From: laelth@yabbs
To: ching@yabbs
Subject: Nietzsche
Date: Mon Feb 28 14:33:27 1994

My dear friend Ching, and other readers:
    I've been off the board again, this time re-reading Aristotle and 
Plato, with a little Henry Louis Gates on the side.  I too have been 
disturbed/bored by the current flame war between arachnoi and all takers.  
I must, however, interrupt my silence for a point of clarification.  I 
don't normally get upset about this sort of thing, and I'm not really 
upset now, but I feel compelled to argue that Nietzsche was not, nor ever 
wanted to be, or even could have been a nazi or a fascist.  It is true 
that his works were appropriated by fascism as some kind of moral 
justification for vile behavior.  However, this resulted from intentional 
"misreadings" of Nietzsche by the other people you cite (Hitler 
Moussolini).  Nietzsche, himself, was a pacifist, a leftist.  His works 
are very popular with leftist intellectuals.  His philosophy is 
liberating, kind-of "live and let live."  From my reading of Nietzsche, I 
find it hard to imagine that he would have condoned National Socialism as 
it was practiced (perverted) by Hitler.

    -laelth