This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders
Nietzsche, Dick, Bey
*What preceded: [an inexplicable neocon took mid-position in the Dutch Foundation for Literature](https://martijnbenders.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/147991492?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts). To illustrate just how conservative the man is: a supporter of his work calls Andreas Kinneging ‘[not a true conservative but a revolutionary](https://wimberkelaar.com/2019/09/09/tegen-de-karikatuur-van-een-tijdperk-jabik-veenbaas-briljante-boek-de-verlichting-als-kraamkamer/)’*
The libertarian is almost the exact opposite of the conservative: after all, if you wish to create a ‘minarchist state’ as Robert Nozick called it, you absolutely cannot afford to be conservative. The ‘true conservative’ is someone who very much wants everything to stay exactly as is because that is, of course, ‘how God intended it all.’
The socialist Joop den Uyl once began as a great admirer of Adolf Hitler:
Once again, it is the newspaper Trouw that later writes the apologetic piece to justify this past of den Uyl. Why that particular Christian newspaper?
Well, the concept of ‘reborn people’ is inherently a religious one. And the man was sponsored from America to ‘be a force against communism’ and to serve as a sort of scarecrow because ‘Project Israel’ founded in 1925 couldn’t be left empty. In that process something went wrong; they had fed a monster, and it suddenly went much further than intended. Oops.
But instead of intervening immediately, they sat on their hands and waited. They only intervened when they threatened to lose Europe to the Russians. The commies were winning!
“The State is the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly, it lies; and this lie creeps from its mouth: ‘I, the State, am the people.’ That is a lie! Creators created peoples and hung beliefs and love over them: thus they served life.”
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 1, “On the New Idol”
This passage from Thus Spoke Zarathustra may be one of Nietzsche’s most famous critiques of the state. Here, Nietzsche describes the state as a deceptive and life-denying force that masquerades as the embodiment of the people while, in fact, being an oppressive and manipulative entity.
One could raise the question of whether Nietzsche was a libertarian. Nietzsche was an advocate of the city-state model after the ancient Greek fashion—often referring to Sparta. It is a romantic ideal, I think, but it does have overlaps with Nozick’s minarchist state.
“The state lies in all tongues of good and evil; and whatever it speaks, it lies—and whatever it has, it has stolen.”
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 1, “On the New Idol”
In this quote, Nietzsche expands on his criticism by arguing that the state does not just deceive by claiming to represent the people but also actively perpetuates falsehoods and thrives on what it has exploited from others.
“Wherever the state begins, individual freedom ceases, and vice versa.”
Human, All Too Human
Nietzsche discusses in Human, All Too Human the inverse relationship between the state and individual freedom, emphasizing his belief that true individuality and freedom cannot coexist with the state.
Back to libertarianism. Yesterday, I saw Tom van Lamoen, one of my favorite writers, post about Philip K. Dick:
But that made me think of another quote, from the less well-known anarchist Hakim Bey:
