a chance to retake the test or to take it at a later date, when she has time to
study for it. She deserves this because she is a “good” person for her
sacrifices and disadvantages. This is slave morality.
In Newtonian terms, master morality is the intrinsic desire to create a
moral separation between ourselves and the world around us. It is the desire
to create moral gaps with us on top. Slave morality is, then, an intrinsic desire
to equalize, to close the moral gap and alleviate suffering. Both are
fundamental components of our Feeling Brain’s operating system. Both
generate and perpetuate strong emotions. And both give us hope.
Nietzsche argued that the cultures of the ancient world (Greek, Roman,
Egyptian, Indian, and so on) were master morality cultures. They were
structured to celebrate strength and excellence even at the expense of millions
of slaves and subjects. They were warrior civilizations; they celebrated guts,
glory, and bloodshed. Nietzsche also argued that the Judeo-Christian ethic of
charity, pity, and compassion ushered slave morality to prominence, and
continued to dominate Western civilization up through his own time. For
Nietzsche, these two value hierarchies were in constant tension and
opposition. They were, he believed, at the root of all political and social
conflict throughout history.
And, he warned, that conflict was about to get much worse.Each religion is a faith-based attempt to explain reality in such a way that it
gives people a steady stream of hope. In a kind of Darwinian competition,
those religions that mobilize, coordinate, and inspire their believers the most
are those that win out and spread throughout the world.^8
In the ancient world, pagan religions built on master morality justified the
existence of emperors and warrior-kings who swept across the planet,
expanding and consolidating territory and people. Then, about two thousand
years ago, slave morality religions emerged and slowly began to take their
place. These new religions were (usually) monotheistic and were not limited
to one nation, race, or ethnic group. They preached their message to everyone
because their message was one of equality: all people were either born good
and later corrupted or were born sinners and had to be saved. Either way, the
result was the same. Everyone, regardless of nation, race, or creed, had to be
converted in the name of the One True God.^9
Then, in the seventeenth century, a new religion began to emerge in
Europe, a religion that would unleash forces more powerful than anything
seen in human history.
Every religion runs into the sticky problem of evidence. You can tell
people all this great stuff about God and spirits and angels and whatnot, but if