Abstract

This chapter seeks to explain populism as it presented itself in recent history; but it then goes beyond the mere phenomena of populism by considering a number of explanations for them. It then enters a philosophical terrain by turning to a Nietzschean reading of reactivity in terms of nobility and slavishness, and of the ascetic ideal, as analysed by Nietzsche in On the Genealogy of Morality. Next, it discusses the import of Nietzsche’s physiological thinking for these analyses. The chapter concludes with an exploration of Nietzsche’s and Deleuze’s concept of immanence, since it is arguably only on this terrain that the phenomena of reactivity, specifically, the phenomena of populism, can ultimately be overcome. Hence, this chapter progresses from the most immediately given, through increasingly complex levels of analysis, to an ever more comprehensive understanding of the structures and forces involved in the current political situation.