B. docile_body
^^^^^ B, Nietzsche has been discussed here many times. How do you deal with his belief in a "natural" caste system ?
Charles
^^^^^
In both Mencken and Nietzsche, this professional-class family background manifested itself as incomprehension of, and a near-total lack of respect for, the lower economic classes.
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In terms of attitudes and beliefs, Mencken and Nietzsche shared many. Both were confirmed rationalists and materialists. Both were strong advocates of individualism. Both were deeply opposed to Christianity. Both held somewhat misogynistic views. And both were firm believers in a “natural” caste system.
This last was perhaps the result of their relatively privileged backgrounds, and the resultant desire to justify their class privilege. (While Nietzsche was not well off as an adult, he came from a middle-class background and had an ample [for a single person] pension from the university where he had taught.) In Nietzsche’s case, his belief in a caste system was based on the concept that some individuals are naturally superior to others, and should therefore be in the upper caste. Mencken’s idealized caste system was cruder; it was simple Social Darwinism — as exemplified, for example, in his praise of Theodore Roosevelt in Chapter 16 of this book. Of course, both Mencken and Nietzsche believed themselves superior and therefore members of the upper caste.
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