Rick Roderick on Nietzsche as Myth & Myth-maker [full length]

[@nightoftheworld]

39:59 *problem of nihilism* “[Nihilism] meant that an overarching cosmological story into which you could fit that provided a background of meaning and a place for you would be radically missing and in its place there would be _market relations,_ in which what you were would amount to what you do for a living.” Michael Sandel (Harvard prof. government) states the same thing. That we’ve shifted from being a market economy to becoming a market society almost without noticing. This has destroyed our civic life and shredded our sense of self determination. Rick was prophetic.. Nietzsche called the nausea of this present moment.

[@manwithavoice]

I appreciate his definition of Nihilism later on: “A culture where there is no fabric to construct meaning...where no enduring belief can provide meaning for the overwhelming majority of members of that culture.” 42:45 44:10 Part of the enlightenment is about destroying myth

[@nightoftheworld]

@@manwithavoice thanks for adding these in here. I think the nihilistic aspect in _market relations_ is the abandonment of the emancipatory project of critical theory to the new age pseudo-religion of scientism-where what is meaningful is reduced to the corporate poverty of instrumental reason. Life becomes commodified and meaning becomes a spiritual relation to the one-dimensionality of “marketability”, rather than a dialectical relation to love/duty/good. The enlightenment tried to find solid rational ground beyond myth.. but as Hegel, Lacan and others showed-“being is contingent”... “reality is structured like a fiction”. Enlightenment’s ground of reason always contained a contradiction, which is the particular negative position of the subject. Between the _whole_ of instrumental reason and the humanities there’s a third point of negative power: the split subject. Or as G.K. Chesterton said.. we can return to paganism or whatever new age nature worship, but the road will always lead to Christian truth in the end-that this world is ontologically incomplete and that all we have is each other and the fabric of mythos calling us to become something better.

[@MichaelLopez-nc3xz]

We should just set something up in the future...19 75*.. mentality. Lazer focus

[@TaxiofJedaya]

In my humble opinion, Rick Roderick one of the best interpreters of Nietzsche. All who want to familiarize themselves with Nietzsche could get something out of these almost 25 years old TTC lectures .I am sure Nietzsche would smile at the irony of this Texas teacher would be so brilliant explain his thoughts seen in the glasses of the 20 'century..Roderick was one of the all too rare teacher who is passionate about her subject and communicated it with pathos and a language everyone can understand, and a charming dialect:-)

[@nightoftheworld]

TaxiofJedaya amen.. juxtaposing his thoughts against the world we have today is nauseating.

[@hazelwray5307]

'Her subject'?

[@sirbuster223]

Gilles Deleuze, similarly, had one of the most "correct" interpretations of Nietzsche in his book which was simply called "Nietzsche and Philosophy". It is perhaps one of the best philosophical investigations/interpretations into all of Nietzsche's ideas and theories. This is my pick for a "Portable Nietzsche" hands down. His book is what I'd call the "last word" of what Nietzsche meant in all of his big ideas, paradoxically as that might sound given the subject matter, but I don't quite know how you hit the proverbial nail on the head with such complexities in his works. Rick Roderick is perhaps the best lecturer of Nietzsche, I'd say. He, in a dialectic way, explores Nietzsche as a "Nietzschean" would. In fact, most lectures he gives are what you see here with any philosopher Rick deemed an important figure. The fact that he chose Nietzsche as an entire subject (despite his many other lectures on him, and his ramblings) is rare for even a single professor to do in a single lecture. Nietzsche is this simultaneously forgotten, but noticeably ever-present talking point amongst the academic field of philosophy - probably because where he's mostly mentioned is when he is greatly misquoted out of context (see: "God is dead, and we have killed him").

[@InsanitysApex]

@@hazelwray5307 freudian slip...

[@joejohnsson6112]

I identify with Rick, and it helped me understand the science. I get all his jokes too, because I was a child of the 80s.

[@nightoftheworld]

11:41 *death of critical thinking* “I would argue that the last ten years of political life have been about the attempt to kill the _very desire_ to interpret. In a certain way, there’s been a certain social trajectory which the text of Nietzsche addresses that involves accepting surfaces and to _kill the urge to interpret_ in anything but the most superficial way.”

