The Rhetoric of Tyranny: Callicles the Rhetor and Nietzsche\u27s Zarathustra

Here I will work through the rhetoric of tyranny as practiced by Callicles and as reflected in Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, in particular. In Part 2 it will be shown that Nietzsche’s account of Plato as the complex figure with a Socratic exterior but a latent alternative ego of the tyrant, arrived at an image consistent with E.R. Dodds’ later thesis. Callicles the rhetor, featured as a student of Gorgias, embodies this alter-ego. In Part 3 we find Callicles and Zarathustra shared very similar beliefs once they overcame shame and gained honesty. Indeed, Callicles expounded a number of propositions foundational to the theory of will to power. The weaklings equate power with evil. But Callicles and others who have overcome their shame restore the real truths about power relations. The unashamed teach the will to power, and nothing else. Callicles took power to mean brute tyranny, however neutrally he described it. And he seemed to believe that every man had the desire to be tyrant operative in him. Even more, that life itself is one great struggle for power. As Part 4 shows, Callicles distinguished between moralities of the weak and moralities of the strong in a theory reminiscent of Nietzsche’s genealogy of morals. Callicles endorsed an aristocratic master morality, though one of a hedonistic sort. Callicles made clear that the inferiors remain content to be granted equal status (not real equality). So it is a social convention, not an adjustment of power relations in nature that makes an inferior an ‘equal.’ As long as the convention is observed, there exists a compromise solution. But when the rhetoric of shame has been dismissed, and the inequality of men frankly asserted publicly, the compensation gets lost, and the natural relations of power are restored. This occurrence shocks and disorients, as well as maddens, the inferior people. A sudden loss of shame and the voicing of unspoken truths activates other superiors by justifying their will to power anew, and by flattering those already in love with power by implying possibilities of absolute rule. This raises the specter of a master revolt in morals, meaning a revolution by aristocratic types against democratic government, and one likely resulting in a tyranny. In Part 5 Callicles develops an implicit argument for tyranny. His first premise: What is right by nature may be wrong by convention, and vice-versa. The second premise: Right is might. A third premise states: The art of contriving to suffer no wrong, or as little as possible, is to become the ruling power or even a tyrant in your city. A fourth is required: It is worse to be wronged than to wrong someone else. And so his conclusion follows: Right is to become the ruling power, or even the tyrant, of one’s city. In Part 6 we determine that Callicles and Nietzsche represent cultural throw-backs to an earlier, less civilized way of thinking among the early Greeks. It seems this includes a tyrannical mode of thinking. Zarathustra learned to affirm the inevitability of the weak, and even the eventual triumph of the smaller type. But perhaps he needed to accept such a thing only as the realization that the foes cannot be completely eliminated. In Part 7 we turn to the crucial question of a master revolt in morals. Callicles held that stronger types could rule again, in a sort of master revolt in morals reversing the slave revolt in morals, while Nietzsche believed that the weak would eventually win regardless of any temporary set-backs from stronger elements. Did Zarathustra, though, give up all thoughts of a tyranny for the strong? Put another way, is Zarathustra the freest spirit of all free spirits and anti-tyrant par excellence, or is Zarathustran freedom the freedom to become a tyrant? Using passages from Twilight, I interpret him as a tyrant. In the final Part 8 I identify the mysterious “youth on the mountainside” from Zarathustra: The youth is Callicles, or his avatar, imprisoned in liberal democratic institutions, still unable to express his full illiberal power

The Impossible Demands of Nabarun Bhattacharya

This article aims at understanding the character of ‘Fyataru’ that the Bengali author Nabarun Bhattacharya created. This character returns again and again in many of Nabarun’s stories and novels. It is an important signifier of Nabarun’s literary vision, since it represents the politics of dissent that the author believed in most prominently. Through the dissection of the fictional Fyataru, this article aims to understand the politics that guided Nabarun’s writings. It also tries to determine the philosophy behind this journey of fiction, the history of Nabarun’s thought, as well as its broader implications in contemporary reality. Reading Nabarun’s literature in the light of the theory of anarchism illuminates the purpose of  Fyataru, and how this fictional creature can identify its own reflection in individuals of today’s society who have tried to rebel against institutional oppression with the weapon of anarchist practices. Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and other underground activists may well be considered as such anarchists. The article also attempts to understand why anarchy is an essential element in a society regulated by governments, capitalist institutions and corporate powers. It aims to establish that anarchy protects the freedom of expression from being thwarted by populist hegemony, and therefore protects the right of the individual to free thought and dissent. The only instrument that can prevent dominant opinions from marginalizing and throttling the formation of free ideas is subversion, and the Fyatarus of Nabarun’s literature are the harbingers of such subversion

