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Slovenská Politologická Revue |
Gorfu Contra Nietzsche
by G. E. Gorfu
New York, Vantage Press, Inc. 1999. III+166pp.
Mgr. Getnet Tamene Kassa, Ph. D. Katedra politológie FF UCM v Trnave
The monograph undoubtedly presents a piece of an outstanding scholarly work. The author has coped with the challenging problem of selection, classification and composition of a wide diversity of information, which is of extraordinary importance in the course of revealing Nietzsche's ideas to be void of reason, anti-philosophy, and very dangerous to humanity. The book displays Gorfu's deep knowledge of Nietzsche and his works, accumulated over a long period of studying, and also as a member of the North American Nietzsche Society (NANS). On the basis of this carefully grasped wisdom, Gorfu vigorously opposes Nietzsche in defense of philosophy, reason, and logic. What Gorfu insists is that Nietzsche's ideas should be rebuked and pushed out of academic institutions. His ideas about white race supremacy should come down from their ivory tower, and together with all of his evil assumptions, must suffer to the point that they commit suicide and eventually die out by themselves. They only remind us of a painful past ever since they served as theoretical leverage for Fascism, in human history. Even in this very time, they shamefully dare to resurface through such agencies like Skinheads, National Front, White Aryan Resistance, and among some intellectuals, who aggressively attempt to drag humanity back to the reign of dictatorial darkness. We should not let this happen. Nietzsche is the source where Neo-Nazis and Neo-Fascist groups draw their evil strength. Thus, his ideas must perish, in order for humanity and democracy to survive.
The author divides the whole book into three coherently intertwined parts:
Part One: Preamble. Recapitulates the most common reasons or excuses that cause people to fight against each other. "Man," Gorfu says "may not even be fully conscious in this war, and most of the way man conducts the war could be unconscious." The excuses for war, as he states, are plenty. They include religion, ideology, politics, racial differences, territorial aggrandizement, even as far as the entire globalization itself, - there has always been excuses to start war. No matter whether it is holy or unholy, the real cause for the genesis of war (see p.3) remains to be greed and a question of survival.
The discussion in this part magnifies the idea that leaders, one among many other relevant factors, play significantly strong role of influencing history, - an argument, which a scholar of international relations may fully back up. He emphasizes how imposed measures usually end up with catastrophic consequences in a society, be it at a national or international level. The discourse criticizes numerous elites together with Nietzsche, who work and ally with dictators in an attempt to further their own personal gains. Such behavior generates confusion. As Gorfu insists, imposition based on confused theories will not lead mankind to eventual freedom but to slavery and doom. This is systematically related to our contemporary world itself, where powers simply run for domination, and only to satisfy their hegemonic interest, ignoring and pushing aside the will of the multitudes and the masses, in the name of justice, democracy, religion, human rights, ... etc., the contrary is what really happens, because of these confused theories, which Nietzsche and these elites provide. This immediately brings to question the role of intellectuals, both in the national and international arena in the present era of "imperialist domination." In this regard I would like to refer to an excellent piece by George Lukács as quoted in one of Issa G.Shviji's wonderful work, The Concept of Human Rights in Africa. While writing "On the Responsibility of Intellectuals," Lukács argued that the element of Hitler's Fascist ideologies were already present in the theoretical writings of intellect ual giants of the day. In other words, intellectuals were partly responsible for the crimes of Hitler by developing, consciously or unconsciously, the ideologies that were adopted by Hitler to mobilize the people for his own support.
Lukács goes on to warn his contemporaries of providing an ideological garb for imperialism, which could easily slip into a new form of Fascism. This he calls, nihilist hypocrisy. According to him, this new stage in the development of imperialism will quite probably not be called Fascism. And concealed behind the new nomenclature was a new ideological problem: the 'hungry' imperialism of the Germans that brought forth a nihilistic cynicism, which openly broke with all traditions of humanity. The Fascist tendencies arising today in the USA work with the method of a nihilistic hypocrisy. They carry out the suppression and exploitation of the masses in the name of humanity and a new 'culture-friendly' Fascism.... And US imperialists have it easier, continues Lukács, they need only universalize and systematize their old practices concerning the Negroes. And since these practices have up to now been 'reconcilable' with the ideology, portraying the USA as a champion of democracy and humanism, there can be no reason why such nihilist hypocrisy could not arise there, which by demographic means could become dominant. The author, George Lukács, wrote this some fifty years ago, nevertheless, his message seems to apply today.
