Nietzsche & Anarchism: An Elective Affinity

217 Pages·2017·1.55 MB·English

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Nietzsche & anarchism: an
elective affinity, and a
Nietzschean reading of the
December 08 revolt in
Athens
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• A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
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Metadata Record: https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/16254
Publisher: (cid:13)c Christos Iliopoulos
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Nietzsche & ANArchism
AN elective AffiNity

ANd A NietzscheAN reAdiNg of the december ’08
revolt iN AtheNs

christos ilioPoUlos

loUghboroUgh 2013
To all those fighting to
“Become Who They Are”

ii
Acknowledgements

I still cannot realize that this research has reached an end. Nevertheless, every single
step during these five years was accomplished because of the help of certain people, to
whom I feel the need to offer a minimum of acknowledgement for their direct or indirect
contribution to this thesis.
My family played the most significant role to my reaching this level of education and I
would like to thank them all for what they have offered me these thirty-three years of my
life. The “turn” to my academic career and its evolution could hardly be as it is without
the stimuli and inspiration I constantly gained from my teachers and colleagues during
my BA and MA courses. Thank you all. My “journey” to this “doctoral world” started
and ended under the presence of a most exceptional person and teacher that I was more
than lucky to have as my supervisor. Prof. Ruth Kinna showed me what it means to be a
leading expert in a field and at the same time treat students as equals. My gratitude also
goes to my co-supervisor, Dr. Ian Fraser, whose constant advice provided me with
invaluable improvements, as well as my independent supervisor, Dr. Jeremy Leaman,
for his “Nietzschean view” on my research.
Finally, a special “thanks” to Pandora, for all the love, patience, kindness, advice, help
and inspiration she has offered me for more than ten years. Nothing would be the same
without her, least of all this dissertation.

Christos Iliopoulos
Athens, November 2013

iii
Table of Contents

Abstract viii

Part A: Introduction – Chapter Plan 1

A.1/ Thesis Aims – Queries 1
- Central Hypothesis and Aims 1
- Contribution of the Dissertation 2
- Nietzsche’s Interpreters 3
- Queries/ Secondary Aims 3
- Elective Affinity and its Effects 5

A.2/ Chapter Plan 8

A.3/ Literature Context 11
- First Literature Group – Positive/Negative Approaches to
Nietzsche and Anarchy 11
- Second Literature Group – Positive/Negative Approaches to
Nietzsche and Anarchy 13
- Conclusions and Perspectives from the Existing Literature Context 15

Summary 16

Part B: Methodology 17

B.1/ Elective Affinity 17
- Quality and Levels 17
- Elective Affinity in Nietzschean and Anarchist Studies 21

B.2/ The Anarchists 24
Origin and “Definition” 24
B.2.1/Anarchism as an Ideology 25
B.2.2/ Features and Currents of (Classical) Anarchism 27
- Ideology and Experience 27
- Authority and Freedom 27
- Equality 28
- Revolution 29
- Direct Democracy 29
- Means and Ends 30
- Anti-Statism 30
- Solidarity 30
- Violence 31
- The Anarchist Corpus/Contesting the Ideological
Approach of Anarchism 31
- The Anarchist Canon 32
- The Anarchist Currents 33
iv
- Mutualism 33
- Collectivism 34
- Anarcho-Communism 34
- Anarcho-Syndicalism 34
- Egoism 35
- Libertarianism 35
- Elective affinity Versus an Ideological
Perception of Anarchism 36
B.2.3/ Beyond Classical Anarchism: The New,
Anarchistic Social Movements 39
- New Anarchistic Movements: Anti-Hegemony
and Politics of Affinity 39
B.2.4/ Neo-Anarchism / Post-Anarchism 41
- Post-Anarchism 41
- Neo-Anarchism 42
B.2.5/ Figures of Anarchism (A) and Libertarian Marxism (L/M) 43
- Mikhail Bakunin (A) 43
- Peter Kropotkin (A) 43
- Errico Malatesta (A) 44
- Gustav Landauer (A) 44
- Emma Goldman (A) 44
- Walter Benjamin (L/M) 44

B.3/ The Political Friedrich Nietzsche 48
B.3.1/ The Philosopher and His Legacy 48
- Categorization of Nietzsche’s Works 49
B.3.2/ Nietzsche as a Political Thinker 51
- Nietzsche and the Western Culture 52
- Nietzsche and Democracy 53

