A Postmodern Nietzsche: The Genealogy of Morality

[Music] postmodern nature a genealogy of morality enjoy by serve worship my produc [Music] serve who evoke again that postmodern space to which the text of n leads us and try to move us a bit beyond that because the secret of a postmodern Society is that everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation or an image this hermeneutic of suspicion that n is drawing out is that Christianity while presenting itself as a religion of love and compassion and tenderness is a mask of height and fear and another form of power Frederick nche the

infamous philosophers anti-philosophy philosopher a Critic and undeniably one of the most important thinkers that emerged from German idealism many ways arguably the most important in the sense of being an active antithesis to emerging modernity for philosophy at large n seems to be the one name seemingly recognized everywhere yet never really seems to be understood by many public admirers like at all and of course the rights that you have natural rights are um logical consequence of your Transcendent value and that's nested in this is nich's observation yet for many others because of his far proximity away

from modernist thought which in many respects modernist we are it's completely understandable and okay to be confused by n considering n's entire project directly uproots much of the iterative process that is philosophy there is a ton of historical baggage to understand regarding his larger project going forward with n there is a discreet teolog that moves throughout his time the beginning of this process comes from the birth of tragedy which we've done a video on link above through several various text all the way to right here to the time of Beyond Good and Evil and the

genealogy of morals there is a reason I am jumping from the birth of tragedy to hear and that is that I think this is where n is at his most nitian and as the title states where we can see the glimmers of a post-modern philosophy that's emerging where undeniably the critiques levied of philosophy and modernity emerge in newer radically different thinkers seen in the 20th century ultimately what I hope to do here is show n in a relational sense with larger philosophy and further context of his actual project not most of the isolated stuff you

see from the internet the kind of edgelord the alpha the actual individual freethinker and a world filled with NPCs which of course I am not the Uber MCH the Adolescent teenage wet dreams that get associated with him we're keeping this video light and again trying to add contact to n from the 21st century contemporary culture and Theory today n starts with the most noble thing philosopher could do which is absolutely destroying the British namely the British psychologist of his time around the mid to late 19th century psychologists who claimed to truly understand the origin of

morality that being a process of virtuous selfless human behavior that was applauded and ethically instilled by communities because we all know the British are the basion of morality across the globe right anyways n rejects this theory of morality outright not necessarily because virtuous selfless Behavior sacrifice isn't desirable per se or admirable but because it's rooted in its time and what is subjectively useful not what is epistemically or even metaphysically true and good in a truly natural sense thus it's historically dependent not universally true n calls these psychologist a historical not understanding the social fabric that

determines what is useful in my mind this is where nich becomes interesting and primarily useful in a current context by asking the question where the does morality actually come from Human Ingenuity people themselves atomistic individuals just consciously deciding they like something in isolation no it's these guys what's usually lost with n is the bits of a class analysis intertwined weirdly coincidental that many academic nans left those parts out oh well the social bounds of our world and the priests who uphold them decide for us determine our conscience n finds that we are tied to our

positions within society and the socially instilled moral fabric around us now it is plain to me first of all that in this Theory the source of the concept good has been sought and established in the wrong place the Judgment good did not originate with those to whom goodness was shown rather it was the good themselves that is to say the noble powerful High stationed and high-minded who felt and established themselves in their actions as good that is of the first rank in contrad distinct distinction to all the low low-minded common and plean there is an

intrinsic social hierarchical flow of morality to n as he designates morality as a form of oppressive Prejudice inklings of the false consciousness and theory of ideology seen within marks the idea that societies ideology ways of constructing Our World Views is directly tied to the ideals and functions of the ruling class here n immediately posits these moral systems to what he thought were in his words stupid racisms and harmful warlike demagoguery that came from rulers an aristocracy and in typical nian fashion an aristocracy he simultaneously celebrates and denigrates at the same time he gives the examples

of prejudice originating from Conquest from the supposedly Superior Vikings the Visigoths and the Huns people who conquered Europe in populations with darker complexion societies where war was seen as virtuous and in his current age of modernity European colonialization of the world but he of course finds this to be nonsense from an objective Universal case these things aren't intrinsically good and especially nowadays we really don't think they are good it was the chaotic happenings of history of men who were only concerned with morality as it pertained to you not a universal truth revealed to us by

