//Nietzsche: superman, eternal recurrence, attitudes towards Judaism and Christianity, reevaluation of values, attitude towards Greek, secular, Christian, 'herd' morality/philosophy; connection to fascism/Nazism; atheism; nihilism; will to power
Concept of pessimistic late modernity: thought of Bergson, Freud, Weber.
reasons for rise of Nazism
late modernity and its attitude towards the Enlightenment//
Nietzsche was a German thinker who is the most famous advocate of the irrationality. He claimed that the choices we make and the desires we have that lead to our actions are irrational. Nietzsche’s idea was to embrace the reality – the irrationality of people – and dismiss the current order, the rational one. He believed that the bourgeois society was plagued by rational ideas that made it weak, therefore it should have turned to following instincts and wills instead of logic. Nietzsche denounced the values of Christianity as enslaving, because they were about modesty, the suppression of natural desires, being weak, thus effectively killing the spark of life. However, his criticism was free of denouncing the absence of reason in religions, but he was a critic of Greek and secular philosophies for that exact reason. His famous quote is “ God is dead ”, and it perfectly expresses his outlook towards religions and moral bases they provide in general In his view, the world was free of any morality, natural rights and etc – a nihilistic view of the society. And to cure it this kind of nihilism (nihilism —the belief that moral and social values have no validity) had to be fought. So here we get the notion of a superman – a man who dares to embrace his pride, who is free of any morality, and acts as he sees fit. A superman is powered by his will to power, it is his heroism and nobility that will revive the society. Amusingly, this vision was later used by fascists to give a reason to their ideas. They viewed the German nation as a nation of supermen that would dominate the world and crush others with their heroism, even though Nietzsche didn’t say it in any of his works. However, as someone noted, all of Nietzsche’s ideas can be used to support the ideas of fascism with a twist.
Bergson, Freud and Weber and be called as pessimistic thinkers of late modernity. An emphasis on logic in rational societies sacrifices spiritual impulses, imagination, and intuition and reduces the soul to a mere mechanism, according to Bergson. He pointed towards the understanding of the limitation of scientific rationalism, and insisted on following intuition and spiritual impulses in order to reveal the ultimate reality. Freud also believed in the power of instincts, however, he was a rationalist. He tried to analyze irrational nature with a scientific approach, claiming that a society forces people to suppress their own instincts that, in turn, leads to neurological disorders, but it is a better alternative to not suppressing your inner self, as people are evil by nature, therefore society is in an ok shape. Weber believed in a rational Western society, but he realized the paradox of reason. The tools used to rationalize society also eliminate the spiritual part of life. Secular rationality has produced still another awesome problem, said Weber. It has fostered self-liberation, for it enables human beings to overcome illusions and take control of the environment and of themselves, but it is also a means of self- enslavement, for it produces institutions, giant public and corporate bureaucracies, that depersonalize life. Weber agreed with Freud that irrationality plays a huge part in a society, and, in particular, it draws attention to charismatic leaders who are often irrational.
As a Europe-wide phenomenon, Fascism was a response to a postwar society afflicted with spiritual disintegration, economic dislocation, political instability, and thwarted (разрушенные) nationalist hopes. A general breakdown of meaning and values led people to search for new beliefs and new political arrangements. Fascism was an expression of fear that the Bolshevik Revolution would spread westward. It was also an expression of hostility to democratic values and a reaction to the failure of liberal institutions to solve the problems of modern industrial society. Fascist movements were marked by a determination to eradicate liberalism and Marxism. Fascism drew its mass support from the lower middle class: small merchants, artisans, white-collar workers, civil servants, and peasants of moderate means, all of whom were frightened both by big capitalism and by Marxism. They hoped that Fascism would protect them from the competition of big business and prevent the hated working class from establishing a Marxist state, which would threaten their property. The lower middle class saw in Fascism a non Communist way of overcoming economic crises and restoring traditional respect for family, native soil, and nation. Furthermore, many of these people saw Fascism as a way of attacking the existing social order, which denied them opportunities for economic advancement and social prestige. Fascists were most successful in countries with weak democratic traditions. When parliamentary government faltered, it had few staunch defenders, and many people were drawn to charismatic demagogues who promised direct action. //этот абзац – обрезаная копипаста из информки, тк лучше и короче написать нельзя//
Late modernity summarizes the attitudes of those who rejected the ideas of the Enlightenment in the 19th and 20th centuries and belived in irrationality in some way or another. Some rejected the basis of morality, the existence of natural rights. Liberalism, the child of the Enlightenment, was criticized and rejected by many late modernity thinkers. Nietzsche, Pareto, Bergson, Freud, even though he was a child of the Enlightenment, were all a part of this movement. Shattering old beliefs, late modernity left Europeans without landmarks—without generally accepted cultural standards or agreed-upon conceptions about human nature and the meaning of life. Ideologies like Fascism stem down from this variety of ideas. Basically, late modernity questioned the rationality of human nature, and, thus, left the intellectual world disunited, raising pessimistic beliefs around the globe.