It Is Time To Toss The Dice How Nietzsche’s Philosophy Inspires Anarchist Practice Catherine Hooijer Master Thesis of Philosophy University of Amsterdam Dr. Robin Celikates / prof. dr. Yolande Jansen 05-07-2019 1 Abstract In a precarious world where almost everyone is affected by discrimination, oppression and insecurity in some way or another, more and more people want to change their situation. However, many of those people are turning to right-wing, conservative ideas or conspiracy theories. Anarchism has until now not been able to come up with an alternative to the current way of living together that attracts people in the same way. In my thesis, I argue that this is partly due to anarchist practices based on what the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche calls ressentiment, and that anarchists should drastically change the fundamentals of those practices if anarchists are to change the world for the better. For the purpose of this thesis I will focus my discussion on two prevalent practices within anarchism, namely identity politics (or more aptly named, privilege politics) and accountability processes. However, this is not to say that only these practices are to blame, nor that they should be completely abandoned. I will argue that anarchists need to radically transform these practices. To go beyond my critique, I will explore a Nietzschean “affirmation of life” as this new ground on which to build. In the process I will also show that this new basis of anarchism will be distinctly feminist in character. 2 Foreword – Acknowledgements ‘It is time to toss the dice’. This statement is made by one of the characters in the book-series The Wheel of Time written by Robert Jordan. The character in question uses it as a mantra whenever he makes risky gambles or goes into battle. This thesis was a gamble for me from the start, and often it was a battle. Having never extensively read Nietzsche’s works, I took the opportunity of this thesis to explore this fascinating philosophy and using it to develop thoughts on my political interest in anarchist practice. It has been six months of laughter and joy, but also of frustration and suffering. Quite early after starting on this path, I realised it was more dangerous than I could have anticipated: it is so easy to become lost in Nietzsche’s writing, to be sucked into it, even more so because it is sometimes nice to get lost in Nietzsche’s writing. I want to thank Robin Celikates for giving me the chance to start on this project and pushing me beyond my limits. I also want to thank Yolande Jansen for agreeing to serve as the second reader of my thesis despite having a busy schedule. However, I could not have seen the project through to the end without my friends being around, being both my harshest critics and best resting place. Above all Eleni Kouvelas, my reading partner for Nietzsche’s philosophy. We have cried from laughter and danced through the frustration of reading Nietzsche’s books. I hope that by the end of this she will also have finished her thesis with the same feeling of joy as I do. And I want to dearly thank Sigmund Schilpzand who, from all the way over in Southampton has been able to evoke reflection with a few words, while at the same time providing the music to see it all through. Now, at the end I feel like I know what it is to affirm life in the Nietzschean sense. At least, I have learned that tossing the dice makes winning or losing not just a random chance; it all depends on the game one is playing – which is something you can decide for yourself. For me, this was a winning toss. 3 Contents Contents ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 4 The will to power ................................................................................................................... 8 Anarchism ............................................................................................................................ 10 Chapter One: ‘People Not Profit’ ............................................................................................ 14 1.1 Creating the Subject ....................................................................................................... 14 1.2 The Neoliberal Subject ................................................................................................... 16 Chapter Two: ‘Bigger Cages! Longer Chains!’ ....................................................................... 21 2.1 When Identity Politics Become Privilege Politics ......................................................... 21 2.1.1 Essentialising Identity.............................................................................................. 22 2.1.2 Claiming Rights Instead of Freedom ....................................................................... 23 2.1.3 Identity for Ascribing Blame ................................................................................... 25 2.1.4 Using Safe Spaces for Escape ................................................................................. 27 2.2. When Accountability Becomes the Justice System ...................................................... 29 2.2.1 Restorative Justice ................................................................................................... 29 2.2.2 Punishing the Guilty ................................................................................................ 30 2.2.3 The Evil One ............................................................................................................ 31 2.2.4 The Victim ............................................................................................................... 32 Chapter Three: ‘No One Is Free Until All Are Free’ ............................................................... 34 3.1 Ressentiment and Bad Conscience ................................................................................. 35 3.1.1 Internalising Suffering ............................................................................................. 36 3.1.2 Punishing and Bad Conscience................................................................................ 37 3.2 Ressentiment in the Justice System ................................................................................ 40 3.3 Ressentiment as the ‘peacefulness’ of the State ............................................................. 43 Chapter Four: ‘Love Is Its Own Protection’ ........................................................................... 47 4.1 Affirmation: Life as Becoming ...................................................................................... 47 4.1.1 The Eternal Recurrence ........................................................................................... 49 4.2 The Revaluation of Suffering ......................................................................................... 54 4.3 The Revaluation of Mitleid ............................................................................................ 58 4.4 The Psychology of the Tragic, Dionysus ....................................................................... 59 4.5 Communities of Friends ................................................................................................. 61 4.6 To Empower ................................................................................................................... 62 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 65 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 70 4 Introduction People all over Europe live in precarious situations; poverty, insecurity, and feelings of non- belonging are apparent almost everywhere. People are discriminated against because of social-economic status, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, ability or some other aspect of one’s life. A growing number of people, however, want this situation to change. At the same time, more and more people seem to be turning towards conservative, right-wing ideas or conspiracy theories in order to try to change this precarity. Blaming refugees for lack of jobs and housing, blaming feminism for not having the romantic relationships one sees on TV, blaming diversity policies for not receiving a promotion at work, all are examples of attempts to reclaim some mythical past in which everything is supposed to have been good. The alternative offered on the other side of the political spectrum, “left” as it is often called, seems unable to attract as many people to their vision of living together. The question that started out this thesis is why this is the case. At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, lots of people joined in an effort to change the way society was organised. This is often called the anti-globalisation movement and it had distinct anarchist tendencies, as such organising in an anti-authoritarian, horizontal fashion intermixed with plenty of direct action.1 Anti-globalisation activists aimed at structurally changing society and everything seemed possible. Now, years later, politicians on the far-right of the political spectrum are gaining influence, neo-nazis are openly marching on the streets in several European countries, borders