[@MrMarktrumble]

thanks for posting this.

[@leiasleeping1282]

I like that he said “we will cut that joke”or “we will leave thay part out”multiple times but none of them were cut.

[@joseph-zoramcbride4029]

Thanks so much for the upload! This guy was so important to me as a developing philosopher. I got obsessed with teaching Company in early high school and eventually found my way to Roderick's Self Under Siege. He certainly tossed me headlong into the continental tradition. Woo! There are so few like him - grasping the academics but knowing it's not the point. The point is application of this stuff - and radical application for radical content to an ever-worsening situation. People have been predicting the society we inhabit for quite a while and Roderick was one of those voices in the desert. Douglas Kellner, Cornel West and Kathy Acker are a few others. Anyways, I'm stoned and rambling. Thanks again and keep up the great content!

[@Jfilomena]

I found Rick Roderick a couple of decades ago on cassette tapes. Undeniably one of the best instructors.

[@caylynmillard6047]

keep this on here or we arent worth anything as humans.

[@HypermarketCommodity]

@@Voice_of_Saturn you didnt get his premise, but i don't want to be mare human. A Übermensch is the answer.

[@hazelwray5307]

@@HypermarketCommodity 'mare' is a mature female horse. You mean, mere;merely?

[@yellowbeard1]

That opener about the Nietzsche effect was mind blowing. It’s 2023 right now and young men trying to be edgy and date women who dress all on black has not changed in 60 yeara

[@thingthinkingthing5639]

“Our younger generation of quasi cyborgs that will be raised in this post modern culture. They will be unrecognizable within perhaps a few generations” Oof

[@Oculoustuos]

He was too obese; breathing labored. Good teacher. Not perfect, but good.

[@Liliquan]

@@Oculoustuos How the fuck is that relevant?

[@thadtuiol1717]

Dude called it way back in '91

[@theyeking7023]

@@Oculoustuos he got more pussy than you

[@deathrides4756]

Fantastic, powerful ending. RIP Rick Roderick.

[@paulw4134]

thanks for posting - good ol' uncle rick

[@andrewmadrick6253]

This fuckin guy was so smart and articulate. He saw the shit that was coming in contemporary culture and tried to warn us. I would have loved to been in one of his classes.

[@sealedindictment]

that ending hits hard and heavy

[@lullabi3234]

Holy Fuck That Was BEAUTIFUL! All I would do with a time machine would be to secure Dr. Roderick as my neighbor. I would adore his insights on Any subject, but he damn sure appreciates Nietzsche's vision and mood...

[@winupdate7854]

“You can give your heart to Jesus... but ya ass belongs to the corps! Do you ladies understand ? “ full metal jacket quote 🤣🤣

[@hazelwray5307]

"God and guns" Typically American.

[@abcrane]

When we say a person”s life is interesting, we often think of career or love affairs or major inventions or climbing Everest. To me, these are interesting events but not what makes one interesting. Nietzsche’s life was interesting, very interesting, and to me what makes ones life interesting is how they manage and channel trauma especially early childhood trauma. They may channel this into climbing Mount Everest or by writing extraordinary philosophy. What made Nietzsche very interesting is how he mirrored his life in his critique of existence, morality, society, religion. One who climbs Everest has no such effect on the consciousness of generations to come.

[@36cmbr]

I thoroughly enjoy Mr. Roderick's always apt insertions of humor in these lectures. He seems to have some biases that are fairly couched behind a fine understanding of the arguments; indeed, his rational analysis seems complete.

[@cbone6754]

HA

[@sirliridon.4419]

So you're the expert of biases

[@sirliridon.4419]

So you're the expert of biases

[@frannyfantastic8193]

Hot damn, I love the shade he throws at Bloom.

[@lukajung9051]

Allan would have a fit

[@victoryfarmcenterforthehum8796]

I love you Dr. Roderick but why this division between the man and his work? It makes no sense to say that his work is amazing while saying his life was boring. His life was amazing because he lived his work as a writing.

[@orloification]

wrong. read about his life. it wasn't much. Contracted syphilis at 24. lived with his mother and sisters, .. fell of a horse

[@nightoftheworld]

Kant’s life was even more narrow-born in Königsberg, never once left the city limits. Yet he produced some of the most world shaking philosophical insights of all time.