In many ways Gorfu's assertions seem to agree with that of Lukács, about whom Shvije wrote eloquently, and with a warning note, telling us that we should beware of such misperceptions which are possible to occur even under the cover of democracy in the present world, and might lead us to unwanted targets, such as Fascism, friendly Fascism, or to what might become 'the Doomsday'. Gorfu illustrates this by showing from ancient biblical leaders like Moses through to the modern Reverend Jim Jones, to Hitler, and many others. They were not leaders of the people but varieties of dictators who consciously or otherwise imposed their power to achieve personal fame in the name of leading their people out of slavery or inequality. They misperceived reality and deceived innocent people for their own benefit. Gorfu reminds us that this misperception is possible in this contemporary time, even in democracy itself, where various leaders and experts ally, and deliberately or otherwise, work for their own gain and satisfaction in the name of the masses. Moses and the Reverend Jim Jones, used religious tools to deceive their people to their own ends, and as the result of this wrong method and greed, both perished together with their flocks. He tells us how those who dream of saving and liberating the masses far too often turn into dictators themselves and are, in reality, Wolves in sheep's clothing. He courageously urges us that this is the case in the present world, where problems of race, poverty, and many other social injustices are ignored in favor of the affluent Euro-centric world leadership, where many nations are systematically being dominated and pushed into a caravan, or satellite like status, to follow and appreciate whoever leads without making any substantial or critical examination that could bring about some type of freedom or self-determination.
Gorfu declares that Moses was a power-hungry demagogue, who misused the concept of "freedom" for the sake of his own ambitions at the expense of his people, and he finally scattered them in the wilderness, where they perished without the taste of freedom. The same was true with Reverend Jim Jones who attempted to "liberate " several hundred disaffected people "from the evils of U.S. capitalism," whom he took to Guyana in South America and formed the commune of Jonestown. But, because of similar mistakes like Moses, eventually they all perished together with their leader.
Continuing his criticism of the elite, Gorfu says: "in some 'civilizations,' the law, having completely lost its shame and thrown overboard its basic guiding principles, has become a commodity like salt and butter, to be purchased, sold, used or abused by the highest bidder. What about equality, justice, integrity, fairness? Gone with wind! Lawyers, legislators, judges, all have become a new aristocracy. The word lawyer is fast becoming synonym for liar... those who should know better are using the law to further their own personal gain. This is modern legal progress in the West."
Gorfu goes on further with his illustration, exposing Nietzsche and concluding that Nietzsche is against humanity and against philosophy. He disproves Nietzsche's groundless statement that the Aryans were a noble race, a race capable of organization and system, a superior race... and shows that they were, in fact, real nomads, barbarians, and that Nietzsche lied in calling the farming community of the Roman Empire "formless and nomad." Furthermore, Gorfu tells us: Nietzsche himself was an Aryan, and was probably influenced by national and personal vanity and allowed that vanity to override his reason and to make a very grave error a hundred years a go when he stated that "...Some pack of blond beast of prey, a conqueror and master race which, organize for war and with the ability to organize, unhesitatingly lays its terrible claws upon a populace perhaps tremendously superior in numbers but still formless and nomad..." That was later to be used as a theoretical basis for Fascism and Nazism.
In Part two: Philosophical Dissection and Analysis, Gorfu examines the works and main tenets of Nietzsche's thoughts and underlines it as a bankrupt philosophy. Nietzsche's thoughts, Gorfu asserts, are not supported by the usual tools of reasoning: logic and dialectics, - they are devoid of reason. Here, he summarizes all Nietzsche's contributions in two phrases:
1. Human, all too human 2. Will to power
These two concepts are confirmed to be the underlying thoughts in all the main works of Nietzsche. Here Nietzsche rejected reason, because "it is the tool of the weak and the chandala class," referring to his listeners (the Germans) he said, "Do not be soft, weak, and reflective. You are already too human, too soft. You have been weakened by Christian morality. Rise up, have the will to rule over the rest of mankind..." He continually admonished them to be like the lions, "laughing lions." Of course they never read him until much later.
All Nietzsche's books (mainly the four volumes of Zarathustra), became not a collection of aphorisms nor a philosophy, but one continues propaganda of evil, of doom, and of destruction, designed to serve as a bridge to cross from " Human all too Human" to "Will Power." Here Hitler becomes the star actor to play the role of the Uberman, the superman. He jumped into a fatal mistake like the aforementioned leaders. He attempted to secure the whole earth for the Aryans at the expense of all mankind. He implemented Nietzsche's cry for the dominance of muscle over democracy. Nietzsche's words are echoed in much the same way again in Hitler's Mein Kampf.
In this part Gorfu largely elaborates on Nietzsche's notorious words "Human beings need what is more evil in them for what is best in them. Whatever is most evil is their best power and hardest stone for the hardest creator... human beings must become better and more evil." (45). "That evil also has future, ...and that God is dead." Nietzsche tried to promote a knowledge not based on understanding but on illusion and lies. Gorfu tries to show the bases of these lies and how many, like Nietzsche, reject the light of understanding, which is the only source of productive actions, in favor of illusions.
Part three: Evaluations and Conclusions. Here Gorfu agrees with Karl Raymond Popper, where he points out how significant it would be to reach a scientific level of solving problems, because it is a systematic search for our mistakes, in order to get rid of them. The scientific level, as he insists, is the best way, where we are consciously critical in order to detect our errors. On the pre-scientific level, we often rush to perish based on false theories, but on the scientific level, we systematically try to eliminate our false theories, and to let them die in our stead.
That is how he evaluates Nietzsche, the man whose theories are void of reason and logic, the man who like John the Baptist "prepared" the way for the "Overman," where the entire generation of the Germans that followed his erroneous teachings had to perish in a vain attempt to uphold these false beliefs and theories. Gorfu argues that logic cannot collapse under some myth, or unfounded metaphysical illusion. "It is Nietzsche and not science that collapsed in the end. Logic only gives way to more advanced logic." Defining religion and metaphysics Gorfu pinpoints that all religious and metaphysical "mystifications" grow out of the intellectual limitations of those who believe them, for if one could clearly understand and explain all things scientifically, there would be no room for religious or metaphysical explanations. Religion and all these metaphysical jargons are, according to Gorfu ".... tentative solutions and explanations that give us some peace of mind, helping us to accept.... by rationalizing many of the irrational things in life that are beyond our present scope of understanding." (see p123).
Gorfu goes on to say that Nietzsche abandoned reason altogether and turned to the pursuit of mythology. Then he dared to say "understanding kills action", a phrase that impairs the pursuit of knowledge of any kind, i.e. Mathematics, Science, Technology, etc. In contrast Gorfu says, "Observe the ages in history when science and technology are at the forefront of human endeavor. They are the ages of progress, advancement, wealth, and affluence." According to him, if mankind is going to ever advance at all, it will not be because of kings and the aristocracy as Nietzsche insists, but in spite of them, and thanks to science and technology.
Gorfu goes on discussing that Nietzsche's first book The Birth of Tragedy is fittingly named as a birth of the rejection of reason in favor of myth, which was later to grow and mature into a devouring beast in the Germany of The Third Reich. Thereafter came the concentration camps. The Jews were not targeted because they owned wealth or by some accident, but because of an underlying philosophical antagonism created by Nietzsche. The Jews have long claimed to be the "super race," the "chosen people of God," the rest of mankind being the goyim, gentile, unclean, etc. There is no room for two people who claim superiority. When Nietzsche advocated the creation of a "Superman," an "Overman," and the rearing of a "Mandarin race," a ruling caste for Europe, he clearly set the Germans on a collision course with the Jews. The Messiah who was to come was replaced by the prophesized Overman, as Gorfu reasons it out.
As for the Israelis, they have finally come to realize there is no such thing as a "chosen people of God." It has finally been accepted that if there is any chosen people of God, it is not this or that color or race of people, but the human race. Science doesn't care about your class, color or status. ... Radio, TV, telephone, computer network technology, is bringing the world very close together. Technology, the handmaiden of science, which Nietzsche rejected, is bringing this about. Thanks to technology, as the world becomes smaller and is drawn together every day, the mixing and intermingling of the races goes on, renewing and strengthening the helical DNA fibers of the human race. And the weak and the evil ones like Nietzsche, Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, and their followers, are being continuously eliminated from the gene pool of mankind, both as individuals and as groups, and they are out of the game. From this it can be seen that evil is born out of weakness and fear. Inspite of Gorfu's reasonable optimism the last statement (that evil is born out of fear) of course, would encompass most of the problems which are currently about to burst the limited capacity of our planet, such as: the current threat of nationalism, the hatching of racist and Fascist tendencies elsewhere in the world, terrorism, imposing capitalism all over the glob, political, arms, economic, social problems and the like. The analysis does not rule out that these problems would give way to the growth and perpetuation of evil if they don't get appropriate solution. He insists this by saying, that the defeat of racism, Nazism, and Fascism in the Second World War did not end the problem of racism.&n bsp; The war criminals were tried in Nuremberg and executed. However, racism and Nazism are still with us. Neo-Nazism is alive and well in many countries of Europe and the United States. Race supremacist in the USA, are believed to number about five percent (about ten million) of the total population.
