Slave morality, on the other hand, has emerged from those who are ruled. Slaves are the ultimate living losers in the evolutionary struggle. They work hard and yet the master enjoys all the material benefits of their toil and drudgery. Seething with resentment they have developed an entirely different understanding of morality.
Slaves associate the word 'goodness' with kindness and generosity. Good people do not inspire fear. The best people are filled with pity and compassion. Slave morality emphasises that all people are equal. Slaves are always looking for an easier life and so it was in their interests to develop a slave-sensitive moral perspective.
For example Comte's understanding of altruism is a perfect illustration of slave morality. Encouraging everyone to 'live for others' is an excellent way to cheer up the most miserable servant or lackey. Imagine that you are sweating blood building a pyramid for your Egyptian masters and someone says to you that the best people are 'altruists', you would probably smile and agree. Altruistic Egyptian soldiers would throw away their whips and give you a helping hand. Slaves could only benefit if the altruist theory became popular and fashionable. Exactly the same can be said of Buddhism. Go up to that nasty Egyptian warrior, convert him to the Buddhist faith and the lives of humble slaves would benefit enormously. Compassionate, sensitive soldiers would spread good cheer and bonhomie among the suffering rabble. And according to Nietzsche, this is precisely the problem!
				< German propaganda poster reads: 'SA service develops comradeship, toughness, strength'. 1941, Otto Flechtner.
Civilization and culture in all its forms have emerged from the gaping simplicity of the primeval soup only because the stronger, the more creative, the braver, the more energetic and the more resourceful, are continually replacing the weaker forms of life. For Friedrich it is self-evident that master morality is responsible for evolutionary progress and yet tragically slave morality rules the roost. Slave morality is a corrupt and decadent force because it thwarts and stymies the real evolutionary process. In one of his most revealing passages Nietzsche declared: Pity on the whole thwarts the law of evolution, which is the law of selection. It preserves what is ripe for destruction; it defends life's disinherited and condemned. 5
Nietzsche refers to all slave morality as a form of vampirism. Count Dracula is notorious for his unpleasant habit of sinking his fangs into beautiful women's necks and withdrawing copious quantities of fresh blood. The vampire is addicted to criminal activity that drains the very life-blood from innocent citizens. In just such fashion slave morality weakens and emasculates people. Traditional morality attempts to improve people but in reality it tames people and drives out the beast of prey. In our natural condition humans are driven by power lust and a mindset that welcomes exploitation and cruelty as delightful opportunities for self-aggrandisement. Introduce slave morality and the healthy violence and brutality of the human animal is driven underground. The very finest features of humanity are suppressed and shunned. Wild beasts become ashamed of their true identity. The human beast begins to resemble a lion that longs to be a mouse.
There are striking similarities between the Hindu caste system and Nietzsche's philosophy.Nietzsche believed that the mass of humanity is really a worthless rabble. He refers to the masses as the 'botched and the bungled' and the 'herd'. The lives of these wretched people are of no real significance. Inferior beings can be reduced to those of 'instruments and slaves'. Nietzsche believed that slavery was essential for a 'higher' existence. In the Twilight of the Idols he expressed his admiration for the 'Laws of Manu'. Let us take the other aspect of so-called morality, the breeding of a definite race and species. The most grandiose example of this is provided by Indian morality, sanctioned, as the 'Law of Manu', into religion. Here the proposed task is to breed no fewer than four races simultaneously: a priestly, a warrior, and a trading and farming race, and finally a menial race, the Sudras.
< Far left: Poor Indian kids, working, breaking rock. < Left: Priest In the Hindu caste system we encounter a fundamental rejection of the Christian teaching that all people are created in God's image. The 'Laws of Manu' assert that there is a profound difference in value between people of different castes. For example a priest occupies the highest rung on the ladder. His life is of supreme importance and significance. Hurt him at your peril. The Sudra, on the other hand, occupies the lowest rung on the caste ladder. His life is unimportant and his daily calling is to sweat and toil for his God-appointed masters - the priests. It is often forgotten that there is a fifth group of so-called 'untouchables' who do not belong to any caste.
Accordingly Gudron noticed a profound similarity between the teaching of Nietzsche and the Hindu religion. It is also instructive to notice that Nietzsche speaks about 'breeding' with considerable relish. Many of us are familiar with the practice of breeding horses and greyhounds. A swift bitch is encouraged to mate with a speedy dog and the offspring will be extremely fast. Press the evolutionary button that humans are merely animals and selective breeding becomes a mouth-watering proposal. In a note from the spring of 1884 Nietzsche associates the idea of breeding with the planned annihilation of 'inferior beings'. In this passage he speaks approvingly of the death of 'millions of failures' and the creation of superior people through selective breeding.
