Everything Is F*cked

A Brief History of the World, According to Nietzsche
Let’s  say  you  drop  a  bunch  of  people  onto  a  plot  of  land  with  limited
resources  and  have  them  start  a  civilization  from  scratch.  Here’s  what
happens:
Some  people  are  naturally  more  gifted  than  others.  Some  are  smarter.
Some are bigger and stronger. Some are more charismatic. Some are friendly
and get along easily with others. Some work harder and come up with better
ideas.
The people with natural advantages will accumulate more resources than
others.  And  because  they  have  more  resources,  they  will  have  a
disproportionate amount of power within this new society. They will be able
to use that power to garner more resources and more advantages, and so on—
you  know,  the  whole  “rich  get  richer”  thing.  Run  this  through  enough
generations, and pretty soon you have a social hierarchy with a small number
of elites at the top and a large number of people getting completely hosed at
the bottom. Since the advent of agriculture, all human societies have exhibited
this  stratification,  and  all  societies  must  deal  with  the  tension  that  emerges
between the advantaged elite and the disadvantaged masses.
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Nietzsche  called  the  elite  the  “masters”  of  society,  as  they  have  almost
complete control over wealth, production, and political power. He called the
working  masses  the  “slaves”  of  society  because  he  saw  little  difference
between a laborer working his whole life for a small sum and slavery itself.
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Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Nietzsche argued that the masters of
society  would  come  to  see  their  privilege  as  well  deserved.  That  is,  they
would craft value narratives to justify their elite status. Why shouldn’t they be
rewarded for it? It was good they were on top. They deserved it. They were
the  smartest  and  strongest  and  most  talented.  Therefore,  they  were  the  most
righteous.
Nietzsche called this belief system, in which those who end up ahead do
so  because  they  deserve  it,  “master  morality.”  Master  morality  is  the  moral
belief  that  people  get  what  they  deserve.  It’s  the  moral  belief  that  “might
makes  right,”  that  if  you  earned  something  through  hard  work  or  ingenuity,
you deserve it. No one can take that from you; nor should they. You are the
best,  and  because  you’ve  demonstrated  superiority,  you  should  be  rewarded
for it.
Conversely,  Nietzsche  argued,  the  “slaves”  of  society  would  generate  a
moral  code  of  their  own.  Whereas  the  masters  believed  they  were  righteous
and  virtuous  because  of  their  strength,  the  slaves  of  society  came  to  believe
that  they  were  righteous  and  virtuous  because  of  their  weakness.  Slave
morality believes that people who have suffered the most, those who are the
most disadvantaged and exploited, deserve the best treatment because of that
suffering.  Slave  morality  believes  that  it’s  the  poorest  and  most  unfortunate
who deserve the most sympathy and the most respect.
Whereas master morality believes in the virtue of strength and dominance,
slave morality believes in the virtue of sacrifice and submission. While master
morality believes in the necessity of hierarchy, slave morality believes in the
necessity of equality. While master morality is generally represented by right-
wing  political  beliefs,  slave  morality  is  usually  found  in  left-wing  political
beliefs.
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We all contain both these moralities within us. Imagine you’re in a class at
school and you study your ass off and get the highest test score. And because
you  got  the  highest  test  score,  you’re  awarded  benefits  due  to  your  success.
You  feel  morally  justified  having  those  benefits;  after  all,  you  worked  hard
and earned them. You are a “good” student and a “good” person for being a
good student. This is master morality.
Now  imagine  that  you  have  a  classmate.  This  classmate  has  eighteen
siblings,  all  being  raised  by  a  single  mother.  This  classmate  works  multiple