Inspired by the historical analysis
of the bible, and encouraged by the school of German High Criticism, Nietzsche
delves into what he calls, The Genealogy of Morals. In this Genealogy,
the philosopher looks at morals in a historical context in an attempt to
discover their sources. This endeavor proved to be laden with ‘forbidden
questions’. By looking at the origin of societal values, Nietzsche exposes
morals as a human creation and discredits them as an absolute or divine
entity. However, once morals are proven
to be the result of human choice, greater anxiety blooms, and the possibility
that there were other choices, presents itself.
In
the process of tracing morals to the root, Nietzsche discovers a curious set of
values known as Slave Morality. Slave
morality is Nietzsche’s understanding of an inversion of traditional moral
values which views weakness as goodness, and suffering as a means to purity.
Slave morality is born from the resentment
of the powerful by the weak. The slave
is a figure who struggles through harsh conditions, mental anguish, and physical
suffering. It is only to be expected that this figure would look at the
powerful and wealthy, and hate them for what they have. The slave will start to
say “Those assholes”, or, “That arrogant jerk”.
Soon, the slave begins to assign negative moral values to those in
power. They connect power with evil or corruption, and they view those who
suffer as good, pure, godly, people. Nietzsche states in his Genealogy of Morals, that the Jews
founded this resentment-based inversion in order to say, “The miserable alone
are the good; the only blessed in God…whereas you, you noble and powerful ones,
you are in all eternity the evil…you will eternally be the wretched, accursed
and damned!”.[1]
This coping mechanism is born not only from resentment alone, but in partnership
with hope. In order to maintain hope, the slave needs to feel he has something of value that the master does
not (or possibly cannot) possess. He
desperately needs to feel that he is the superior in some way. Slave morality
allows this by aligning the daily suffering with a spiritually worthwhile journey,
which is eternally unattainable by the master.
Slave morality was
strengthened as the Christian institution adopted it, (a very long time ago,
these values were deeply ingrained in the church by time Nietzsche came along).
Christianity positions an emancipated, dying, criminal as the image of their
savior, their idol, their God. The
institution allows suffering and compassion as spiritual norms. The Catholic Church
specifically, operates within slave morality by establishing an ascetic
ideal. The church teaches that
compassion for others, suffering, sacrifice, and self-abdication (in this
life), paves the road to purity, and purity is the key to everlasting salvation.
The church interprets the value of a
given suffering, and then translates it into qualification for heavenly
acceptance. In this way, the religious institution as a whole is able to
dictate and control the behavior of their followers in the complete absence of
promise or proof that living conditions will ever improve! The Church
encourages their followers to continue living harsh, miserable, quiet, lives in
passages such as Matthew 5, which states, “Blessed are the meek…the
prosecuted…the mocked… Rejoice! and be glad, for great is your reward in
Heaven…”[2] Translation: “Catholics stay good! Stay weak! Don’t think for yourselves, don’t try
to escape this torturous place, rejoice in your misery! Value your suffering!
because that is what is gonna getcha’ through our super-awesome pearly gates.”
Some Christian
followers have assigned such high value to misery, that they go out of their
way to bring suffering upon themselves in efforts to ‘cleanse’ their souls. For
example, Catholic followers in the Philippians practice an annual ritual of self-flagellation
during the Holy Easter week each year.
Men occupy the streets with whips made of leather, rope, glass, and/or
bamboo. They proceed to whip themselves
publicly, for hours. This sacrifice is seen as the highest expression of faith
and is intended to wipe clean the sins of the –now bleeding- follower.
While
Christianity presents itself as the most obvious example of slave morality,
this value system can be seen in many aspects of contemporary life. For
example, with the birth of social media and the inherent narcissism of teenage
girls, social networking sites like Facebook, became flooded with half-naked,
self-portraits of young women. Unfortunately, pictures of sexualized, youthful
bodies tend to make older women (and any woman with less than pristine
self-esteem) feel the sallow pangs of jealousy.
Even women who believe that they themselves, posses a socially valued
figure, will become resentful of those female rivals who flaunt their bodies so
publicly (this is also the case in broader society, but here, I refer only to
the realm of social media). As a result, female displays of sexuality have
become disvalued and ridiculed on Facebook, due to the resentment of other
females. This goes a step further when
women begin to slander the overtly sexual individuals. When a woman might be
thinking, “Gosh she has a beautiful
figure”, instead will say: “That
stupid slut. She must be so dumb and easy, doesn’t she have any respect for
herself?”. Women are encouraged by
society (although mostly by other women) to post modest pictures of them selves
and to suppress their sexual attributes, as a means to their own ‘self
respect’. While on the other end of the spectrum, they are berated as
unintelligent ‘sluts’ for expressing their sexuality.
Similarly,
the curious hierarchy of elementary school popularity also displays clear
examples slave morality. When I was in
elementary school, it was ‘cool’ to proclaim that you had not studied for any
given test, that you had received a poor grade, or that you had not completed
your homework. Here’s how it started: The
children who did not (or perhaps could not) receive good grades became jealous
of those who did. Lacking the validation of the teacher, their peers, and a
gold star sticker, these children adopted an attitude of resentment towards
those students who regularly earned high marks. Soon, the good students were
being called things like “know it all” and “teachers pet”, and (in the ever-articulate
way of the third grader,) “LOSER!”.
Thus, the application of self in academic affairs became disvalued, and
those who did not care to study, ascended the hierarchy and became ‘cool’. This attitude continued to evolve when
incomplete work and public denouncement of academic rigor became the basis for
popularity. Bad grades alone weren’t
cool enough anymore- the shift in value assignments had gone so far, that one
had to go out of one’s way to proclaim bad grades, and to portray oneself as
truly stupid, to attain the coveted position of popularity. (This is a true
story and the direct reason I had a tutor for most of 4th grade)
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