B.4/ Context of Interpretation 56
- Qualitative Type of the Interpretation Context 56
- Interpretative Tools 58
- Nietzschean Concepts 59
- Genealogy 59
- Type of Forces and Will to Power 60
- Perspectivism 61
- Hierarchy – The Master and The Slave 61
- Truth and Knowledge 62
- Apollonian and Dionysian 63
- Nihilism 64
- Resentment and Bad Conscience 65
- Transvaluation of Values 65
- Affirmation 66
- Overman 67
- Eternal Return 67
- Becoming Who One Is / Amor Fati 68

B.5/ Selecting the Historical Incidents of Anarchism 69

Summary 71
v
Part C: Nietzsche and the Anarchists – Establishing
the Elective Affinity 72

C.1/ Nietzsche in Anarchism (A) and Libertarian Marxism (L/M) 76
- Emma Goldman (A) 76
- Gustav Landauer (A) 80
- Walter Benjamin (L/M) 86
- Post-Anarchism 91
- Post and Classical Anarchism 92

C.2/ Anarchism in Nietzsche 97
- Genealogy 98
- Resentment 101
- Perspectivism 103
- Ontology/Truth/Knowledge 106
- Will to power/Active (master) and Reactive (slave) Forces 108
- Morality – Good and Evil 110
- Violence, Means and Ends 112
- Nihilism – Death of God/Free Will/Transvaluation of Values 114

Summary 118

Part D: Case Study 119

Acronyms of the Groups, Political Parties and Organizations 119

December ’08 – Athens 120

D.1/ Nietzsche and December ’08 120
- The Elective Affinity Framework 120
- The Nietzschean Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit 122
- First Use of the Case Study: The Three Metamorphoses as an
Interpretative Tool 124
- Second Use of the Case Study: Reinforcing the Elective Affinity 125

D.2/ December’s Historical Background 127
- Recent Political and Movement History in Greece 127
- Civil War (1946-1949) 127
- The Post War State and the Dictatorship (1949-1974) 128
- The Post-Dictatorship Era of “Metapolitefsi” (1974-1980) 129
- The “Socialist” Years (1981-1989) 129
- The Neoliberal Era and the Escalation of Social
Antagonism (1990-1998) 131
- International and Domestic Alterations in the Antagonist
Movement (1999-2007) 131
-From the Neoliberal Policies of the 90’s
to their Social/Economic/Political Effects: Economic
and Monetary Union (2001), Olympic Games (2004) 132
vi
- The Anarchist Space in Greece / The Anarchist Agents
of the Revolt 133

D.3/ Mainstream Perceptions of the December ’08 Revolt and
their Inadequacies / The Anarchist Reading 142
- The Political Parties 142
- New Democracy (ND) 144
- Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) 145
- Greek Communist Party (KKE) 146
- People’s Orthodox Alarm (LAOS) 147
- Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) 148
- Labour Revolutionary Party (EEK) and
Anti-capitalist Left Cooperation for
Subversion (ANTARSYA) 149
- The Media 150
- Inadequacies of the Revolt’s Mainstream Perceptions,
the Anarchist Reading and its Zarathustrian Theorization 153

D.4/ December as a Bakuninist Revolt 157

D.5/ The Three Metamorphoses and/of the Decembrian Revolt 161
- The Camel – First Metamorphosis of the Spirit 164
- The Lion – Second Metamorphosis of the Spirit 168
- The Child – Third Metamorphosis of the Spirit 179

D.6/ A Nietzschean Critical Synopsis of December ’08 184

Summary 186

Part E: Conclusions 188

Bibliography 195

General 195
Elective Affinity 199
-Primary 199
-Secondary 201
Case Study 203
- Brochures and Proclamations 203
- Magazines and Newspapers 204
- Internet 204
- Books 207
- Articles 208

