Wotan’s self-loathing offers us an entre into the inner motive of Wagner’s highly idiosyncratic version of anti-Semitism. For it appears that Wagner, like Wotan, could not tolerate the idea that all human beings, including the Germans or semi-mythical Aryans, are ultimately motivated only by egoism (even in their striving to transcend it). This thought apparently became so intolerable that it appears that Wagner, perhaps subliminally, tried to project this universal egoism on to the Jews in order to purge his ideal German, or Aryan, of all taint. This is precisely what Wotan tries to do in creating a hero, Siegfried, whose heroism can’t be traced back to Wotan’s self-admitted egoism, and who therefore presumably will be freed from Wotan’s debts to Alberich and his Ring, Erda, the Giants, and even Loge. The point here is that this purgation is impossible, because what Wagner sometimes described as inherent Jewish egoism is evidently the basis for all the feelings, thoughts, and actions of the human race per se.
What follows are some of Wagner’s thoughts on this subject, which provide evidence both for my case that Wagner’s anti-Semitism was a cover for our universal religious longing to redeem ourselves from our inherent egoism (an egoism stemming from the fear of death, and therefore founded on man’s natural mortality), and for my suggestion that Wotan’s self-loathing and longing to escape his own true nature, by conceiving a hero freed from all that Wotan loathes in his own nature, is a metaphor for this universal yet futile religious ideal. In the initial passages below Wagner links what he describes as the German’s involuntary repugnance for the Jewish nature, with that loathing of egoism which is the fount of all systems of morality, all notions of human nobility of character, which are predicated on religious belief:
[P. 80] “… with all our speaking and writing in favour of the Jews’ emancipation, we always felt instinctively repelled by any actual, operative contact with them. Here, then, we touch the point that brings us closer to our main inquiry: we have to explain to ourselves theinvoluntary repellencepossessed for us by the nature and personality of the Jews, so as tovindicate that instinctive dislike which we plainly recognise as stronger and more overpowering than our conscious zeal to rid ourselves thereof. Even today we only purposely belie ourselves in this regard, when we think necessary to hold immoral [P. 81] and taboo all open proclamation of our natural repugnance against the Jewish nature.” [456W-{8/50} Judaism In Music: PW Vol. III, p. 80-81]
We can see in the following extract that through Wotan’s confession to Bruennhilde, Wagner’s metaphor for Wotan’s repression of intolerable self-knowledge into his unconscious mind, Wotan’s figurative Jewishness (i.e., the egoism he loathes in himself) goes under, so that Wotan can be reborn as Siegfried minus consciousness of his true, craven identity and corrupt history. This forbidden hoard of knowledge which Wotan imparted to Bruennhilde, she holds for Siegfried in order to protect him from the suffering caused by Wotan’s hyper-consciousness of the unbearable truth. And note, Wagner invites the Jews to join himself and the Germans in this alleged regeneration:
“[Addressing the Jews, Wagner states:] To become Man at once with us, … means firstly for the Jew [Wotan] as much as ceasing to be Jew [Wotan reborn minus consciousness of his true identity, as Siegfried]. (…) Without once looking back, take ye your part in this regenerative work of deliverance through self-annulment (selbstvernictenden); then are we one and Un-dissevered! But bethink ye, that only one thing can redeem you from the burden of your curse
