> Friedrich Nietzsche [...] regarded morality as the ultimate form of passive aggression – a ruse employed by the weak, resentful masses to restrain the will of

> Friedrich Nietzsche [...] regarded morality as the ultimate form of passive aggression – a ruse employed by the weak, resentful masses to restrain the will of their stronger, creative superiors. I think this is an accurate but misleading description of what Nietzsche was trying to communicate. Nietzsche was posing a question: why do we have the morals that we have? He compared morality from ancient Greece to morality in modern Christian Germany. He noticed a difference in that modern Christianity morality appeared to praise the weak in a way that ancient Greece did not. So he has to explain, how and why did that change occur? He provides an explanation: the weaker people in society latched on to a moral idea that gave them some measure of power over the stronger elites. This was an explanation as to why modern Germany had the morals it seemed to have in Nietzsche's time, not a description/definition of morality. He even ponders moral systems that would advantage the elites and considers how they applied in ancient cultures. One idea he puts forth is that whichever moral system personally benefits an individual is the one they are likely to support. One moral code for mice, another moral code for eagles. He just lived at a time and place where he felt that the mice had gained control of the prevailing morality. I feel his argument was that morals were a battleground upon which a larger war was being waged. He seemed to argue that there was some deeper force at work (will to power) and morality was just a vehicle through which it was expressed. One expression of that force was resentful/weak people defining powerful people as "evil". But consider contemporary Christian prosperity doctrines. Their is an implicit belief in that kind of morality that your wealth and power are a result of your righteousness. That is a far cry from the kind of morality that Nietzsche was criticizing. It is a morality where the advantage is on the elites.