God or Reason and rationale n sees this genealogy the beginning of morality rooted in use case a use case that is subjectively historical all depending on the time of its use not something universally true in its entirety in the same light as morality n has a bone to pick with truth the constant progress philosophers are obsessed with and to n and the most naive way what then is true a mobile Army of metaphors metonyms and anthropomorphisms in short a sum of human relations which have been enhanced transposed and embellished poetically and rhetorically and which after

long use seem firm canonical and obligatory to a people truths are Illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal no longer as coins and here we see the beginnings of the dreaded postmodernism yes all the post-modern neo-marxists are here to celebrate you know the actual Marxist who often dislike n and postmodernist but I digress irrelevant truth is gone God is dead it's all good here on YouTube so we will continue to

n it is here that the beginnings of Christianity flipped the prior historical active good the society seen during the time of Greece and Rome where the body activity movement conquering were seen as the designations of a moral good to a new historical world where Christianity designated a quiet good that necessitated an AIC relinquishing of sinful ways of life in the past we will get to this ticism in Christianity later we now move to renant to slave morality which T Nicha presents the psychological conditions of his present the conditions that premodern Christianity and the closely tied

present state of modernity has brought upon earth and its inhabitants n sees a world where language the ethos of emancipation is that of resen M and slave morality for it comes from a hate of an aristocracy of life rather than an actual Progressive vision of emancipation from a place of passive lack of power rather than active facilitation and work towards the future where in n's mind at least in aristocracy or the Vikings weren't quote unquote mediocre like all these current modern powerless plebians to put it simply n saw the Common Man in their misguided moral

system founded on resentment with an aristocracy that valued what he claimed was active forgetful in a positive sense never caught up in resentment genuinely happy without the need to convince themselves of sad happiness via the priest I find this separation and dichotomy a bit vulgarly shortsighted by n I'll admit I mean we we've never heard of genuinely unhappy Aristocrats throughout history have we I know he's speaking of values not necessarily humans but I can't imagine n doesn't tie those values to their historical human counterparts we'll get to some potential shortcomings I find interesting in this

I digress though n does seem to synthesize an aristocratic value tied with the priest and absolutely isn't all Rose tented glasses upon an aristocracy he even uses a cult of the physical to describe Knights talks about the anti-semitic hate from other resentful Aristocrats and so on and so forth but nich's concept of slave morality often lies with the exact nian philosophy that facilitates the farri wet dream of n even if it's very shallow and incomplete yet I think there's a massive problem with n's slave morality even within a nian approach within his own logic hear

me out here I think this is an important part of n's philosophy that tend tends to get overlooked n is an incredibly passionate flamboyant writer in a way that I really do appreciate there is no dry language with him and what I love about his writing is that at least I think he conveys his actual internal attitude feeling better than most because it isn't dry I find his emotional disposition towards what he is writing about to be much more upfront than most this is important though I find this very resent Mont resentment very present in

n's writing on slave morality I think there is a reason n has a bit more of a favorable view of aristocratic values and finds the beginnings of moral good to begin with this resentment nche was a man of ill health for a large part of his life had certain social and romantic problems and never even married if there's one thing that n is right about resentment in general it is its ability to externalize person shame or a lack of agency onto the other namely certain vulnerable groups minority races lgbtq plus people and in the case

of n on the common plean man there's a common debate regarding n on whether he is a reactionary thinker and on the plane of slave morality I find if there's anything to this it's probably here but any reactionary thinker one who seeks to keep a social project the same for the sake of it who claims slave morality as a reason to oppressively bend social relations against people and life ironically miss his very point and like a South Park episode n is also here to you up too what it's a fox trap Mr President well thank

God for the whites Nicha given his postmodern character is extremely difficult to pin down on a modern scale reaction AR non- reactionary right-wing leftwing for many postmodern thinkers these things don't necessarily apply in the same way all right so enough on the discussion around nich's ideological person none of this slave or aristocratic modes of morality of resentment a beginning of morality is useful if we don't also get into the various effects and psychological conditions n homed in on N brings up the dreaded condition of bad conscience a natural state of guilt that the common person

feels guilt by way of sinning by a lack of being able to keep up with production by not reeling in the things that make you feel human nche states that this bad conscience has been rooted in a function of debt reprisal a debt you must fulfill a promise whether to a god to yourself to your boss but here's something that I quite like that n employs he claims claims this very guilty Foundation is a cause for the Creditor and deor system on a material economic level to n everything has a price in modernity the most

Sublime forms of human cooperation and Community are now abstracted into financial and material shackles again convenient this part of nian philosophy is often left out kind of weird huh seems kind of important to me personally then certainly one of the stories of the mid to late 20th century would be the incredible increase in the in the switch from Technologies which concentrate on increasing the intensity and the power of manual labor to those which tend to replace mental intellectual labor I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction this very sense of guilt is the driver the mesh

of modernity not necessarily physical force or punishment itself our entire subjectivity personhood is wrapped up in this celebrations happen when you complete a set of demanded objectives say graduation parties guilt happens when you simply don't but even then guilt can be deemed too much here is exactly where n informs generations of later philosophy to come this guilt is directly tied to punishment festivals public executions that would burn in the concept of keeping said promise or else promise to not break the law the promise to go to church to Simply keep in line even if the

history of punishment is for itself completely benign of actual meaning we celebrate this punishment to see this very quote unquote Justice happen it's to actually keep this guilt to the Forefront of our unconscious functioning this unconscious part is important today it is impossible to say for certain why people are really punished all Concepts in which an entire process is semiotically concentrated elude definition only that which has no history is definable of All Things N has said this is among the more profound in my mind right here n creates the Bedrock for later philosophy people like

