Leilani Merrill
Nietzsche
A Plea for A New World Order
In his work, “The Genealogy of Morals”, Friedrich Nietzsche conveys that the conflict between good and evil has been a historical conflict for thousands of years. The good Nietzsche associates with the nobleman, and the bad he considers the herd animal, lower man fueled by the spirit of ressentiment. The nobleman looks toward the lower man for his acquiescence to social conformity, meekness. Through this a type of value system has developed into a type of social situation where one segment is superior representative of the good, and the inferior correlating to the bad. The over man whom is the “sovereign individual, only to himself, liberated again from morality of custom, autonomous, and supra-moral, in short the man who has his own independent protracted will.” Since the free man maintains a strong will to power, he possesses his own measure of value.
Nietzsche states that:
The proud awareness of the extraordinary privilege of responsibility, the consciousness of this rare freedom, this power oneself and over fate, has in his case penetrated to the profoundest depths and become instinct, the dominating instinct.
The foundation permeating all of Nietzsche’s philosophy if his distinction between master and slave morality. This is fueled by an individual’s will to power. Each individual exerts there own will to power relative to their own predicament. The will to power therefore is the fundamental drive inherent to man’s nature. Nietzsche would argue that the basis of morality is driven by the will to power, the will to move, succeed, and conquer. The “master” and ‘slave” two models of man’s disposition. The “master” morality corresponds to those which are psychologically prevailing and dominant, they maintain a strong mental essence of drive and success. Nietzsche correlates these individuals to being the noble segments of a given society. Since they maintain their own energy power, they do not rely on the established truths of conventional society but instead seek and interpret the truth within themselves. They have established value for themselves, and their judgment is resolute since it has been established according to their discretion. With the concept of “good” they associate courage, power, pride, and strength. Conversely however, the concept of “bad” is represents those that are cowardly, fearful, and weak. The lower man is symbolic of the masses of slave morality. It is those which are uncertain, and feeble. They’re not assertive, and resulting they conform to structure immediately.
Nietzsche considers bad conscience, as the repercussions of the animal instincts humanity represses within themselves through their social contract within a community. He states that, “I regard the bad conscience as the most serious illness that man was bound to contract under the stress of the most fundamental change he has experienced-that change which occurred when he found himself enclosed within the walls of society and of peace.” Humans are intrinsic animals, but we are a restricted species unable to overtly denote nor demonstrate our primal instincts, and are instead forced to sublimate them. Nietzsche states that, “All instincts that do not discharge themselves outwardly turn inward –that is what I call the internalization of man: thus it was that man first developed what was later called his ‘soul’”
According to Nietzsche:
… humans possess an instinct for freedom. This instinct for freedom forcible made latent-we have seen it already-this instinct for freedom forcibly made latent-… this instinct for freedom pushed back and repressed, incarcerated within and finally able to discharge and vent itself only on itself: that is what the bad conscience is in its beginnings.Yet this is of no problem to the man which possesses the master morality.It is the overman whom is able to vanquish the established moral code and find truth relative within himself.
Nietzsche’s concept of a higher man is one whom says yes to all of life, appreciates the beauty of each day, recognizes the senselessness of suffering, and due to such leads a more fulfilled existence. The will to power, will to succeed, transcends them from the intellectual situation of the masses and establishes him within the community of the overman. Nietzsche was against any and all structures based on equality and democracy, because it fails to encourage diversity and strength. If equality was to prevail, society would become similar duplicates. The overman is similar to the higher man. The overman is someone whom has overcome himself completely, he obeys only his own laws, the one’s he has created for himself. The overman is representative of a fully developed will to power over his own self. Therefore, his life is the creation of his own will. The higher man maintains no compassion for others because he’s in another way of thought. The overman possessed the will to power to liberate himself from plainness and transcend it, whereas the lower man did not possess such a forceful will to power, and could not achieve that success. Since both of these people are both human beings they have similar capacities. The only difference is one is superior whom was able to liberate himself from the masses and had that strong mental power to escape.
If every person seizes and exercises their individual will to power any given society shall infinitely flourish. It would be a society based on freedom and individualit. Nothing and no one shall flourish if one’s life is exhibited in this fashion. The higher man is one which can laugh at the illusory nature of life, embrace the beauty of color, and the warmth of a beautiful day. A true artist is one in which utilizes infinite resources to complete his art, and does not even consider what others may think. Scientific research has serious value, and healing may come from every spectrum. It takes one with a forceful will to power to truly succeed across all spectrums. A desire for better will fuel the paradigm change to happen to create and change history.
Philosophy Forever 