Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche on the Politics of Theatricality

More often than not, Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche are considered to be antagonists. For K. Marx the analysis of the material conditions of life provides the key to the interpretation of human history. F. Nietzsche sees the analysis of values as the key to the understanding of the development of societal forms. Marx defends egalitarianism; Nietzsche is an enthusiastic advocate of hierarchies. They both differentiate between an authentic and alienated form of life; however, their ideas of authenticcity are fundamentally different. In spite of the discrepancies in their understandings of the existence of a society, their analyses of political life of modem society are organized around the metaphor of the theatre. The metaphor of the theatre makes it possible to grasp the difference between an authentic and an alienated form of human life.