302 Nietzschestrong face defeat when they allow themselves to be enveloped by the
imaginary wodd of the morality of ressentiment. The battle in morality
boils down to the power of definition. It is ultimately a question of who
allows himself to be judged by whom.
The batde for definitional power leads straight into a house of mir-
rors of self-assessments. How should one define oneself? Who is the
"ego" of assessment, and who is the "self"? The second essay refers to
the immense arena of the "prehistoric labor" by which the human race
created itself. It is difficult to determine how certain facets of our habits
and customs came into being over the course of millennia: how we con-
strained ourselves to seek constancy and even predictability, how we
checked and patterned our emotions, formed a network of rituals and
behaviors, imbued instinct with conscience, and willingly surrendered
to conformity. All of these developments have been obscured in the
mist of prehistory. Nietzsche speculated on how it was possible "to
breed an animal that can make promises" (5,291; GM Second Essay §
1). He examined the long history in which man became an itidividuum by
experiencing himself as a dividuum, both a divided being and living self-
counterpart. How did it happen that man became an aching wound?
One thing lives within him, and something else thinks within him. Man
finds that he has leanings in one direction, but a conscience that sets up
resistance. Something within him issues commands, and something
obeys. Christianity is, of course, only a short episode in this long his-
tory, albeit the most recent episode.
In Nietzsche's view, the Christian morality of charity, humility, and
obedience signified a victory for "slave morality." As a result, strong indi-
viduals, who naturally continued to exist, were forced into all sorts of
compromises, clandestine behavior, and circuitousness in asserting their
strength. The third chapter, which describes the genesis and embodi-
ments of ascetic ideals, provides an example of how priesdy ascetics
mask their strength in a religious culture of humility. A priesdy ascetic is
a man who secredy strives for power. An inversion of power has taken
place inside him. The ascetic priest, as is characteristic of asceticism in