Love and Intellect
II: For Blake, Against Nietzsche
Sources for program
by Ralph Dumain
THE PODCAST / BROADCAST
10 November 2019: Love
and Intellect II: For Blake, Against Nietzsche (42:10 min.)
I clarify my rationale behind Part I and now Part II, and how love relates
to intellect. The issues involved in the development of intellectual maturity
and authority and the pitfalls encountered in assimilating the world's intellectual
heritage are discussed. My first example is the marketing of Eastern mysticism
and New Age thought in the Western world. Then I turn to Western authors.
In recent decades the prevailing philosophical mindset is what is loosely
termed postmodernism, whose philosophical foundations come from Nietzsche
and Heidegger. I then cite recent books on intellectuals vs the masses, Nietzsche,
Heidegger, their influences on subsequent thinkers, their relation to fascism,
and Nietzscheanism in popular culture, with the aim of discrediting both Nietzsche
and Heidegger. Then I introduce a surprise author to this discussion: Kurt
Vonnegut, Jr. and his 1973 novel Breakfast of Champions, to further
clarify what Nietzscheanism means on the streets. I contrast William Blake
to the pathological ideologies discussed. I quote from Blake, Vonnegut, the
television series The Outer Limits, and end with a blistering quote
from C.L.R. James and a Blake poem.
[Note: The texts displayed below and the quote from
C.L.R.
James on What They Do were recited.]
Love and Intellect II:
For Blake, Against Nietzsche: Outline of Program
THE BOTTOM LINE
Much of this will seem rather specialized to the average person, but the bottom
line is this: if you’re concerned only about human stupidity but not human
suffering, then you’re of no use to anybody.
REFERENCES (DISCUSSED IN PROGRAM)
Antosik, Stanley J. The
Question of Elites: An Essay on the Cultural Elitism of Nietzsche, George, and
Hesse. Bern; Las Vegas: Peter Lang, 1978.
Bakewell, Sarah. At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and
Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin
Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others.
New York: Other Press, 2016.
Beiner, Ronald. Dangerous Minds: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the Return of
the Far Right. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.
Carey, John. The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice
Among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880-1939. New York: St. Martin's Press,
1993.
Landa, Ishay. The Overman in the Marketplace: Nietzschean Heroism in
Popular Culture. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007.
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. Breakfast of Champions; or, Goodbye Blue Monday!,
with drawings by the author. New York: Delacorte Press, 1973.
Wolin, Richard. Heidegger’s Children: Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith,
Hans Jonas, and Herbert Marcuse. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
2001.
LINKS
... ON THIS SITE
... ON OTHER SITES
“The
Voice of the Ancient Bard,” in Songs
of Experience (1794) by William Blake
“A Memorable Fancy” in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-1793) by
William Blake, plates 21-22
See also William Blake on Intellectual Conceit
& Inflated Reputations on this site
Poems from the Notebook
of William Blake
Kurt
Vonnegut, Jr.: “Breakfast of Champions” (1) by R. Dumain (22 Nov
2012)
Breakfast
of Champions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sunset Limited (TV Movie 2011)
by Cormac McCarthy
C.L.R.
James on What They Do
TEXTS
| |
A poet once wrote, “In
dreams begins responsibility.” So too, perhaps, with love. Without
dreams, without the hope of a better life, a brighter future, it is difficult
for love to flourish. And without love... there are no dreams.
— “The
Refuge,” The Outer Limits (second series), Season 2,
Episode 11, Directed by Ken Girotti, Written by Alan Brennert, Original
air date 5 April 1996
The Angel that presided oer my birth
Said Little creature formd of Joy & Mirth
Go love without the help of any King on Earth
— William Blake, Poems from the Notebook,
N 32, poem 98, circa 1808-1809
[final version: ‘Thing’ overwritten by ‘King', ‘for
Joy’ replaced by ‘of Joy’]
A man carried a monkey
about for a shew, & because he was a little wiser than the monkey,
grew vain, and conciev'd himself as much wiser than seven men. It is so
with Swedenborg; he shews the folly of churches & exposes hypocrites,
till he imagines that all are religious. & himself the single One
on earth that ever broke a net.
— The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-1793) by William
Blake, plates 21-22
Here was the core of
the bad ideas which Trout gave to Dwayne: Everybody on Earth was a robot,
with one exception—Dwayne Hoover.
Of all the creatures in the Universe, only
Dwayne was thinking and feeling and worrying and planning and so on. Nobody
else knew what pain was. Nobody else had any choices to make. Everybody
else was a fully automatic machine, whose purpose was to stimulate Dwayne.
Dwayne was a new type of creature being tested by the Creator of the Universe.
Only Dwayne Hoover had free will.
Trout did not expect to be believed. He put
the bad ideas into a science-fiction novel, and that was where Dwayne
found them. The book wasn’t addressed to Dwayne alone. Trout had never
heard of Dwayne when he wrote it. It was addressed to anybody who happened
to open it up. It said to simply anybody, in effect, “Hey—guess what:
You’re the only creature with free will. How does that make you feel?”
And so on.
It was a tour de force. It was a jeu d’esprit.
But it was mind poison to Dwayne.
— Breakfast of Champions; or, Goodbye Blue Monday! by Kurt
Vonnegut, Jr.
The Voice of the Ancient Bard
Youth of delight come hither:
And see the opening morn,
Image of truth new born.
Doubt is fled & clouds of reason.
Dark disputes & artful teazing.
Folly is an endless maze,
Tangled roots perplex her ways,
How many have fallen there!
They stumble all night over bones of the dead,
And feel they know not what but care;
And wish to lead others, when they should be led.
— from Songs of Experience by William Blake
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Uploaded 18 August 2019
Updated 13-17 November 2019
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