This is otherwise known as eugenics and can be explained in very simple terms. Fit, strong, intelligent males copulate with fit, strong intelligent females and the progeny is guaranteed to impress. Weak and unimpressive humans are allowed to die or their existence is terminated. Nietzsche argued that his superior beings or Supermen have the right to judge others as decadent, degenerate and 'ripe for destruction'. As a god, the superman has the right to condemn inferior life to die or to suffer exploitation for the sake of the elite.
In Twilight of the Idols he states: Every individual may be regarded as representing the ascending or descending line of life. When one has decided which, one has thereby established a canon for the value of his egoism. If he represents the ascending line his value is in fact extraordinary - and for the sake of the life-collective, which with him takes a step forward, the care expended on his preservation, on the creation of optimum conditions for him, may even be extreme.. If he represents the descending development, decay, chronic degeneration and sickness..then he can be accorded little value, and elementary fairness demands that he take away as little as possible from the well-constituted. He is no better than a parasite on them.
	< This German poster points out the cost to the state of a mentally ill person
Christian morality chastises people for being evil. Those who break God's commandments are upbraided and reproached. Notice how Nietzsche subverts and overthrows this traditional wisdom. The Superman chastises people not for being 'evil' but for being 'decadent' and 'degenerate'. Inferior humans belong to a descending line of life and evolutionary justice demands that their lives be 'accorded little value'. They are parasites and the food they shovel down their worthless throats is being wasted. On the other hand superior people belong to an ascending line of life and their lives are 'extraordinary'. The thesis that there are different types of human beings translates politically and economically into the justification of castes. Nietzsche's doctrine of an order of rank called for an aristocratic caste that would demand the restitution of slavery. The elite Supermen belong to a caste that must rule Europe.
			It should not surprise us that Adolf Hitler concurred with the central thrust of Nietzsche's philosophy. If we radically redefine what we mean by justice in the light of the evolutionary process then 'useless eaters' must be put to the sword.
Here is how the Fuhrer explained his understanding of 'nature'. Victory is to the strong and the weak must go to the wall. She (nature) teaches us that what may seem cruel to us, because it affects us personally or because we have been brought up in ignorance of her laws, is nevertheless often essential if a higher way of life is to be attained. Nature knows nothing of the notion of humanitarianism which signifies that the weak must at all costs be surrounded and preserved even at the expense of the strong. Nazi ideology stressed that attitudes of love and compassion were 'unnatural and sinful'. To be cruel is to be attuned to the violence of evolution.
		Nazi propaganda films would show pictures of doctors caring for disabled people and comment critically, ‘in the last few decades mankind has sinned terribly against the law of natural selection. We have allowed the weak to live.’
It is not surprising that Nietzsche came to be regarded as the emblematic philosopher of Fascism. Hitler presented Mussolini with the collected works of Nietzsche on the Brenner Pass in 1938. Although it would be unfair to accuse Nietzsche of anti-Semitism, his frequent tirades on breeding, caste, slavery and supermen were most congenial to Nazi intellectuals.
Nietzsche is sometimes referred to as a 'master of suspicion' because his understanding of rationality contrasts strikingly with the Cartesian theory. Descartes was convinced that reason is autonomous; in other words reason is the infallible guide to the truth. Trust in the rational process and you will find the truth as sure as eggs is eggs. Nietzsche contended that this Cartesian position was profoundly misleading. He argued that rational inquiry is always prompted by our deepest biological impulses. Our cognitive behaviour (thinking and reflecting) is ultimately eked out by the promptings of natural selection. We believe what we believe because it helps us to survive. Nietzsche even suggested that in some circumstances it is preferable to prefer false beliefs to true beliefs because this will help us in the great struggle for power and domination.
And finally we must make a few brief comments about Nietzsche's notion of the eternal recurrence which strangely resembles the Greek and oriental belief in reincarnation. Nietzsche contended that the whole of history moves in cycles, vast cycles, so that everything comes round again and again and again, literally for ever.
Hitler has presented Mussolini with those books innumerable times before and will do so innumerable times again. It is fruitful and illuminating to ponder the striking contrast between the atheist philosophies of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. Both men were profoundly shaped by the Darwinian revolution but responded in two diametrically opposed ways. Both were adamant that 'nature' is cruel and violent. Schopenhauer takes the path of the mystic and urges us to renounce nature. Nietzsche, on the other hand, enjoins us to embrace the cruelty of evolution. We either go against the ferocity of Darwinian selection or we welcome her with open arms. The hard-headed atheist takes the road suggested by Nietzsche and the mystically inclined atheist takes the highway suggested by Schopenhauer.
Back to Page1 >