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Nietzsche: Progressive or Conservative?
Nietzsche is one of those rare thinkers that have been appropriated by both the left and the right. Some argue that this is a testament to his rhetorical prowess, while others argue that it is a consequence of his constant self-contradiction. In any case, the question remains: to which camp does Nietzsche truly belong? Left or right? Progressive or conservative?
According to Norberto Bobbio, author of the influential book, Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction, it was ‘pure accident that the names given to the two political poles were ‘left’ and ‘right’. The terms date back to the French Revolution when supporters of the king and the ancien régime sat to the right of the president, and opponents, who supported democratisation, to the left. After outlining the various issues with this distinction, Bobbio argues that these terms ‘continue to be very much part of political terminology’. They have prevailed, he argues, because they signify something ‘essential’; the names could change, ‘but the original, essential dichotomy would remain’. The question is: what is this essential dichotomy? Bobbio makes the case that, rather than an arbitrary spatial metaphor, a temporal distinction may be more appropriate: ‘It makes it possible to distinguish between innovators and conservatives, progressives and traditionalists, and between those who look to the rising sun…
