Greetings

[Erick]

I guess I should proceed with the typical introduction, even though I feel a bit awkward doing so. Let's see, where to start? I guess some basic info. about myself is a good place. My nake is Erik [not Erick, but since I'm not into pseudonyms and Erik with a "k" was already taken, I went with the next closest thing], I live about 30 miles outside of LA, I'm married and I have a six year-old son. I enjoy reading, writing, hiking, playing soccer and spending time with my family.

My main intellectual influences are of a rather ecclectic sort. I've been attracted to the works of Nietzsche and Heidegger for some time now, and I've become increasingly attracted to the writings of Marx and other socialists over the past couple of years. I've also developed a keen interest in some Eastern forms of "spirituality", mainly that found in Zen Buddhism.

Politically I've become more and more cynical as my intellectual and spiritual journey has evolved. I loathe Bush and his cohorts, but I don't particularly care for the cowardly, half-hearted opposition found amongst Democrats either. The lack of what I feel are viable alternatives to the entrenched powers that be has caused me to retreat more and more from engaging in political discussion with people who can't fathom anything better, which unfortunately includes most people I run across on a day to day basis.

I guess I joined this forum because I'm starving for some good conversation with people whom, I hope, are open to new and perhaps unorthodox ways of thinking. Some of my ideas may seem rather "conservative" to many here, such as my dislike of our modern, technologically-determined consumer culture, and my openness to certain forms of spirituality, albeit far from the type found amongst most Christians I've met thus far.

So much for the perfunctory remarks. I'm looking forward to posting here as much as possible, which means about once or twice a week since I no longer have regular access to the internet.

Erik

[bunk]

Welcome to the forums! I'm sure you'll be a great member.

Sometimes i feel the same about consumerism being pushed on us. The viable alternative to the Republicans and Democrats in the US is to build sustainable democratic communities.....

[Connolly]

Welcome to the forum. Its good to have your own views, as long as they are rational and you can defend them. Looking forward to hearing your points of view.

R.B. ;)

[More Fire for the People]

Greetings.
Was not Heidegger one of the persons who laid the theoritical foundations of nazism?

[Erick]

Thanks for the warm welcome.


Was not Heidegger one of the persons who laid the theoritical foundations of nazism?

This is obviously a very perplexing issue for anyone who finds important insights in Heidegger's philosophy. Unfortunately, he was indeed a member of the Nazi Party until the end of the war, although his active participation lasted for only less than a year. That was about how long it took for him to see that it didn't develop in the way he'd hoped it would, and thereafter he offered continual criticisms of the movement.

His reasons for joining such a group of cynics and opportunists in their heinous endeavors defies easy comprehension. What we do know is this: In 1933 Heidegger felt that the then amorphous movement, through the charismatic leadership of Hitler, held the potential to transform the German people and, subsequently, the entire West. In other words, he was a bit of a romantic; not uncommon for German intellectuals before the catastrophe of Nazism.

Why did the West need to be transformed according to Heidegger? Because it was approaching a state of complete nihilism, a nihilism in which man and his world were being reduced to nothing more than raw materials for the industrial-technological project of total control. The inner movement of the West, beginning with Plato's metaphysics and culminating in Nietzsche's "will to power" of the subject, had led to the tragic situation in which power was sought for its own sake and not for the sake of something else [e.g. peace, happiness]. This is Heidegger's interpretation of events, and he lays out a pretty sophisticated metanarrative to support his claims. The sheer will to will needed to be overcome if man was to avoid catastrophe, annihilation in a double sense - in the sense of the devastation of the planet [WMD's, environmental degradation, etc.], and, more importantly for Heidegger, in the sense that man's essence was being forgotten and he was being reduced to nothing more than a power-craving beast.

Dasein is the term Heidegger used in place of the traditional "man", and this term lliterally means "there-being". Man is the being who has an understanding of his own being along with the being of other entities. While science in Heidegger's day - today as well - claims a monopoly on truth, Heidegger felt that, while it does indeed have its "truth", it takes a rather narrow view of reality. Art is also a vehicle for the expression of the "truth" of entities; "truth" in the sense of the unconcealment of beings; the early Greek word for truth, alethia, did not mean the correspondence between an idea in the mind of a subject which corresponded to an external object, but rather the event of disclosure, in which an entity revealed itself to the one who was "there" [Dasein]. Furthermore, because of our temporality, we can never arrive at a final, conclusive understanding of the being of entities; it is a process that evolves, or perhaps devolves and becomes increasingly more restricted through time.

To tie this all together, Heidegger felt that the Nazis could usher in an artistic, ontological revolution in which man would be released from the will to will and would simply allow beings to reveal themselves in ways not currently conceivable to our scientifically-minded civilization. Of course, he came to see that Nazism represented - with its racism and biologism - the extreme expression of the will to will rather than it's overcoming. In light of this, he had little if any influence on Nazism; in fact, he was ridiculed as being a sort of quixotic figure who did not represent the more "realistic" views of the NSDAP.

In hindsight, it's hard to fathom how someone of Heidegger's stature could be so stupid. He was neither a racist nor an advocate of imperialism; he was, however, an opponent of democratic liberalism. He felt that each "people" was unique [as a historical community with its particular understanding of the being of beings] - a notion which is apparently at odds with the a-historical, a-social universalism of the Enlightenment's starting point, i.e. the Cartesian ego.

[Warren Peace]

What's up, comrade.

[Organic Revolution]

welcome and enjoy your stay here

[workersunity]

Welcome much Free thinker, post much and prosper