A few quick responses:
On 8 Jun, 2007, at 11:19 PM, Mr. WD wrote:
>
> My impression is that left politics in the U.S. is far more morally
> oriented than it ought to be.
> <...>
> If morally-motivated left political projects produce good results,
> what could be the problem with them? I don't think Marx can give a
> satisfactory answer to this, but Nietzsche can -- this is his primary
> value to the left IMO. N.'s philosophy explains the advantages of
> viewing politics as a _power_ struggle rather than a moral struggle.
> When you view politics as a power struggle, the primary goal is not
> some abstract value like "equality" -- rather, equality, genuine
> democracy, etc. flow out of the working class seizing power.
Not at all being disrespectful my friend, but I suspect a good chunk of leftists outside the U.S would find the last paragraph any where from amusing to incomprehensible. That politics is a power struggle is obvious. But moral struggles aren't [necessarily] about politics. If leftism is (as I have claimed earlier) the attempt of the improbable ideal, in the same vein as life, etc, then morality is the non-deterministic(*) wedge, the diagonal slash if you will, that makes life, leftism and all that milk and honey possible. If we are to resist falling prey to reading Nietzsche as cliches then the same is appropriate for moral leftism as well.
On 8 Jun, 2007, at 11:25 PM, Tim wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-06-08 at 18:07 -0400, ravi wrote:
>> Sorry old chap, but that was a bad move. The man was literally off
>> the wall starting about 1888, and Twilight of the Idols, IIRC, was
>> right at the onset. If you had to dabble in "late" then Ecce Homo
>> would have been a better choice, IMHO.
>
> Although "Ecce Homo" is hardly _not_ off the wall. Not that that's
> a bad
> thing - who wouldn't love a book with chapters called "Why I am so
> Clever," "Why I am so Wise" and "Why I Write Such Great Books"?
>
EH is off-the-wall indeed... hence my recommending it over TotI if "late" (which coincides with "off the wall" in the case of old N) is what is being sought. Your list is a good explication on why EH is worth the read ;-). As for BklyMagus [sp?] he seems to have found all sorts of fun things in Nietzsche already, to do with reason, body, value... so all is well.
--ravi
(*) a little bait to see if Eubilides reads my posts ;-).