[@Driecnk]

Paradox

[@k.o.o.p.a.]

The bulk of Nietzsche work was written in the span of 6 years

[@alexander63736]

He is been dead for 20 years my guy

[@Celestial-Pickle]

The Bill Hicks of the philosophy department

[@leomiller2291]

Is there any other discipline that has its own Bill Hicks? I’d love to have more Hicksology.

[@ekteboi4179]

23:10, sth we're now discussing in the basic income debate. Rick's a legend.

[@christopherellis2663]

He did do time as a medical orderly in the Franco-Prussian war, as well as composing several pieces of music.

[@caseyharrington4947]

Was this the same series Surgue starred in?

[@arunjetli7909]

Such a genuine person Dr roederick , my favorite prifessor

[@7kurisu]

A few years ago I read Alain de Botton's ' consolations of philosophy'. I hate to say this of a man that can make sense of huge, complex ideas, but in his section on Nietzsche felt he profoundly gets it wrong. Nietzsche offers very few if any consolations, this is one of his best qualities, his searching, honest desperation.

[@finnianquail8881]

Alain De Botton is an idiot lmao

[@lukajung9051]

Better check Boethius instead m8

[@danielmeixner7125]

De Boton is a hack

[@7kurisu]

@@danielmeixner7125 agreed. philosophy should be for changing the world, not accepting your lot and becoming an armchair

[@forwardpdx]

17:00 I think he is missing blooms point for how scary these implications actually are, i also contend bloom was falsely accused of being a neo-con, and that neo-cons absorbed his teachings...or rather exploited... perfect example, and the big one, being bush iraq wmd fiasco.... RR really does indirectly put this into perspective though, this is helping me quite a bit....

[@seth-jj5ws]

starting to learn Nietzsche and this is amazing

[@gabpro21]

Been a year since you commented this how’s it going with Nietzsche 😂

[@LTDsaint15]

Thank you so very much!

[@rgaleny]

"The Good" is still a first principle. The Good is a noun.

[@hopelessstrlstfan181]

Were these lectures part of a PBS series or something? The intro music seems like something a local Public Television Station might have put together. He is a great presenter and I assume he was a Professor at Duke University, but I don't think this is Duke University Philosophy Course, right? If anyone reads my text, please help a brother out & let me know who put this series of lectures out. Durham Public TV? Duke University Adult Education outreach?????

[@leomiller2291]

These are lectures that were made for “The Teaching Company”, now called Wondrium.

[@ryangray3070]

Russel Crowe is a great method actor.

[@spacecaptain87]

Does anyone know what the music at the beginning is?

[@chadcrabtree6455]

+Aaron Haugh It's the theme music at the beginning of all The Learning Company course films.

[@spacecaptain87]

Are you saying it was composed specifically for them...

[@chadcrabtree6455]

Nope. And I just discovered that it is Bach's Concerto No.2 in F, BWV 1047 - I Allegro Moderato. From the Brandernburg Concertos.

[@spacecaptain87]

Awesome. Thank you!

[@rustyjohnson5018]

Philosophy as housekeeping!

[@forwardpdx]

11:30 - onward... whoa, creationism anyone??? :/ -- he definitely saw a scary political trend coming....

[@differous01]

Nietsche saw what was happening in his time. These are some examples of interpretations taught in Germany during the build up to war: "In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison." [Adolf Hitler, in a speech delivered April 12, 1922, and published in his My New Order.] "... the unprecedented rise of the Christian Social Party ... was to assume the deepest significance for me as a classical object of study." [Mein Kampf - Vol 1. Chapter 3 (1926)] “From where do we get the right to believe, that from the very beginning Man was not what he is today? Looking at Nature tells us, that in the realm of plants and animals changes and developments happen. But nowhere inside a kind shows such a development as the breadth of the jump, as Man must supposedly have made, if he had developed from an ape-like state to what he is today.” [Hitler's Tabletalk Tischgesprache im Fuhrerhauptquartie] (Note the use of the term 'kind' - some trends just keep going around) It should be noted this does not mean Hitler was what we would call a Christian now; we expect Christianity to be more like Bonhoeffer's Confessing Church/resistance movement, nowadays... ... unless Texas starts anexing the secular lands, anyway.

