Thanks for your compliments. I am not offended - you were unfairly provoked. The legends of subterranean stunted races are fascinating, but have nothing to do with our thema - I dragged them in in a fit of enthusiasm. As far as I know, Wagner was the only one to connect Nibelungs to Jews.
The really interesting topic is the complex of anti-market (or better, anti-totally free market) ideas. They can surface in many different political options - conservative, Nazi, marxists, etc. See eg Bernard Shaw's commentary to the Ring :
"In The Perfect Wagnerite Shaw made use of Ring mythology as allegory to catalog the socio-politica1 problems of his day. He saw three categories of men: the "moral dwarves" whose greed drives them to enslave others and whose craftiness allows them to get away with it; the industrious but stupid giants who supply the work force; and the administrative gods who because of the giants' deficient mentalities must rule by mechanical exercise of law and threat of punishment rather than by reason (189). Eventually Wotan realizes that, to create a better form of government, what the world needs are not new laws but new men, not one individual Siegfried but a race of heroes (215), or in the words of John Tanner's "Revolutionist's Handbook," a democracy of supermen (Man and Superman 755). The Shavian superman wants not to rule over others but to raise all humanity to his level. Only when all people are so evolved as to desire naturally to do what is rest for the entire race will Shaw have any confidence in man as a political being."
Everywhere we see that complex - rejection of the filthy lucre, the omnipotent and beneficient state, New Socialist Man or Uebermensch or Superman. Also worship of men of action, who are not afraid to break an egg to make an omelette. See also Shaw's adventures in USSR
The problem, of course, is the false dichotomy - either totally free market or omnipotent state; both can be made possible by creating a new man, homo economicus or the new socialist man. In reality, of course, both alternatives are equally untenable, and the new superman will remain in comic books.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-06-15 10:50 pm (UTC)The really interesting topic is the complex of anti-market (or better, anti-totally free market) ideas. They can surface in many different political options - conservative, Nazi, marxists, etc. See eg Bernard Shaw's commentary to the Ring :
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/sring11.txt
http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/Ring/Wagner_Nietzsche_Shaw.htm
"In The Perfect Wagnerite Shaw made use of Ring mythology as allegory to catalog the socio-politica1 problems of his day. He saw three categories of men: the "moral dwarves" whose greed drives them to enslave others and whose craftiness allows them to get away with it; the industrious but stupid giants who supply the work force; and the administrative gods who because of the giants' deficient mentalities must rule by mechanical exercise of law and threat of punishment rather than by reason (189). Eventually Wotan realizes that, to create a better form of government, what the world needs are not new laws but new men, not one individual Siegfried but a race of heroes (215), or in the words of John Tanner's "Revolutionist's Handbook," a democracy of supermen (Man and Superman 755). The Shavian superman wants not to rule over others but to raise all humanity to his level. Only when all people are so evolved as to desire naturally to do what is rest for the entire race will Shaw have any confidence in man as a political being."
Everywhere we see that complex - rejection of the filthy lucre, the omnipotent and beneficient state, New Socialist Man or Uebermensch or Superman. Also worship of men of action, who are not afraid to break an egg to make an omelette. See also Shaw's adventures in USSR
http://artukraine.com/famineart/shaw.htm
http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/unknown.html
The problem, of course, is the false dichotomy - either totally free market or omnipotent state; both can be made possible by creating a new man, homo economicus or the new socialist man. In reality, of course, both alternatives are equally untenable, and the new superman will remain in comic books.