Cherchez le philosophe

The Nietzsche Feature.

Act II

Clarence Darrow now starts blaming Nietzsche as part of his defence of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Leopold was allegedly interested in Nietzsche (it must’ve been that hot moustache which made Nietzsche’s face look like it’d been mugged by a giant, mutant caterpillar).

Darrow is once again trying to blame someone else by claiming (“implying” might be a better word) that Leopold conducted his life according to Nietzsche’s tenets which either diseased minds or were the product of a diseased mind.

The Final Curtain

The defence now moves on to claiming that childhood is full of delusions, which leads to money being the cause of the problem because (I’m assuming) their dreams and delusions could be bought where others might just dream. From there, Darrow moves on to how Loeb cannot be blamed for being defective for his want of moral conscience. Society should use the unfortunate event as a lesson so that something similar can be avoided in the future.

According to the note in the back of the book, Darrow was trying to argue against the death penalty on the ground of diminished responsibility. Apparently, his argument was successful.

The book does keep mentioning twinkies which are, from what I’ve heard, some disgustingly sugary American snack. The twinkie was accorded the blame when a former policeman called Dan White murdered the mayor of San Francisco and one of his assistants[1] in 1979. Although White was convicted, it was of manslaughter not murder. However, there was an uproar afterwards and the concept of diminished responsibility was dropped.

Notes
[20.03.09] When I wrote this entry, I wondered whether this anonymous assistant in the book was Harvey Milk. I was right. (I’ve just been watching Milk starring Sean Penn. Dan White was one of Milk’s fellow supervisors until he resigned.)

We’re going back to Diktatia tomorrow where we learn about the perils of bathing in the fountains. Bring your soap.