[@forwardpdx]

differous01 thanks for the response.

[@differous01]

FORWARDPDX BASS I don't know if I should be thanked, I mean, it's kinda gloomy news: just conflate Nietsche's Ubermensche with the Holy Spirit and you have one purpose driven life, right? www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/29/195855/959 I still can't believe this stuff is real, but it is.

[@geoffreywinnie5442]

differous01 How scary to think what would happen if a politician as intelligent and poetic (in his own pathological way) as Hitler arose from the Bible Belt today!

[@differous01]

Geoffrey Winnie One thing that reassures me, in a perverse way, is that Hitler had a whole generation raised in his brand of ideology; not just the Hitler Youth, but every religious denomination and school taught from his approved books. It is rather difficult to do that - to control all media, press, internet etc - in most countries/states these days. The Bible Belt is worrisome, but it has also produced Aronra, Matt Dillahunty and other thinking atheists. N Korea seems to be managing to supress dissent, but other "axis of evil" countries are not. Most the Iranians I know (refugees) are better educated and more philosophically aware than the media would have led me to expect.

[@sanpatch8447]

Brilliant

[@RHatcherMD]

If water did not need to be moved around in pipes, plumbers would not have anything to do for a living. There are much less lead pipes than there used to be.

[@tonymizuhata6260]

41:31

[@matthewkwak8934]

What about Gottlob Frege? Was he not "thinker" enough?

[@muhammadumaid6432]

Got An assignment on this Video. I'm Sure my class mates are also watching this. If any one is Just know that I understand Your Pain.

[@conradmarshall5856]

cyborg-nihilism! according to my interpretation, this is true ;)

[@rgaleny]

Robert Crumb had this problem of "Off the Shelf" self invention vs self creation.

[@akshatjain2775]

uberminch wagen

[@benquinneyiii7941]

Take the waters

[@LetsFindOut1]

does anybody have any similar lectures on KZbin that recommend? something equally as deep and practical as Jordan Peterson and Eric/Brett Weinstein?

[@jali4000]

I feel like you both ought to watch Rick's series The Self Under Siege. It's interesting how his lectures seem bring in people from across the political spectrum. There's no point in trying to have a debate in the comment section so I won't be too derisive here, and I respect anyone who tries to learn more about themselves in the world even if their beliefs are diametrically opposed to my own, so I'll just say keep seeking and I will too and who knows where we'll end up. Just try not to get too comfortable with any one system of beliefs.

[@archiebishopprofessionalno4034]

Lol Jordan Peterson? The Whinestein brothers? Brother, you're in some deep trouble. Those men are to thought as McDonald's is to food.

[@ИринаКим-ъ5ч]

Gonzalez Daniel Jones Kevin Davis Edward

[@rgaleny]

Does Pragmatism solve the Nihilism problem?

[@hazelwray5307]

It's existential

[@geoycs]

This guy needs to tighten up his lecturing style.

[@Oculoustuos]

In one of your lectures on Nietsche, you alledge a quote of St Thomas Aquinas calling the “chief” bliss of heaven is to view the damned. That’s hardly the chief joy and Thomas never wrote it was chief. Moreover, you spoke of Heaven as being a long time when neither is true. It is neither long nor temporal. You

[@Locke3OOO]

Who are you talking to lmao. The lecturer has been dead for twenty years dimwit

[@Oculoustuos]

Locke3OOO talking to you Bobo who likely has been dead for 20 years too.

[@rgaleny]

Fun interpretation. vs Post modern fake. Fiction organizes banal life.

[@EsatBargan]

White Amy Martin Jeffrey Lopez Daniel

[@moiafro]

37:38 - end: clairvoyant remarks n damn i gotta read nietzsche

[@matthiasstaber9216]

I hope you did and you never stopped, and I hope you read him again, and then one more time and then one more time after that... he deserve it

[@joseph-zoramcbride4029]

Ya do! lol He's life changing - except on women; that you should mostly avoid. lol Had some issues there. But i think he's a real prophet of our era; and Roderick offers one of the best interpretations that aren't afraid to be political and really invoke his playful dangerous spirit .