Analysis of Self with the Help of Nietzsche — Good and Bad

The metaphysical question of the ages — the self — what has happened and what is this? Friedrich Nietzsche sets a depressive yet truthful view on it:

"We are unknown to ourselves, we knowers: and for a good reason. We have never sought ourselves — how then should it happen that we find ourselves one day?"

Truthful. We have never truthfully explored the self through our own ambitions & will. Rather we act accordingly to societal ideals or based on the idea supposed by ideologies. This has condemned the self to the nihilistic idea of life, in constant rejection and depression of "all bad" acts and forever conforming to normalities. "As you get older, you'll understand" is what is uttered, but what does that mean? How does time magically give man infinite wisdom or understanding? If man lives in constant, then how will he ever grow? This is merely impossible — everything must be put into question and analyzed. If not, then life is better to be lived blindly. As Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living" — this is almost synonymous with Nietzsche. The self is a system which must not be manipulated and perceived through external stimuli but rather harvested through internal methodology. I argue that Nietzsche sees the self as a real system which has been hazed through the idea of "good" and "bad" which have caused humans to hate the actual self and strive for a "higher being", searching in unnecessary places — yet it can be saved through realization of the will and in the end achieve self-acceptance.

The Convolution of the Self

The convolution of the self has been brought about from "external" stimuli which are an ends of living outside the state of nature, in society. The particulars in which I speak of is the terms of "good" and "bad", which has perversed the operation of man. From these two simple terms, there has been confusion in the sense which guides man and allows him to act under his own power — but from where do they stem?

Nietzsche's conceptualization of "Morality" can be simply put as the "master" and "slave", where the operational layout of human morality is scaled. Instead of a numerical scale, the scale operates in "good" through "bad" and no in between. Thus we must understand the relation of these terms. The attributes of "good" relate to the morality of the Master and "bad" to the morality of the Slave. I will first analyze the set forth difficulties of "Master Morality":

"The aristocratic, the powerful, the high stationed, the high-minded, who have felt they themselves were good, and that their actions were good, of the first order, in contradistinction to all the low, low-minded, vulgar and the plebian — and thus they created values for their own profit."

Those nobles — the "Kardashians" if you will — the figures which are illuminated, whose "perfection" is praised for they are some sort of enigma which every living person must strive to be. These are the people who have constructed the scale of human actions, the individuals which objectively see themselves from a higher order and thus laugh and pity you. These humans revere themselves — they find the origin of value within themselves, and they receive this sense of fullness. This fullness from themselves revokes fear in those who are not of this caste, for they long to live the way the nobles do. For all that we see of the Kardashians — their seemingly perfect lives, vacationing in the Bahamas — while we are stuck working at UPS 4am-4pm everyday. This creates a journey for those of the "lower order", a never-ending pursuit to become like the nobles, to reject anything in our true manner that does not help in the journey towards our end. This "good" is farther from the definition — this becomes lost in translation as this is the convolution itself. What is dubbed "good" is no more than ill. This is the unnecessary place which keeps us from our acceptance. Through the initiation of this cycle the "actual-self" can be successfully suppressed according to Nietzsche.

The Higher Self and Slave Morality

From this conceptualization of "master morality", a disgusting creature known as the "higher self" — an organism which makes man live in denial of the "true self" — has risen. The latter is both the attractive end & unfortunate result of the journey set forth by the nobles. Man has now unfortunately "lost the hope in man, the will to be man — we are tired of man." And this tiredness is rooted in resentment. Yes, resentment for the nobles, for they have caused the feeling that they are why we feel "bad" & resentment to the realization that we will never attain this "higher self". This creature has convoluted the will to be a man. We no longer want to be our lying, lazy, true-self — instead we revert to our contorted facade made for & by external stimuli.

To introduce the term of "slave morality", Nietzsche states:

"And the slave morality needs a typical of resentment birthing... the condition of its existence an external and objective world, it requires objective stimuli to be capable of action at all — it is a reaction."

