Rejecting Master-Slave Morality and embracing "The Path of The Ubermenchen"
A favorite motto of Nietzsche, taken from Pindar, reads: "Become what you are."
Master-morality is the original system of morality in which value arises as a contrast between good and evil, or between 'life-affirming' and 'life-denying': wealth, strength, health, and power are the sort of traits counted as good; while evil is associated with the poor, weak, sick, and pathetic, the sort of traits conventionally associated with slaves.
Slave-morality, in contrast, comes about as a reaction to master-morality. Here, value emerges from the contrast between good and evil: good being associated with other-worldliness, charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and submission; evil seen as worldly, cruel, selfish, wealthy, and aggressive. Nietzsche sees slave-morality born out of the slave's own sense of inferiority before the (better-off) masters. It does so by making out slave weakness to be a matter of choice, by, e.g., relabeling it as "meekness."
The establishment of moral systems based on a dichotomy of good and evil are a calamitous error and the individual should strive to bring about a new, more naturalistic source of value in the vital impulses of life itself.
Nietzsche calls for exceptional people to no longer be ashamed of their uniqueness in the face of a supposed morality-for-all, which he deemed to be harmful to the flourishing of exceptional people. However, Nietzsche cautions that morality, per se, is not bad; it is good for the masses, and should be left to them. Exceptional people, on the other hand, should follow their own "inner law."
| The Inner Law | |
| 10 | Thou shalt not deny the greatness of thyself. |
| 9 | Thou shalt not make excuses for thine own actions. |
| 8 | Thou shalt not make excuses for the actions of lesser men. |
| 7 | Thou shalt prize truth in all matters and strive to be correct. |
| 6 | Thou shalt pursue undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit. |
| 5 | Thou shalt pursue your vital existence and spurn spiritual pipe dreams. |
| 4 | Thou shalt avoid petty laws and useless officials. |
| 3 | Thou shalt rule thy passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason. |
| 2 | Thou shalt reproduce wisely bearing the next generation of Ubermenchen. |
| 1 | Thou shalt not squander thy existence. |
Explanation:
10: Allowing any of the below actions to occur. Abandoning the Path of the Ubermenschen to lead a mundane life of 'Normalcy.' (Conceding to the ultimate failure of one's true existence and settling for less – total capitulation to Slave Morality.)
9: Appearing to make excuses. Or accepting any personal failures short of catastrophic 'Acts of God' beyond anyone's control that could not be potently successful through diligent pursuit or by going 'back to the drawing board' for a new approach. Nothing comes easy, some things take time…
8: Accepting excuses from others, or defending their actions and failings because of emotional ties, friendships, and the like. Occasional failure is a fact of life, but when it becomes the norm … "The definition of insanity is repeating the same actions but expecting different results every time."
7: Lying, or allowing yourself to be only partially accurate or partially successful; being sloppy. Strive for perfection! Less than complete success is not acceptable.
6: Lying to yourself; accepting adulterated knowledge. (Study Sorcery – high magic – rather than Mythos Magic – low magic; be conservative rather than liberal; develop personal power rather than 'siphoning power' off a greater being.)
5: Failing to focus on the here-and-now. Life is to be lived in the context of what can be achieved in the reality of the present rather than occupying one's self with flights of fancy offered by an uncertain future. (Let's concern ourselves with what we can do now and surviving to the next Game rather than daydreaming about what we could do 20 Games from now and losing oneself in delusions of grandeur.) "Why worry about the wolves ranging outside the fence when you are ignoring the ones at your door!"
4: Obeying laws that don't make sense or officials who aren't serving a meaningful purpose. Being in servitude to persons or ideas that are beneath you - embracing 'Slave Morality.' These are things you will be forced to work 'around' rather than for.
3: Losing your temper, being emotional, or acting based on faith or tradition rather than logic. Never let the Heart rule the Mind.
2: Failing to arrange suitable consort or consorts and produce children of good blood. The program must continue to the next Generation!
1: Risking your life for an unworthy cause or for insufficiently important individuals. It would be insane to sacrifice assets for the sake of saving a liability! (If that guy wants to run off on his own and later you find him unconscious … he stays where he fell!)
