Nietzsche and the Slave theory

I touched briefly on the subject of Nietzsche’s slave theory, which I think is very important in answering the question of being controlled by oneself, or being controlled by another.

The slave concept which Nietzsche puts forward is that of people feeling they need to conform to laws and beliefs as a method of being part of society He claims that awareness one is able to put morality into question, and thus is able to define our own morals there by breaking that instinctive nature of conforming.

He also expresses stops a person from taking action against those in political power is their conscience, and guilt of doing bad or evil. Due to not having the ability to freely express feelings, one directs them inwardly, resulting in bad conscience. Nietzsche, also argues, that this denial of life due to bad conscience is down to Christian based theology. This sense of guilt and bad conscience is very apparent within society today, we coin the term of being ‘politically correct’ when we talk to someone, to ensure that we do not say something that may offend them, although it may be true, but due to our conscience we refrain ourselves from truth in order to give other people the perception of happiness. What is deemed as good and evil has been pre determined by our laws today, though what Nietzsche seems to express is that conforming to these laws blindly due to conscience being a slave of the system, a slave to those who have no personal link to you however control your every thought and step.

So as far as Nietzsche is concerned at this point, it would be better to be controlled by someone than by oneself.

Taking the Marxist viewpoint Nietzsche believed that one is essentially influenced in some way by culture and ancestry, thus incurring that one is not totally free of exterior influences. Yet instead of taking the route of hierarchical class system as Marx did, he proposed that one should revere in that they are radically individualistic and significant and thus detached from the ‘herd’, which in turn frees them from the need to conform.

When realisation of this conformist mentality becomes apparent, one can become critical of societal norms to the extent that they dismiss everything, and become cynical of everything and everyone. Nietzsche, on the other hand although criticised the herd mentality, he also did not agree with what he called the ‘nihilists’ as he held the belief that to live as an nihilist is not to live a human life. Although this kind of living is an understandable contradiction to that of the herd life, it is not in reality a way of living. As you would become a recluse so could not really justify being a moral being when there is no interaction with others within society who may challenge your point of view.

The importance of having our own values and morals is that they are our own realities something that asserts our individuality and that we use to judge others. So although these are also fictitious moral values but on a personal level we still need them as we do the agreed moral laws of society, to enable us to live within society, while at the same time having the knowledge that these moral values have no real validity. Which would again give us the assertion that according to Nietzsche it would be better to be controlled by someone, while still being able to hold on to an individual identity.

It is seems that although Nietzsche applies his ideas to society as a whole, these ideas are also applicable to us as individuals, as we all take on different personas depending on our situation at the time and with it even have to adapt our personal moral laws, so we all have the potential to be a slave as well as a master.
It seems that to fill our potential as human beings using Nietzsche’s naturalist rationale we can create our own identities comfortably in the awareness of having to conform to some extent to moral laws and values that are apparent within society, to enable our own freedom to become what we want to become and do what we want to do, thus allowing us to reaching our own full potential. So using this argument it is better to be controlled by someone than by oneself.

For more info on Nietzsche refer to the link : http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/