The Human Piranha

. Nietzsche's influence on a Wall Street derivatives trader

Should Joseph Jett be regarded as Nietzsche's Ubermensch incarnate? Jett was recently fired from his Wall Street post as head government-bond trader at Kidder Peabody, the 128-year-old investment bank. He allegedly masterminded an illegal trading scheme that will result in a $140 million loss for his company.

Jett generated "phantom profits" by deceptively trading the "strips" of government bonds, serving to boost his performance-based salary to $9 million last year. In his acceptance speech for Kidder's "chairman's award," Jett preached a belligerent philosophy: "This is war. You do anything to win. You make money at all costs."

Kidder's chairman, Michael A. Carpenter, noted that the "power" of the 36-year-old Jett was "hard to ignore." Other traders considered Jett "extremely strong-willed" and often referred to him as the "Human Piranha."

Furthermore, Jett was known for his peculiar fascination with the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, the poetry of Lord Byron, and the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.

In an editorial in Barron's, the financial weekly, Joe Queenan ridiculed Jett's insidious appreciation of European culture: "Accused Kidder trader was a fan of Nietzsche, for goodness sake." Queenan's amusing editorial argued that the only difference between Jett and all other Wall Street traders was Jett's keen interest in Nietzschean philosophy.

According to Queenan's analysis, Jett's love of Nietzsche reveals a "glaring dysfunctional personality trait" which indicates "colossal dishonesty." In Queenan's philosophy-free world, Nietzsche is "the deranged proto-Nazi most celebrated for the theory...that the Supermen will one day rule the world." After a couple of selective quotes, Queenan's point becomes clear: anyone sick enough to read Nietzsche must be a lying thief.

Ironically, common opinions about Nietzsche are often more blatantly deceptive and dishonest than any of Nietzsche's own provocative phrases.

Although Nietzsche's writings are often disturbing (that, after all, was the point), his supposed "Nazi legacy" was effectively discredited a few decades ago by eminent Nietzsche scholar and prolific translator, Walter Kaufmann. Indeed., Nietzsche detested the German Reich and once boasted, "I am having all anti-Semites shot." Significantly, Nietzsche's "Supermen" were not anti-intellectual warmongers (read: Hitler), but rather the great community of artists and philosophers of the future.

Nietzsche's damning link to deception seems to stem from the prevailing emphasis on his early writings. In a now-popular unpublished essay, Nietzsche proclaimed that truth is an "illusion," as we live in a world of mere appearances.

Yet, in his mature works of the mid-1880s, Nietzsche's thought becomes more affirmative. He reveals how "we too are still pious," by pursuing the ideal of truth. And he clarifies the ideal of truth. And he clarifies the doctrine of his poetic hero-philosopher, Zarathustra, who "posits truthfulness as the highest virtue." Furthermore, Nietzsche repeatedly castigates thinkers, artists, priests, and politicians for deceiving others (and themselves).

Although Nietzsche often wrote that great philosophers must inevitably be misunderstood, he began to despair as this misunderstanding related to his own life. In his autobiography of 1888, Nietzsche writes: "Hear me!...Above all, do not mistake me for someone else."

If Joseph Jett really appreciated Nietzsche's message, he would have been a paragon of brutal honesty. So does that make Wall Street an appropriate destination?

Brad Edward White's column appears on alternate Wednesdays.