Modern Political Theory

Some of the aspects of the community are a sense of identity and belonging. Being part of a community also sets certain boundaries which take us back to what the Grand Inquisitor said about how people seek to escape freedom. Wanting to live and worship in a community strengthens the idea of living within those boundaries which will automatically restrict freedom. The Grand Inquisitor says that people find freedom” dreadful”, he says “In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us: Make us your slaves, but feed us.”(262)

Man is not hungry only for bread, he is capable of tireless searching for someone to worship. The Grand Inquisitor says that man want to believe and worship together, in a community. He says “This craving for community of worship is the chief misery of every man individually and of all humanity from the beginning of time.”(263). Most people want universal worship not because of solidarity or alliance but to abolish possible quarrels. The enthusiasm comes from the fact that anyone outside the community is a reminder of doubt and of the fragility of their moral system.

The Inquisitor’s Church, which is connected with the Devil, tries to provide people with strength and security in their lives, even if by doing so it guarantees that they will be damned in the eternal life. Dostoevsky establishes that people need the end, the bread and he’s worried that the modern society will turn to their senses and people could turn destructive. In his works Nietzsche has a different view about society. “Liberal institutions cease to be liberal as soon as they are attained: later on, there are no worse and no more thorough injurers of freedom than liberal institutions.” “Liberalism: in other words herd-animalization.”(541section 38)

Here Nietzsche regards principles as being formed by the community in the course of their evolutionary process. He created the term herd instinct, which represents the kind of ideology produced by a group of people, such as a community. Nietzsche talks about the institutions and state, which he doesn’t like, saying that the state has a herd mentality. When Nietzsche talks about the overman, he sees this individual as somebody who can overcome the herd instinct, who can take on principles that are not connected with the society.

On the Jewish Question, Marx says that “state is an illusory community” meaning that people are not completely free in the society. Marx considers property being an institutionalization of interests. In opposition to Nietzsche who talked about his atheism in order to bring in people’s attention their natural freedom, Marx believes in personal freedom and thinks that can be achieved through community. The community can lead to a well rounded personality but also could mean vulnerability. Marx argues that political emancipation is a barrier for human emancipation.

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