On Resentment and Democracy. Menno Ter Braak: The Bell Heralding the Wave
Abstract
This article intends to examine the conceptual relationship between resentment and democracy starting from the ideas of the Dutchman writer Menno ter Braak. Here we review his intellectual career and, in particular, his political writings. We also value how Nietzsche and Scheler conceptions of resentment exerted a relevant influence on the idea of democracy defended by Ter Braak. The analysis of the texts The New Elite and National Socialism as a Doctrine of Rancour allows to cast light both on the psychological bases of contemporary populism, on one hand, and to show its harmony with Richard Rorty political thinking, on the other. In this way, we conclude that reading today Ter Braak is stimulating and politically useful because his work teaches us that resentment is in the center of democracy and because he defends a type of thinker, inspired by the Pascal notion of honest man, able to face the worst effects of resentment.
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