The cause for resentment is by creatures who are "deprived the proper outlet of action", meaning that when we live under this conception we "say no to every outset of what is outside and different from itself." The state of reaction is never proper for humans, as we demand action of one's own utility and will. Contrary to the current state, where we must "react" to the noble's ranking of what is good & bad and then act on a specific action. The difference in these moralities is that the aristocratic found "affirmation in its own demands", while the slave rejects his own demands as foreign to the sought out "higher-self". This creates an inner turmoil for the slave — in constant denial of one's actuality and in a sense operating in death, the absence of autonomy. This "denial" is us searching in the "Kardashian Will" — something which is unattainable by our fleshy self — and thus the slave is in a mode of eternal self-deprecation.

Conscience and the Will to Power

The development of this rejection — in demand and improper outlet of willful actions — could be associated with the "conscience". A domain, a mechanism, which is the last validation on willful actions. Nietzsche says:

"In this sphere of the law of contract we find the cradle of the whole moral world of the ideas of 'guilty', 'guilt', 'conscience'..."

In this contract, not only do we see the birth of conscience but also understand "slave morality" — for in this, suffering produces happiness, for the person in pain receives a reward. From this suffering, not only does man find the capability to enjoy this pity but also attain sort of social status.

But now, we mustn't dwell much into that, for that is what resentment, conscience, and slave morality wish us to do — dwell. Nietzsche says: "the will to power is the real essence of life." The power to be man, to be us and act accordingly to our desires with no care, is the true conception of life. Instead of reacting to the nobles' conception of "good":

"The active man, the attacking, aggressive man is always a hundred degrees nearer truth than man who reacts; for he has no need to adopt tactics, of making false and biassed valuations of self."

Man must stray away from the "guilt" and "debt" and become active — to not be cruel to our animal self, and begin to nurture — because in this mode he is acting in the aristocratic morality. They find no need to punish themselves and submit to the will of guilt, where we lie to ourselves and punish ourselves for acting naturally. Nietzsche's idea of truth was simple: to accept your flesh and live because there is no other life that you could possibly live.

The contrast which Nietzsche uses is of the Greeks:

"They used the gods as simple buffers against the 'bad conscience' — so that they could enjoy their 'freedom of soul'."

The Greeks, the most "noble" race in the recollection of civilisation, were in themselves the closest to animal. They would partake in the most "bad acts" — adultery, perversion, homosexuality — but yet they felt no sense of guilt. They understood that these actions were theirs. These acts regardless of "good" and "bad" are willful actions. The creature, "higher self", is an unattainable end that only convolutes the true self and sickens man to the point of death.

Salvation Through the Will

The will is the salvation to the conception of "slave morality". The will is the only conception which allows us to denote the socially constructed values of "good" and "bad". Instead of acting accordingly in spite of the nobles, man must act willfully from nature, free of resentment and rejection. Nietzsche alludes to this:

"Man must open their eyes to their own selves, and to learn to distinguish between 'true' and 'false' in their own selves."

Now that man has been able to act according to his own demand, the process of self-acceptance has now begun. This disregard and death to the "higher-self" has put an end to resentment. No longer infatuated with the end, we are no longer teleological creatures — we are now active and living creatures. This activity is the will of personhood. The understood difference is this: this will is not set-forth like an agenda but rather sought-out and attained through this manifestation.

Conclusion

The self will always be a system that is not understood, and will always be questioned and analyzed. The self can be critiqued, either through internal or external stimuli. Nietzsche believed both to be true — that these external stimuli, the noble, the creator of the "master morality" and good, created man to fall ill. The categorization of "good" and "bad" forces man to act contrary to his nature and not indulge in his own desires. Instead, when man is faced with a decision he stops and asks: "is this good?", "what will others think?" — and this conception is a creature known as the "higher self". The nobles created this in man. The "higher self" brews from man's hate and pity for his animal self. The detriment known as bad conscience is the byproduct of the social contract that man signed to partake in civilization.

Evidently, through this "bad conscience", the proponent of suffering makes man active and allows him to be saved. The will is thusly created to allow man to indulge once again in his natural desires and dictate his own conception of both "good" and "bad" through a more comforting internal mechanism. The validation brought through external stimuli brews confusion to the self and brings nihilism to man. We can love ourselves and accept who we are through our realization of will — but only through suffering.