Abstract
In this chapter the authors explore how the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s reactionary ideas of ‘the herd’ and attitudes to empathy for the weakest members of society have resonated in uncomfortable ways in the response of some populist leaders to the coronavirus pandemic that swept the world in 2020. The chapter outlines aspects of the highly disputed intellectual legacy of Nietzsche, especially in relation to the murderous, eugenicist policies of Nazi Germany. It then explores the notion of ‘herd immunity’ discussed in the pandemic and the apparently casual disregard for the wellbeing of vulnerable groups or the wider safety of citizens by three leaders: Boris Johnson in the UK, Donald Trump in the USA and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. These leaders’ widely noted unpreparedness for, or indifference to, the spread of the virus indicated an alarming lack of social responsibility that was thrown into dramatic relief by the quick, decisive action of other leaders, organisations and businesses.
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Notes
- 1.
(Nietzsche and Large 1888/2007, p. 88).
- 2.
Nietzsche’s Nachlass which Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche and her editors sifted through and falsified for her edition of The Will to Power.
- 3.
‘A question keeps coming back to us, a tempting and evil question perhaps. Would not the time have come, now that the type “herd-animal” is developing ever more in Europe, to try and begin with a clear-principled, artificial and conscious breeding of the opposite type and its virtues? And would it not even be for the demo-cratic movement itself a kind of goal, salvation and justification, if someone appeared who would put it to his service—if at last its new and sublime perfection of slavery (for that is what European democracy will be in the end) would be complemented by that higher species of ruling and Caesarian spirits who would place itself on top of it, who would take hold of it, who would elevate itself by means of it? Towards new, hitherto impossible, to their visions? To their tasks?’ (from The Will to Power Aphorism 954, cited Voegelin 1944, p. 201).
- 4.
Hitler’s oratorial style is captured perfectly by Chaplin’s deranged and gibberish speech as Adenoid Hynkel in The Great Dictator (1940).
- 5.
A more disturbing theory is that the virus originated in a bio-lab, perhaps in Wuhan close to the wet market identified as the likely source. French Nobel Prize-winning AIDS researcher Luc Montagnier claimed in an interview on France’s CNews that COVID-19 was ‘not natural’ and suggested that this disease may have resulted from work done by molecular biologists who were attempting to create an AIDS vaccine, although this claim was widely disputed by other scientists (see Snopes.com2020).
- 6.
In fact, Taiwan was not receiving WHO updates and was barred from the World Health Assembly even as an observer since Tsai’s 2016 election, due to pressure from Beijing (The Diplomat2020).
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McQueen, D., Farache, F., Grigore, G. (2020). A Revaluation of All Values: Nietzschean Populism and Covid-19. In: Farache, F., Grigore, G., Stancu, A., McQueen, D. (eds) Values and Corporate Responsibility. Palgrave Studies in Governance, Leadership and Responsibility. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52466-1_12
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