Nietzsche While the Noble Man Term Paper

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Nietzsche would easily note that in the decades since he wrote the Genealogy of Morals, moral codes have continued to evolve, propelled particularly by the will to power. The theme of resentment can be easily witnessed in the rabid state of international affairs that keeps our world teetering nearly on the brink of self-destruction. The slave mentality clings to a notion of a solid enemy. Throughout human history, individuals and societies have viewed their enemies with resentment, as the embodiment of evil. Nietzsche notes that the person enslaved by resentment will view any opposing viewpoint as inherently evil. The strong dualism evident during the Cold War and now in the War on Terrorism is a prime example of the primacy of resentment in guiding world affairs toward dangerous and destructive ends. Less fearsome examples of the evolution of resentment in human consciousness include simple everyday affairs, such as the preference for certain foods. For example, the noble vegan will look the other way when someone in their family eats meat. Self-contained and self-confident, the noble vegan does not need to defend his or her food choices by launching into a diatribe about animal rights or cholesterol. The noble vegan can engage in fruitful discussions about the merits of a vegan lifestyle without labeling meat, eating meat, or producing meat as being evil.

The resentment-filled vegan, on the other hand, is the shrill person at the table, the one who refuses to cohabit with anyone who eats cheese, the one who won't out at restaurants that do not have separate vegetarian kitchens. His or her resentment against the meat industry transforms into a more generalized resentment that damages his or her social life. By applying Nietzsche's teachings to this example, we can see how easily any moral system becomes stifling and dogmatic.

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The evolution of Christian morality, which Nietzsche describes in the Genealogy of Morals, followed a similar tract: label all pagan gods, pagan rituals, and pagan ways of life as evil, and then create a systematic set of morals that perpetuates obsessive resentment. In this case, morals that relate to the treatment of animals become codified in similar ways as Church doctrine.

However much modern American society remains divorced from Church doctrine in theory, we remain enslaved to the bad conscience and guilt that Nietzsche refers to in Genealogy of Morals. Currently, bad conscience and guilt have found twisted outlets of creative expression, much as a weed can pop through a slab of concrete on the sidewalk. Some reality television shows demonstrate the hypocrisy of American moral codes. For example, shows that promote wife-swapping are laughs in the face of family values, even though many of the wife-swapping shows are broadcasted on the unabashedly neo-conservative Fox network. Through an understanding of Nietzsche's philosophy of guilt and bad conscience, we can see how the suppression of natural human desires leads to a false asceticism. Programming children to abstain from sex and other means of expressing legitimate human urges by instilling moral values creates both bad conscience and guilt. Bad conscience and guilt in turn lead to the types of bad television that many people watch guiltily.

Television shows like the Simpsons and South Park are therefore Nietzschean in their outlook and presentation. Taking an irreverent stab at American society, these animated shows have made their way into popular culture in order to challenge the hypocrisy of resentment, guilt, and bad conscience. The Simpsons and South Park can be better appreciated in light of the Genealogy of Morals, as they each offer healthy ways of deconstructing social realities and dispelling ignorant value systems......

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