The Ethics of Justice

[fadingCaptain]

Xev,
That was an inspiring post, thanks.

Slave morality got us where we are today. It is what modern society is based on. I was just pointing out that we can still realize many of the same desired values through master morality. And, in my opinion, this is much more honest and direct.

Only by destroying all of one's values can you know which ones are really yours.

I completely agree. I only wish it was as easy it sounds .

Shai,

I'm still not a fan of master morality. In my liberalist thinking people coexist and benefit each other in a society while having a genuine respect of others humanity.

I think you can have respect of humanity and maintain a master morality. What you cannot have is equality. But I look around and do not see anything that remotely look like equality to me. As Xex said, it is much more insidious in the way inequality grows under slave morality. We are impressioned from a young age that in a utopian society everyone would be prefectly equal. I do not see this as utopian but a nightmare. Nietzshe was right in that the strong and genius are squashed by slave morality. People are NOT equal!

 

[Xev]

fadingCaptain:

I completely agree. I only wish it was as easy it sounds

Yes. If only it was as easy as dealing with the pain that this causes.

We are impressioned from a young age that in a utopian society everyone would be prefectly equal. I do not see this as utopian but a nightmare. Nietzshe was right in that the strong and genius are squashed by slave morality. People are NOT equal!

YES! YES! EXACTLY!

"To kill me, did they strangle you, you singing birds of my hopes! Yea, at you, ye dearest ones, did malice ever shoot its arrows- to hit my heart!
And they hit it! Because ye were always my dearest, my possession and my possessedness: on that account had ye to die young, and far too early!
At my most vulnerable point did they shoot the arrow- namely, at
you, whose skin is like down- or more like the smile that dieth at a
glance!
But this word will I say unto mine enemies: What is all manslaughter
in comparison with what ye have done unto me!
Worse evil did ye do unto me than all manslaughter; the
irretrievable did ye take from me:- thus do I speak unto you, mine
enemies!
Slew ye not my youth's visions and dearest marvels! My playmates took ye from me, the blessed spirits! To their memory do I deposit this wreath and this curse."

I don't dispute a word of it. Nietzsche compares them to flies, that bite and sting his companions.

How many great men have been lost to the herd? How many succumbed to the flies?

 

[Shai]

Slave morality got us where we are today. It is what modern society is based on.

I think modern society is only partly based on slave morality. It simply isn't possible for the weak to gain permanent advantage over the strong, impossible by definition. Even if the political system is very much based on equality the underlying society is not strictly based on those values. Society in this ways has several dimensions.

I think you can have respect of humanity and maintain a master morality. What you cannot have is equality.

In what sense can you maintain respect for humanity and have a society based on master morality?

Equality is as realized as it can possibly become. In some societies it's already forced upon men. The perfect equality is frightening simply because the realization of perfect equality requires the limitations of freedom. Reason is simple: free men do not develop perfect equality because people are not perfectly equal. In perfect equality you must minimize the freedom -> dictatorship.