I would recommend any book which has a chapter on the comedians of the ascetic ideal. I believe that chapter 6 of this book presents the fullest treatment which Professor Daniel W. Conway has been able to publish on this topic. The section on "Knowledge: A Form of Asceticism" compares Nietzsche's use of the ideal to "a feedback loop invested with residual, and potentially productive, powers of self-denial." (p. 111) Of course this is a difficult book, as Conway pursues the idea to the point where the risk run by Nietzsche, "for example, nearly killed him . . . and it may ultimately have hastened his departure from sanity." (p. 118) This book should appeal to anyone whose political views have the same tendency, or whose views may have failed completely. Any failure which has been repeated so often that it has become funny ought to be compared to the contents of this book.