With the same ratio, there could be another twenty million race-supremacist in Europe, too. If well organized, these could pose a real threat and danger to the rest of the world. What is more, from the comfortable chairs and pulpits of many Western universities many scholars of Philosophy are still preaching subtle racism of the "superman" and of "rearing the Mandarin race," giving these scum of the earth the veneer of respectability. He spells here his fear that if these groups find opportunity of overtaking a political power, which is likely possible for one who manipulates with such conditions as an economic crisis and similar drawbacks of democracy, that could probably enable them to erupt again to destroy the rest of us, unless we are always vigilant in the fight to reject them. That's the problem we are now facing. Individuals, on one hand, cope with their day-to-day problems, not having time and appetite for a vigilant fight against such threat. Many of the NGOs, on the other hand, are without any tangible stand. What has been achieved in this regard so far? They end up with rhetoric and lip service, as champions of Human Rights they often, have tended to degenerate into simple mechanisms for obtaining foreign funds and becoming puppets for super power interests in many parts of the developing world, - in Africa at least. Has the recent Conference in Durban, South Africa, made any significant breakthrough regarding this question? It is one step forward, and its realization needs reinforcement, and follow-up.
Gorfu finally turns to criticizing the academia that protects Nietzsche from taking any responsibility for the crimes of the Third Reich. He says that some academicians tried to whitewash and cover-up for him and misrepresent and misinterpret the man, Nietzsche, and his philosophy. These types professors simply earn a living by teaching any subject classified as Philosophy. In order to do it successfully, they must confuse what is absolutely clear and above board. They are neither philosophers nor loyal to it. Gorfu says, "just as Napoleon reinforces the deeply held belief of tyranny in the heart of every Frenchman, we believe Nietzsche reinforces the Spirit of Deception in the heart of these so-called academic philosophers. He goes on saying, "We reject such philosophers, and with them we reject Nietzsche. To classify Nietzsche as a Major Philosopher of the West, is to approve that Western philosophy and culture is about deception."
The perpetuation of the evil spirit of Nazism and Fascism in our own day, taking many different and ugly forms such as Skinheads, National Front, WAR or White Aryan Resistance, etc. shows that one cannot completely destroy evil with physical force alone. This is a clear proof that an ideology is a spiritual entity and cannot be defeated by material power and physical war alone. To kill evil is to become evil oneself. Evil has two ways of winning: either by making you hate yourself and making you commit suicide, or by making you hate evil to the point that you kill evil and become a killer. This is why one cannot destroy evil, by evil means, without becoming evil oneself. It demands a spiritual war.
The resurgence of Neo-Nazism and many white supremacists in England and USA as well as in Central Europe in the seventies and eighties is clearly a proof that this evil spirit, far from being destroyed, is still alive and well. Race supremacist continue to operate covertly and overtly in Europe and the USA, secretly infiltrating government agencies and military outfits, as well as legitimately forming clubs and political parties and holding events and conferences.
Gorfu believes in fighting against evil not with physical force, but with ideas. When the absurdity of an idea is clearly demonstrated, most people would reject it and stop holding onto it. But, there will be those who refuse to see the light of reason and will not reject falsehood by pure intellectual insight alone. They will continue to emotionally, or materially, stick to an idea or belief long after they have been intellectually convinced of its falsehood. It is these that we condemn, confront, and contain until they come to their own demise. He says that evil knows itself well, and exists with so much self-loathing and self-hatred to the point that it desires its own demise and wishes for death. Thus, to kill evil is to do it a favor. Indeed, Gorfu never rules out the use of physical force. He suggests the use of force only at critical times, for example, in self-defense.
Many writers tend to suggest that we should be quiet and just put up with such evil and inhuman aspects in society like racism, insisting that everybody is potentially a racist, or that it is un-eradicable... etc. But Gorfu breaks this silence and writes about racism as a vanguard and a critic. He analyzes why it should be brought down from its ivory tower, suggesting effective means for its ultimate demise. I hope that future conferences against racism, such as the one recently held in Durban this year, would be motivated to give recognition and consideration to such significant work devoted to the rejection and the discarding of racism and the sources of its power, - a philosophy which is explicitly inflicting threat upon humanity even to this very day. In this respect, I dare to say that this work, which has been presented by G. E. Gorfu is undoubtedly valuable. It certainly deserves an appropriate appreciation, and applause. |
