The Pale Galilean Still Conquers

“Max Weber’s interpretation is rooted in Nietzsche’s reading of Judeo-Christianity as the resentment (ressentiment) of the weak against the strong, the slaves against their masters, the victims against their persecutors. The literal madness of Nietzsche’s attitude is that, close as he was to recognizing the truth of human culture, he willfully espoused its lie. He views the rehabilitation of the victim as a futuile and destructive rebellion against the iron law of superior strength. The very frenzy of a Nietzsche suggests that the truth of culture is about to burst upon the intellectual scene of the modern world. The forces of repression are really the same as the forces of revelation. The more hysterical repression becomes, the more visible it must also become as repression” (Girard, A Theater of Envy, p. 281).