Michelle Fuko all the way to actual marxian humanist thinkers in the Frankfurt School of critical theory it's almost as if you could say they are an a postmodern radical neo-marxist sorry I I had to that's a joke don't take that seriously whether it be through the lens of structuralism through critical theory through understanding punishment and constraint through a contemporary poststructural lens n was a significant bedrock modern society to n didn't really cure the brutality scene in premodern society of War of looting pillaging it just relinquished this brutality to spectacle to contracts and legal proceedings it

change the form in which it exists violence subversion in modern societies is hidden and only when there's push back to a certain order of things does it actually seem violent not only this the very contracts the legal bounds rules is presupposed into our system one that indicates guilt before the very act you are guilty by definition itself if you are in n's words the legal subject in modern society and Society itself is built upon this very guilt even the process of justice is meant to make sure that this guilt doesn't escape you thus there is

no real legal judicial system that is neutral nche explains this here the criminal deserves punishment because he could have acted differently is in fact an extremely late and subtle form of human judgment and inference whoever transposes it to the beginning is guilty of a crude misunderstanding of the psychology of more primitive mankind but n is saying here is that we mistake the modern man for being able to neutrally determine a j outcome but not only this it's systemic it's here that an entire system of punishment Justice Fair trials are never really fair it's based upon

the discretion of other citizens with the same will to Justice see what I did there there is no fair trial there is no fair proceedings in the realm of Justice itself there's an ideal here an ethic that marks modern society that being an AIC ideal ticism on a moral plane all of this so far abrahamic religion abstract contractual liberal modernity can be rooted in a baseline ideal of cynical asceticism relinquish your desire for the multiplicities of life for good for productivity your boss your family friends and even Community to n there stands an inherent negation

of life itself a negative subtracted from the world around you and here is where I require your attention this part is especially important important because people like to say and or imply a lot of dumb about n that isn't entirely correct I know you all know the popular N thing God is dead God remains dead and we have killed him this single quote as moving and insightful as it is in actual context is just bastardized everywhere maybe you have seen Jordan Peterson cry about about it maybe it's used in some weird political talk show about

how America is full of gay people or something about the downfall of Christianity and Western Civilization yeah you know the two things n arguably despised most right the saying God is dead had cathartic implications to n he absolutely was concerned about a new Humanity past the AIC moralistic constraints seen within Christian Society the unknown isn't less scary to n than anyone else especially when you are as critical as him but n contains within his phrases words a multiplicity of meanings the priest he talks about aren't always technically priest and when he says God is dead

it isn't necessarily just a bad thing there's anxiety there for sure but as he sees it there's a new potential for a world past the same types of religious ticism that denies our ability to live with some type of agent I don't know I think mat mcmanis from the pill pod puts it well I just want to add to this by saying that I'm now picturing like George B or MCO in the middle of like some hardcore BDSM and like just ramming every kind of thing into every conceivable orifice like covered in like bodily fluids

and like their like person is like is it right and they're like doesn't matter God is dead okay there is no right or wrong just give into your animal but there's a joyfulness to it right like that's where the gay science right like the joyful science I mean there is like a there's like a joyfulness to unleashing we can let go of this now and we can just be ourselves all the KY TSM we want right a and with n and multiple meanings to things Matt has now discovered a brand new meaning to the gay

science you know the book where the God is dead thing was written thanks Matt this third essay in the book what is the meaning of AIC ideals has a ton of nich commentary around Richard Wagner mainly nich's disappointment about Richard Wagner supposed close relationship with aism later in his career stuff like that and the comparison between Richard Wagner and schopenhauer and all that stuff doesn't matter I'm really trying to focus on the main Things N is concerned with on an actual philosophical level the very psychological and sociological constraints from modernity and Christianity and in the

case of the genealogy of morals the beginnings the use case and the trajectory of moral and the types of moralism that do exist how history shapes the social bounds of psyche the relativism of our experiences n is messy in my mind a bit overrated in isolation but ironically because of these imperfections his chaotic playfulness his arrogance his insecurities all laid out in writing I appreciate him only more because of this there's a reason people who've clearly never read n tried to use him to affir confirm their own beliefs their own meaning which of course I

would never do instead I just grift and make these videos for patreon money seriously though big thanks to everyone who helps out on patreon and the YouTube members section I really couldn't do this without you guys it's the only way I could make these and you all go above and beyond speaking of going above and beyond uh these specific people went above and beyond the above and beyond I wanted to thank Valyrian Stacy salano Ogle and Kate massive extra special thank you to you guys I'm hoping this video wasn't too goofy wanted to do something

a bit different here and N is the excuse I again can't really take him that seriously it's just n hopefully though I'll see you guys again soon [Music]