Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Jun. 25th, 2005 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
felis_ultharusThe last two days I've spent in that absolute depths of academic paper writing. My essay is currently on its 11th page (out of 20-24), so I'm more than halfway to my minimum. I have more than enough material, but it's just taking me a long time to formulate.
Since it's about political themes in The Watchmen -- and how Rorschach and the "villain"-behind-the-plot-who-cannot-be-mentioned-for-spoiler-reasons actually represent the same fascist viewpoint in spite of one identifying as "right wing" and the other as "left wing" -- I've been poring over my works of philosophy and politics.
And I just have to say that Nietzsche is even crazier than I remembered. Pity for the human race that no one followed his last request: "Burn all my work. It's the ravings of a madman."
It's no surprise that Nietzche belief in a strong, wilful male figure who'd replace God and dominate society through sheer force of will became the bedtime story of Hitler and Mussolini. Question is, why does he have so much clout in university English departments?
'Course, I might as well ask the same question about Freud and Foucault. The more obviously insane the writer (in the worst possible ways) the more popular he is with the university crowd.
Since it's about political themes in The Watchmen -- and how Rorschach and the "villain"-behind-the-plot-who-cannot-be-mentioned-for-spoiler-reasons actually represent the same fascist viewpoint in spite of one identifying as "right wing" and the other as "left wing" -- I've been poring over my works of philosophy and politics.
And I just have to say that Nietzsche is even crazier than I remembered. Pity for the human race that no one followed his last request: "Burn all my work. It's the ravings of a madman."
It's no surprise that Nietzche belief in a strong, wilful male figure who'd replace God and dominate society through sheer force of will became the bedtime story of Hitler and Mussolini. Question is, why does he have so much clout in university English departments?
'Course, I might as well ask the same question about Freud and Foucault. The more obviously insane the writer (in the worst possible ways) the more popular he is with the university crowd.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-25 04:05 pm (UTC)Good topic for your essay, btw (not that I am any judge, since I don't got no book larnin'). I always saw pretty much everyone in that story as right-wing. I was almost fooled by you-know-who, but his "bootstraps" mentality gave him away.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-26 11:56 am (UTC)And yeah, the bootstraps mentality tipped me off, too. Though there are a number of people who see him as a symbol of the left.