Nietzsche and Marx: rescuing uncomfortable ideas from distortion
Reading Nietzsche and Marx directly reveals uncomfortable conclusions, links to the ancient debt jubilee, and justified anger at how their ideas have been distorted.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The anger of rediscovering Nietzsche
Anyone who dives into Nietzsche's work without preconceptions is in for an uncomfortable surprise: many of his conclusions seem like common sense. The German philosopher, devastating against sarracena and empty rhetoric, agrees on the essentials with what anyone with half a brain can observe. The difference is that he said it 140 years ago, and even today his critics dismiss him as a crank without offering arguments.
From camel to child: a misunderstood triad
The metaphor of the three transformations of the spirit (camel, lion, child) has been simplified into caricature. The Übermensch is not the gym nor the cyborg: it is the person who destroys their own idols and becomes master of their own destiny. An idea that clashes with the herd interpretation that dominates public discourse. While some see him as a visionary on a par with Orwell, others reduce him to teenage literature of existential angst.
Marx's ghost in the trench
The other great misunderstood figure is Marx. Both, despite their differences, share a diagnosis: the alienation of the individual under the system. One was ridiculed as a madman, the other as a resentful man. But when you read the original texts, the denunciation of exploitation and the loss of class consciousness proves as lucid as it is uncomfortable for defenders of the status quo.
Debt as the forgotten key
An unexpected thread connects Nietzsche to the ancient Mesopotamian traditions of the jubilee: the periodic cancellation of debts. The author of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" never spoke of it explicitly, but his defense of breaking sarracena and economic chains resonates with that age-old practice. Today's obsession with never mentioning debt forgiveness echoes that old censorship.
The debate on these thinkers remains open, and those who dare to read them without intermediaries discover that the real scandal lies not in their ideas, but in how much they still hurt.
Related discussions in the forum
Anyone who dives into Nietzsche's work without preconceptions is in for an uncomfortable surprise: many of his conclusions seem like common sense. The German philosopher, devastating against sarracena and empty rhetoric, agrees on the essentials with what anyone with half a brain can observe. The difference is that he said it 140 years ago, and even today his critics dismiss him as a crank without offering arguments.
From camel to child: a misunderstood triad
The metaphor of the three transformations of the spirit (camel, lion, child) has been simplified into caricature. The Übermensch is not the gym nor the cyborg: it is the person who destroys their own idols and becomes master of their own destiny. An idea that clashes with the herd interpretation that dominates public discourse. While some see him as a visionary on a par with Orwell, others reduce him to teenage literature of existential angst.
Marx's ghost in the trench
The other great misunderstood figure is Marx. Both, despite their differences, share a diagnosis: the alienation of the individual under the system. One was ridiculed as a madman, the other as a resentful man. But when you read the original texts, the denunciation of exploitation and the loss of class consciousness proves as lucid as it is uncomfortable for defenders of the status quo.
Debt as the forgotten key
An unexpected thread connects Nietzsche to the ancient Mesopotamian traditions of the jubilee: the periodic cancellation of debts. The author of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" never spoke of it explicitly, but his defense of breaking sarracena and economic chains resonates with that age-old practice. Today's obsession with never mentioning debt forgiveness echoes that old censorship.
The debate on these thinkers remains open, and those who dare to read them without intermediaries discover that the real scandal lies not in their ideas, but in how much they still hurt.
Related discussions in the forum
- Why did the Germans continue the war when it was hopelessly lost? · 30 replies
- Does Spain have an excessively southern character because of Andalusians? · 324 replies
- The war propaganda thread · 170 replies
- Why are Galicians Spanish? · 107 replies
Also available in: Deutsch
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (56 replies).
More summaries
-
Alfredo Landa and landismo: psychological operation or mirror of an era?
Alfredo Landa's cinema as a tool for demoralizing the Spanish man: the thesis dividing analysts, and the historical roots of landismo in 1970s Spain.
-
Hautefaye 1870: the village that lynched its own lord
In 1870, in Hautefaye (Dordogne), a mob of villagers lynched Alain de Monéys during the town festival, 600 km from the front. A case that unsettles…
-
Why Asturians in Spain feel Spanish without hesitation
Genetics, a language of their own and a history tied to the Reconquista: why Asturias feels Spanish with no qualms.
-
Paris bohemian life in 1850: the underworld Marx lumped together
Marx placed criminals, ragpickers and bohemian writers in the lumpenproletariat. The list portrays Paris in 1850 and its marginal underworld.
-
90 years since the Spanish uprising: the mystery of Sanjurjo's plane crash
Ninety years after the National Uprising in Spain, the mysterious plane crash that killed General Sanjurjo and the conspiracy theories surrounding his death remain unresolved.
-
Alternate history: a German superpower in 1910
A Germany-Austria union in 1910: 1.1 million km², superpower or disaster. An analysis of the alternate history scenario that obsesses historical revisionists.