First of all, Perseus, out of all of FC’s multiple personalities, I like you the best. You have this sincere humility about you that makes it fun disagreeing with you –probably because of your willingness to respect those that disagree with you. There have been very few people with which I have had such a privilege. And even Iona, despite their tendency to get frustrated and resort to jabs, is sincere enough about their process to resist going for my throat.
The cool thing about this is that even though I can feel the same Neo-Neitscheian gospel (what Raymond Tallis refers to as Darwinitus and Putman as Macho ethics (that I felt in KTS, this is a big evolutionary step up from Satyr punctuating every argument with “little girl” and Lyssa basically sticking her tits in my face and snarling:
“You can’t have them because you’re too much of a pussy.”
Still, as much as I’m enjoying the playful rough-housing, after this response, I really need to move on to other things: like my present study of Deleuze. Anyway:
“d63 - without wanting to sacrifice the light you perceive - and I am always well disposed to you - I see here the same error I see in Marx. You seem to work from the assumption that the will to power is an exception, existing only in humans of a lower quality. At the same time, you speak from the will to power. I.e. you condemn those who have power and use it in way as that you can not value, and define history as the process of people who you do value taking power away from those that you do not value. “
First of all, no one is denying the role that the will to power (a metaphysical notion that has passed the the pragmatic truth test of working: much as evolution has (is playing in people’s lives. Furthermore, as far as I can tell, Marx was perfectly aware of the Will to Power at work in Capitalists. In fact, Marx’s whole argument centered around the power people have over their circumstances.
What we are dealing with here is a fundamental contradiction built into the neo-Neitzscheian/social Darwinist/Randian argument. It comes down to nihilistic pitfall of sociopathic, that which, having no real criteria by which to judge its actions, turns to the one criteria that almost seems to have a kind of praxis about it: that of power. This results in the rather circler argument:
“I have power because I am right. Therefore, I am right because I have power.”
And therein lies the contradiction of assuming that we should submit to greatness because it is the result of the Will to Power of the individual. I mean wouldn’t the same Will to Power (via self-valuing (be at work if those at lower levels pooled their power and put in check the power of that individual? Wouldn’t socialism (or even communism (be as much an expression of The Will to Power as Capitalism?
And once again: how is the higher principle of worshipping greatness any less religious than worshipping the higher principle of a higher power? Why should I prostrate myself before greatness (and the wealth that comes with it (anymore than I should a god?
“The Marxian assumption is that people really are ‘good’ i.e. do not want power, but only want to share themselves with others, and consume only precisely what others can miss.”
Pretty much like the assumption that the benefactors of Capitalism will not use their power to manipulate government to their advantage, don’t you think? Like assuming that they will be so happy with the results of it that they will willingly play by the rules laid out by Smith –even when it works against their interests. Why do you think that Capitalists (quoting Rand like they would the bible (put so much effort into maintaining the distraction and illusion that government is the problem? I mean it’s not the government that runs the media. This is why everyone around you is so doped on the fashionable cynicism of acting like all politicians go into it with malignant intents (which is utter fucking nonsense (while the role that corporate lobbyists and big money is playing in it is getting a free pass. Like many lawyers (and despite the popular jokes about them (a lot of politicians are people, just like the rest of us, who go into it thinking they can beat the system and actually do some good –then find out it’s never that easy. We can’t even be sure if the electoral process is even real anymore or a modern version of Plato’s allegory of the cave: a puppet show put on (via media (to make us think we are participating in the emerging aristocracy/oligarchy of global Capitalism. I mean you really have to wonder about the way media comments on it like it was a sporting event (a kind of controlled randomness that must stay within certain perimeters (in the same upbeat way a weatherman can predict bad weather.
And do we not pay good money for the “experience” of participating in democracy on these boards?