Reflections on my self journey through Nietzsche’s Master Morality and Slave Morality
I've been reading some Nietzsche since school's been out and I have really enjoyed his thoughts and ideas - so much to unpack and think through. Although I've heard of many of his ideas before, there was one idea in particular I had never come across, or at least I hadn't from his perspective. It's his concept of master morality as opposed to slave morality. The theory goes that after studying many and diverse cultures both ancient and modern, Nietzsche came up with this idea to describe what he saw happening in each of these societies on a large scale. Thus in essence, the master morality was a morality formed by honor cultures, that is, warrior cultures, throughout the world, think of the ancient Romans, Greeks and the "barbaric" Germans (my ancestors). These cultures were warrior cultures, where "morality" was defined vertically (hierarchically) by the scared kings, nobles, and knights. Thus, morality was defined by the few and the noble, going back to my last post about the masculine spirit looking upwards and to the skies.
In honor societies like these (and not just in Europe) these common values will be found
Pride
Now this isn't the vacuous pride of the modern world, no, this is being proud of your accomplishments and commitments, both to yourself (self-actualization) but also to your family and ancestors, clan, fellow warriors and then society at large. This pride was knowing that you were self independent in all that you did. They lived in the world, they died in the world, thus they took a stand in the world, with both feet placed solidly on the ground. Think of Beowulf boasting about his deeds and those of his ancestors around a cup of ale. Pride of your deeds, pride of your ancestors and family name, pride of your accomplishments, none of these things would be considered an evil or shameful thing to admit.
Honor
Now this value is severely missing in today's culture (except for the military) but it was the hallmark of warrior cultures, thus, a master morality. If you didn't honor your commitments to your family, wife or brothers in arms, serious consequences would befall you. Your word was your life, because often peoples' life depended on it. Think of honorable characters such as Maximus from Gladiator, or the glorious honor shown throughout the book or TV series Band of Brothers.
Discipline
You were expected to be a man or woman and what society demanded from those roles, and if you didn't fit the bill you would be shamed or made an outcast. Weakness in both body, mind or spirit was not a virtue in these societies. Shame was a great motivator for action, and shame was often the method that was used. Honor cultures throughout history have used shame to keep those in line. Think of how Queen Gorgo in 300 used shame (as all women did in Sparta) to influence the heroicness of Leonidas, when she said "Come back with your shield... Or on it". In that society, and in many others, men would rather die than return a coward. Cowardice was simply not allowed in this society and it was backed up by everyone.
Strength
This goes without saying that warrior cultures will value strength of mind but also strength of body. Now this could easily be confused with modern bodybuilding or extreme weightlifting etc., which is all great, but warriors often don't look like that. As cool as Leonidas' men looked in 300, most likely, they would have been shredded but probably NOT as bulky as they were in the movie, simply because in reality, they purposely starved themselves to become mentally stronger, went on long marches, often didn't sleep, and definitely didn't have protein shakes every four hours. Nevertheless, these men were ripped and strong in their endurance AND discipline. Thus, in all warrior cultures, on a societal level, weakness would be mocked and shamed. If you were weak, you would die, which means others would die, especially women and children, it's a simple as that.
Beauty
In a traditional honor society, beauty is held up as a glorious virtue, for both men and women. Think of the Greeks and their sculptures and their love of perfect bodies and form, for both men and women. Naturally, as in today, many ancients didn't look like that, but it was noble to aspire to greatness and beauty in everything one did, thus, the leveling of modern society that we're all great and equally beautiful simply did not exist. The modern idea that not everyone looks like that or ever could, thus, it's "morally wrong" to praise the beautiful, was not a concept that was valued in the master morality of honor cultures. In the tombs of many "barbaric" Vikings, there can be found many combs and hygienic items, even combs to comb men's long beards! Furthermore from the sources it is obvious that these barbarians took their hygiene very seriously. Sloth was not accepted in these societies, and you were expected to be the best you could be. Thus, even if you were a five in the looks department, and didn't look like Hercules or Brad Pitt from Troy, you still had no excuse to let it go, and shaming the beautiful was not going to get you any sympathy.
That's enough for today, I'll write more later about the values of slave morality and the differences between the two. But you should be able to see already that there are no "sins" in this morality, but just noble virtues to look up and aspire to. Furthermore, these values are established by a hierarchy and by the nobles (worthy nobles that is), and NOT by the masses and so called plebs. After I finish describing slave morality, I will then describe my journey through life, especially getting over my porn habit, and how each of my successes and failures inevitably point towards one of these two moralities, as they say, how a man thinks, determines his reality. Needless to say, one rises up to the heavens, while the other, to the masses and the ubiquitous gutter of our modern reality. If you think that sounds "self righteous and "judgy" you would be correct, but of course, that worldview would be coming from the slave morality.
To be continued...
Let us fly high!