Civilized Borders: A Study of Israel\u27s New Border Regime

At Israel’s new border crossings with the West Bank, modernization has become the buzz-word: not only referring to modernized mechanical means – a Wall, newly designed crossings, and micro-mechanics such as turnstiles, signs, and fences – but also to new and sophisticated scientific technologies, such as sensor machines and scanners, and to modernized means of identification, such as advanced computer systems and biometric cards. This paper considers the transformation of the Israel-West Bank border to be a result of four major processes: reterritorialization, bureaucratization, neoliberalization, and de-humanization. I utilize in-depth interviews with top military and state officials and with human rights activists as well as a series of participatory observations to explore the on-the-ground implications of the borders’ transformation

Three Months with the Shakers—II

Editor’s note: The following is the second and final installment of a reprint of a fourteen- part article first published in Bizarre: For Fireside and Wayside (Philadelphia) from October 5, 1853, through April 1, 1854. See the headnote to the first installment in the previous issue of ACSQ for more detail

The Marginalized Democracies of the World

This introductory article to Democratic Theory’s special issue on the marginalized democracies of the world begins by presenting the lexical method for understanding democracy. It is argued that the lexical method is better than the normative and analytical methods at finding democracies in the world. The argument then turns to demonstrating, mainly through computational research conducted within the Google Books catalog, that an empirically demonstrable imbalance exists between the democracies mentioned in the literature. The remainder of the argument is given to explaining the value of working to correct this imbalance, which comes in at least three guises: (1) studying marginalized democracies can increase our options for alternative democratic actions and democratic innovations; (2) it leads to a conservation and public outreach project, which is epitomized in an “encyclopedia of the democracies”; and (3) it advocates for a decolonization of democracies’ definitions and practices and decentering academic democratic theory

Kenyon Collegian - June 1858

The Megarics, 193; The Russian Empire, 199; A Story of Scotland, 209; Witchcraft, 215; The Right Rev. Philander Chase, D.D., 221; Tradition – Mythological and Spiritual, 225; Memorabilia Kenyonensia, 232; Editors’ Table, 235https://digital.kenyon.edu/collegian/1040/thumbnail.jp

The Great Awakening

"As we enter a time of climate catastrophe, worsening inequality, and collapsing market/state systems, can human societies transcend the old, dysfunctional paradigms and build the world anew? There are many signs of hope. In The Great Awakening, twelve cutting-edge activists, scholars, and change-makers probe the deep roots of our current predicament while reflecting on the social DNA for a post-capitalist future. We learn about seed-sharing in agriculture, blockchain technologies for networked collaboration, cosmolocal peer production of houses and vehicles, creative hacks on law, and new ways of thinking and enacting a rich, collaborative future. This surge of creativity is propelled by the social practices of commoning new modes of life for creating and sharing wealth in fair-minded, ecologically respectful ways. It is clear that the multiple, entangled crises produced by neoliberal capitalism cannot be resolved by existing political and legal institutions, which are imploding under the weight of their own contradictions. Present and future needs can be met by systems that go beyond the market and state. With experiments and struggle, a growing pluriverse of commoners from Europe and the US to the Global South and cyberspace are demonstrating some fundamentally new ways of thinking, being and acting. This ontological shift of perspective is making new worlds possible.

The Anchor, Volume 16.06: March 1, 1903

The Anchor began in 1887 and was first issued weekly in 1914. Covering national and campus news alike, Hope College’s student-run newspaper has grown over the years to encompass over two-dozen editors, reporters, and staff. For much of The Anchor\u27s history, the latest issue was distributed across campus each Wednesday throughout the academic school year (with few exceptions). As of Fall 2019 The Anchor has moved to monthly print issues and a more frequently updated website. Occasionally, the volume and/or issue numbering is irregular

The Ursinus Weekly, May 21, 1909

Brotherhood of St. Paul fletcherizes • Buffalo Bill in Philadelphia • Malcolm Shackelford entertains audience • Glee club • Lecture • Baseball • Ursinus Union • Tennis tournament • Society notes • Alumni notes • Personals • Field house fund • Literary Supplement: A day in May; The power of sentiment; A generation of vipers; Literary criticism on Tolstoy; The power of ideas; Money and hypocrisyhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/2873/thumbnail.jp