Nietzsche the Exile, cont.
The aforementioned aphorism raises some serious questions, not the least of which is why I am citing Nietzsche as a vital influence in my theorizing about borders. Nietzsche was certainly not a democrat, did not believe in "equal rights" (which he always puts in quotes), and yet at the same time was fiercely anti-nationalist and anti-racist. This helps to explain, at least in part, his continuing relevance and application by intellectuals throughout the political spectrum. For my purposes, this aphorism is necessary in that it emphasizes the idea of a supra-national sensibilitiy as opposed to a "nationalism and race hatred...[which] take[s] pleasure in the national scabies of the heart and blood poisoning that now leads the nations of Europe to delimit and barricade themselves against each other as if it were a matter of quarantine" (339). Nietzsche was also highly conscious of the fact that the philosopher should be the "bad conscience of his time," a stance that Said will take up later in his developing views on the place of the intellectual in academic and political realms. One of the appealing threads in Nietzsche's thought is this insistence that any patriotism or "petty nationalism" should be avoided at all costs in order to preserve one's intellectual integrity. At a time when the jingoism of the Kaiserreich and virulent anti-Semitism dominated German life, Nietzsche warned against both and advocated both cultural and genetic boundary crossing in order to create the "good European."