One subtle reason for the rise in popularity of neo-Nietzscheans like Bronze Age Pervert in this century is that the 19th century German pre-history model of Europe and India being more or less conquered by an Indo-European race of warriors who enslaved the indigenous farmers has lately been mostly upheld by ancient DNA findings.
Razib Kahn posts about on the new genetically-informed version of European prehistory - which, oddly enough, looks a lot like the version current around 1930. https://t.co/gENd1MXBlH
— Gregory Cochran (@gcochran99) September 24, 2023
Superstar Harvard geneticist David Reich lamented at length in his 2018 book that his ancient DNA findings about Middle Eastern Farmers and Steppe Invaders is unpleasantly reminiscent of the highbrow German conventional wisdom of Nietzsche’s day.
Reich took some satisfaction in rewriting prehistory to show that the Indo-European conquerors of 4000+ years ago didn’t come from modern Germany, but probably from the modern Slavic steppe lands to the east.
But still …
This didn’t debunk Nietzsche’s theory of the Indo-European world having a heritage of master vs. slave moralities. In Nietzsche’s view, the aristocratic winners tended to have simple healthy values emphasizing winning and the good things that come with violent victory. (Think of the world views of NFL team owners.)
The enslaved losers (such as the Hebrews, Christians, and lower castes), in contrast, had more interesting and intelligent ideas to subvert the conquerors’ dominance, but to Nietzsche’s nose, their transvaluation smelled of sickliness and decay.
Nietzsche himself, of course, was intelligent and sickly.