vii
ABSTRACT

The aim of this research is to establish the bond between Friedrich Nietzsche and the
anarchists, through the apparatus of “elective affinity”, and to challenge the
boundaries of several anarchist trends – especially “classical” and “post” anarchism –
and “ideologies” like anarchism and libertarian Marxism. Moreover, it highlights the
importance of reading Nietzsche politically, in a radical way, to understand his utility
for the contemporary anarchist movement.
The review of the literature concerning the Nietzsche-anarchy relationship
shows the hitherto limited bibliography and stresses the possibility of exploring this
connection, with the methodological help of Michael Löwy’s concept of “elective
affinity”.
The research opens with a discussion of anarchism, following the dominant
model for categorizing anarchist traditions, presenting its basic features and currents
and drawing on its historical development. This leads to the introduction of two points
(the questioning of the anarchist canon and the exposure of the diversity that basic
anarchist concepts bear among different anarchist currents) which contest the rigid
ideological perception of anarchism in favour of a fluid and dynamic anarchy. There
emerges the elective affinity with Nietzsche, serving a double goal: the unification of
the distinct anarchist tendencies and the definition of the anarchist parameters in
relation to other ideologies.
The following section of the thesis examines Nietzsche, by presenting the
evolution of his philosophical thought and the fundamental theses of his perception of
politics. It, then, continues with a detailed analysis of the main concepts of his
philosophy based on the interpretation made by Gilles Deleuze, Alexander Nehamas
and Keith Ansell-Pearson, thus structuring its interpretative context for establishing
the Nietzsche-anarchy connection. This establishment is realized in a dual way.
Firstly, by exploring the elective affinity through the “presence” of Nietzsche in the
thought and politics of anarchist/libertarian thinkers (Goldman, Landauer, Benjamin)
and currents (post-anarchism), and secondly by recognizing the anarchist worldview
in the Nietzschean philosophy.
The first path (Nietzsche in anarchism) shows how Nietzsche has interacted
with or has been absorbed by the anarchist way of thinking, whereas the second path
(anarchism in Nietzsche) reveals the affinal worldview of the two parts by extensively
using the interpretation context mentioned above.
The final section of the thesis applies the whole analysis above on a
Nietzschean reading of the December ’08 revolt in Athens based on the “Of the Three
Metamorphoses” discourse from Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
What has been found is the existence of a clear bond, between Nietzsche and
the anarchists, which even reaches the upper levels of Löwy’s “elective affinity”, that
is Nietzschean Anarchism as a result of the two parts interactive fusion. The
significance of this finding is that the relevant affinity may contribute to an
alternative, to the dominant, perception of anarchism as an ideology. It may also
designate its special features together with its weaknesses, meaning the objections of
Nietzsche to certain aspects of the anarchist practices and worldview (violence,
resentment, bad conscience), thus opening a whole new road of self-criticism for the
anarchists of the twenty first century. In addition, the location and analysis of the
elective affinity serves the debunking of the Nietzschean concepts used by
conservative and right-wing readings in order to appropriate Nietzsche, and of the
accusations that the German philosopher had unleashed against anarchists, which
reveals his misunderstanding of anarchist politics.
viii
Nietzsche & Anarchism: An Elective Affinity
and a Nietzschean reading of the December ’08 revolt in Athens

PART A: INTRODUCTION-CHAPTER PLAN

A.1/ Thesis Aims – Queries

Central Hypothesis and Aims
The central claim of my thesis is that Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy promotes,
even indirectly, basic anarchist notions. Hence, what I am primarily intending to show
in this research is the existence of a clear bond between anarchist traditions and
Nietzsche’s writings.
The claim is supported by a review of Nietzsche’s work, from an anarchist
perspective, and, at the same time, a reading of anarchist thought with a Nietzschean
spirit, that is through a body of basic philosophical concepts that underline his
idiosyncrasy. I will re-examine basic concepts of Nietzschean philosophy by
comparing them to the notions of prominent anarchists and libertarian thinkers, such
as Walter Benjamin who cannot be classified as anarchist even though his approach to
communism deviates significantly from Orthodox Marxism. I will then use these
concepts to provide a Nietzschean interpretation of certain historical incidents and
attitudes which refer straightforwardly to anarchist theory and practice. Despite the
fact that Nietzsche expressed his hostility to anarchism several times, my argument is
that his worldview, based on these concepts, dovetails with the anarchist one.
Moreover, I will try to show that despite the validity of some of his accusations
against the anarchists, it is the “lightness of the aristocratic spirit” of Nietzsche that
explains a total rejection on his part: It is Nietzsche himself who says that aristocrats
may misunderstand and miscomprehend reality because of an insufficient familiarity
with what they despise. This happens because of their excessive self-affirmation, their
light, joyful spirit.1 Thus, in a way, Nietzsche was, to some extent, prejudiced against
anarchism, his aristocratic spirit led him to a rejection of anarchism, and the
interesting point here is that this prejudice can be deconstructed through his own
thought, as I am going to demonstrate in part C.2.

1 Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals, first essay, §10, in On the Genealogy of Morals
and Ecce Homo, Vintage Books, New York 1989.
1