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It's hard not to see Nietzche's "slave morality" in today's successful backlash against "toxic masculinity" and the "white man".
by rdlecler1 8y ago
It's hard not to see Nietzche's "slave morality" in today's successful backlash against "toxic masculinity" and the "white man".
- AntiTechTechie 8y agoCan you explain what you mean by this?
- canYouExplain 8y agoCan you explain what you're missing the point on, regarding the meaning?
- cannonedhamster 8y agoSeems to me the OP is claiming that people who attack white men are weak willed and only seek to subvert the strong willed white man. Not sure how else one would read that as only white men are strong willed and think like masters and everyone else is a weak willed slave. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master%E2%80%93slave_morality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master%E2%80%93slave_morality
- coldtea 8y ago>people who attack white men are weak willed and only seek to subvert the strong willed white man Well, the "people who attack white men" are usually other white men and women. Minorities seldom play any role in this game, except as objects of pity and protection for the white people who promote guilt and signal their woke status. When minorities do play a role, they are more often than not, the unrepresentative privileged elites of those minorities (e.g. highly paid journalists, actors, and so on) and not the person on the street.
- ikeyany 8y agoThat is not a rare opinion on HN.
- rdlecler1 8y agoWhat a fantastic misrepresentation of my comment and it shows very little understanding of Nietzche. Maybe try reading his work rather than relying on Wikipedia and throwing up a straw man argument. Ironically your response is exactly what Nietzche would have predicted.
- narag 8y agoI believe that I know what he means. Nietzsche compared the ethics of classical cultures (Greece, Rome) with Christianism that he called a slave morality, because in its first times it was adopted mostly by slaves. The former admired strength, bravery and power. The later, summarized in the Beatitudes, was a subversion of those values. Nietzsche believed that Christianism weakened Rome and more or less caused its downfall in favour of barbarian invaders that had a morality more similar to the people that built the empire. There are indeed many points in common with current situation. Despite their christian roots, current western nations, specially the USA, are based on capitalism, that values competition, strength, bravery, money, knowledge, power... much like classic Rome. Then there are a number of social movements that attack powerful elites subverting all those values. Do all these movements necessarily weaken western civilization? I don't think so, but I'd say he has a point.
- andreilys 8y agoThe struggle between slave/master morality is an infinite game. Any single one in excess is hazardous to the health of a society. A world that is populated and led by the Last Man, who is tired of life, takes no risks, and seeks only comfort and security is not a world I want to live in.
- Veen 8y agoPeople could do worse than considering todays grievance politics in the light of Neitszche’s ideas about ressentiment.
- Emma_Goldman 8y agoReading Nietzsche definitely changed how I think about the politics of guilt. But it would be unhelpful to apply Nietzsche's psychological narrative to real history.