masses, much like Nietzsche.
In my own limited readings in the pomo school, I was constantly reminded of Nietzsche even if he wasn't mentioned, partly because most of these readings gave me the same feeling of nausea.
I think my reaction to both was just that I was sick and tired of endless attacks, critiques, haggling over small points, and never asserting a single positive point of view. Maybe it was just that I don't like the hermeneutic method. This is why I keep returning to Cassirer. He almost never bothers to criticize others in order to make his ideas clear. Instead he picks ideas that help illustrate what he is writing about.
Going back to Strauss, when he was reading Nietzsche, he was obsessed with his own identity as a Jew, and the cultural position of a Jewish minority within Germany, within the new German identity. I think Strauss was working out his own thoughts by re-tracing Nietzsche and others, not for support, but as adversaries---something to stand against and therefore become one's self.
I am doing the same thing with Strauss. Reading him and the works he attacks, does help define what I think, who I am in the sense of an historical point view, what I value. And it sure ain't Strauss.
In any event, I don't know how to link up Nietzsche, some of the pomo schools, Strauss, and the current cultural wars, except through a rather vague mix of concepts that blend identity, individualism, and reason. Obviously the right has its Christianity and the neo-cons have their Greeks and both are struggling to merge these into some all American identity that privileges a white elite and endows them with some kind of mythological accouterments akin to the divine right of kings---specifically in order to justify their right to rule over the rest of us, but most especially over the dark hordes.
Part of those mythological accouterments are the ancient Greeks viewed as some kind of primordial white stock founders of western civilization, who seem to function within the US culture wars much like the mythical German Aryans. If you want to see a neo-con academic shit in his pants, just suggest Socrates was African. They go nuts over this. They sure came out of woodwork over Bernal.
So, I am not sure the pomo crowd fits very well in all this, since they are severe critics of these developments, and are some of the primary targets that need to be fired from their academic positions. These purgings are necessary for the great cultural hegemon to properly take up their right to rule. The reason for this animosity is that pomo's primary theoretical center is the relativism of culture and it is used as a weapon to dismantle the kind of cultural absolutes that the right and the ruling elite want to fix in place.
On the other hand, your right, the pomo crowd are a pretty elite bunch. I don't see many of them in wheelchair repair or over at the auto shop getting down with la gente. While they are quite adept at using intellectual relativism in the culture wars, I am not all that sure their relativism translates into concrete political equality. But who knows, maybe getting run out of the academy will help clear their heads.
CG