Welcome back Tweedsters, Master–slave morality
is a central theme of Friedrich Nietzsche's
works, in particular the first essay of On
the Genealogy of Morality.
For Nietzsche, a particular morality is inseparable
from the formation of a particular culture,
meaning that a culture's language, codes and
practices, narratives, and institutions are
informed by the struggle between these two
moral structures Why do we say that helping
other people is good? Why do we assume that
egotistical actions are evil? After all, wouldn't
acting egotistically be good for us?
To explain his ideas, Nietzsche gives us a
story. He describes an ancient society with
two classes, the Masters and the Slaves.
The Masters are strong, creative, wealthy,
and powerful. They can do whatever they like.
They love themselves and see themselves as
good. They name the opposites of themselves,
the weak and feeble, as bad. Being bad is
just how a person is, they didn't choose to
be that way; they're just losers.
The Slaves are less well off. Oppressed by
the Masters, they cannot do what they like.
They are weak, poor, and resentful. They initially
view themselves as bad, as the Masters do,
because they lack the concepts to do otherwise.
However, Nietzsche suggests that after some
time, a “slave revolt" occurs. This is not
a physical revolution, as the slaves are too
weak for that kind of revenge, but a moral
one. In this revolt, the slaves decide that
they can only endure their suffering if they
redefine it as both being good and a choice.
The slaves begin to praise the meek, the poor,
and those who are unable to end their suffering.
The Masters are dubbed evil for choosing to
be wealthy, powerful, and capable. The Slaves
become good for being the opposite of the
Masters. This gives them the psychological
strength to carry on and allows them to get
back at the Masters by undermining the values
system that encouraged them to exhibit their
strengths.
The Master morality involves those with strengths
of both mind and body seeing themselves as
good. It values things like wealth, glory,
ambition, excellence, and self-actualization.
It affirms life and everything in it.
Since the master morality is favored by the
powerful or those with some strength, its
followers are few. However, those few are
unconcerned with the disapproval of the many.
This also means the masters are creative,
as they have no desire to follow a prescribed
life plan and are willing to experiment with
new life choices that suit them despite widespread
disapproval.
An example of a morality that tends towards
this would be that of the Ancient Greeks.
Aristotle's ethics, for example, pay no mind
to the poor and praise the powerful man who
can live life fully. The Greek heroes are
strong, glorious characters who make their
will into reality no matter the cost.
On the other hand, the slave morality condemns
the strength that the hated masters possess
and praises the weakness that they have. It
is this act, the transvaluation of values,
that Nietzsche sees as the key achievement
of the slave revolt; he even praises it as
an act of brilliance which succeeded in dominating
western thinking for two thousand years.
After this revolt, things that the masters
had were considered evil because the slaves
used to lack them and the lack was made into
something good. For example, Chasity was praised
because the people writing the moral code
couldn't get the sex they wanted. Humility
was held to be a virtue because they had nothing
to be proud of. Endless generosity was praised
because they needed help themselves. The slave
morality is sour grapes made into a value
system.
Of equally great importance to Nietzsche is
the idea that the slave morality, under any
guise, couldn't stand any competing moral
systems existing. Nietzsche claims that this
is motivated by fear of what unchecked Masters
might do. This leads to plans to take power,
attempts to bring down the strong in the name
of equality, the suppression of the minority
who follow other moralities, the creation
of stories about hell to terrify people into
compliance, and the claim that the slave morality
and way of life must apply to everyone.
Nietzsche thought the purest existing form
of the slave morality was to be found in Christ's
teachings and explained that the Beatitudes
best expressed the morality's core ideas.
He also saw the slave morality manifest in
Buddhism, Democracy, Socialism, and other
mass movements that sought to make everyone
equal and encourage dull lives. Since the
slave morality is often life-denying, he saw
them all as part of the gradual slide into
the nihilism which he feared.
While Nietzsche did write The Antichrist leaving
no doubts about his distaste for the slave
morality, his descent into insanity prevented
him from completing his four-part series about
morality which would have included more details
on the master morality. It's probable that
he would have critiqued it just as he critiqued
the slave morality.
He also praised the slave morality for helping
to foster the internal life of man, as the
master morality, for all that was right with
it, required little reflection to create.
Nietzsche's concern was that through tools
like the fear of hell, authoritarian political
power, and a mob mentality people who could
live their lives otherwise would be coerced
into following a slave morality that they
didn't need. He understood that some people
needed the comfort of the slave morality.
His real objection was to the idea that we
all do.
In any case, the Ubermensch, Nietzsche's transhuman
ideal, would be “Beyond Good and Evil" and
not fully committed to either one of these
moralities alone.
What Nietzsche encourages to do is to “be
noble." While the Masters are explained to
be nobler than the Slaves, a noble person
could still choose to hold slavish values.
Jesus Christ, who Nietzsche saw as a proto-Ubermensch,
is given as an example of how that is possible.
The noble person will see their life as a
project, in which they choose their own goals
and drive towards them no matter what society,
dogma, or the unwashed masses think. They
are not afraid to have their worldview challenged
or to take actions which they know are going
to lead to them changing and growing as people.
Nietzsche's Superman, also known as the Ubermensch,
is the embodiment of the noble way of life.
In a sense, Nietzsche's often shocking writings
can be seen as a hand extended to those of
noble temperament; only the people willing
to have their worldviews challenged are going
to read them at all.
