What follows here is a special feature on Cultpunk: anarchist Chaz Bufe’s introduction to H.L. Mencken’s The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, reproduced with the author’s permission. (Mencken’s book on Nietzsche, with Bufe’s introduction, may be purchased here.) I’ve often wished Bufe’s introduction was available online, as I think it provides an excellent overview of how the philosophies of Mencken, Nietzsche, and the anarchist tradition relate to one another. Conversely, Bufe’s essay illustrates salient points of divergence between the intellectual trajectories of the three. In short, Bufe’s essay is a much needed, clear-headed analysis that does not hide behind murky clouds of PoMo-speak, as so much contemporary writing on Nietzsche is wont to do. Anarchists or other social critics that have been tempted to engage with Nietzsche have often been deterred by the ghosts of Nazism, misogyny, and other evils that hover around these thinkers’ reputations; the upshot is often that the baby gets thrown out with the bath water and Nietzsche and/or Mencken are rejected wholesale. Bufe’s essay provides an important entry point for those who wish for a no-b.s. outline of how and where the iconoclasm of Nietzsche, Mencken, and anarchism converge — and diverge. — Oliver
Introduction to The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
by Chaz Bufe
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche was the first book ever to appear in English on the German philosopher, and H.L. Mencken’s second real book[1]; and it seems entirely appropriate that the topic of one of the first books by the foremost iconoclastic journalist of the first half of the twentieth century was the foremost iconoclastic philosopher of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Indeed this seems a natural match, given the many similarities between the two.
Mencken, however, was originally reluctant to write this book, and did so only at the urging of his then-publisher, John W. Luce. But once he had begun writing, Mencken dove into the project with characteristic energy. He read Nietzsche’s entire works, mostly in German, and wrote this good-sized book in under a year, all the while working full time for The Baltimore Sun.
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