Is Kindness the Highest Value? The slave morality in our schools

Nietzsche's master morality and herd morality as it is seen in our schools and pop culture. Is kindness the highest value? Do we live in a society that emphasizes safety and equality at the cost of excellence and truth?

In slave morality, what is "good" is only that which doesn't harm, that which is kind and weak and docile. The weak soul gives little thought to what creates vertical growth, and deems as good only that which creates safety for the herd. Friedrich Nietzsche identifies the values of slave morality as coming from a place of weakness, and master morality from a place of strength. The heroic values of classical cultures and Greece are the qualities that lead to great healthiness, but these virtues are overlooked by our modern education system.

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0:00 Intro
0:24 Kindness
2:35 Master Morality and Higher Virtues
6:11 Weakness Corrupts
10:07 Power - Will to Power
13:23 Virtue Signaling
15:24 What is Virtue?

[racereview]

This video articulates something that I’ve felt for a long time but have had difficulty expressing. Kindness as a default is a survival mechanism for the weak.

[moejoe]

it's part of the problem that power is so widely abused because people in charge aren't rebuked by their surroundings, but instead flattered. herd functionality over healthy competition and free mind is the cause of the major issues in society.

[timpaling]

Great video, my friend. Your take reminds me of a beautiful phrase from Aleister Crowley's Book of the Law: "Love is the law, love under will." I.e., our love for others is critical, but this love must always be subservient to one's own will to power, lest we end up losing our way in an attempt to please others or keep the peace. Our ultimate goal in life should always be Liberty - not just for oneself but for all - and Liberty requires strength, courage, and forbearance. Kindness does have its place, of course; but if it is seen as a virtue in and of itself, it can end up aiding and abetting the very restrictions one is trying to overcome.

[sigigle]

It's the optimum balance between strength and compassion that results in wisdom.

The perfect being needs these 3 properties.
With all 3, nothing is lacking.
Without any of them, there is a lack.

They are:

1) Power: The ability to do things. To make your will - good or bad - manifest. (masculine)
2) Compassion: The desire for the good of self and others. Good will. (feminine)
3) Wisdom: The knowledge of how to use your power to manifest the good. (unity)

The union of the masculine and feminine aspects within ourselves creates the 3rd.
It's the alchemical union, the divine androgyne, the true holy trinity, the golden middle path, etc.

Nietzsche didn't like Christianity because he thought it taught us to be too weak, submissive, etc.
But it also gives us an example in Jesus of rebelling against power, so it creates a population who turns the other cheek and thinks power is evil and would rather fight against it than strive to attain it.
But Nietzsche went too far in the opposite direction in my view, by over valuing power and undervaluing compassion.
It might've been because Nietzsche was a moral subjectivist, he thought that moral values have no grounding in anything in reality at all and are just made up arbitrarily:

"There are no moral phenomena at all, only a moral interpretation of phenomena."
- Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

And if they have no basis in anything in reality, the conclusion is that the only thing that matters is creating your own values and acquiring the power to manifest them, which is his superman concept.
Power was his only value, and he despised the idea of charity and helping the weak because of it:

"What is good? — All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man.
What is bad? — All that proceeds from weakness.
What is happiness? — The feeling that power increases — that a resistance is overcome.
Not contentment, but more power, not peace at all, but war; not virtue, but proficiency.
The weak and ill-constituted shall perish: first principle of our philanthropy. And one shall help them to do so. What is more harmful than any vice? — Active sympathy for the ill-constituted and weak — Christianity …."

He thought the weak should perish, and that we should help them to do so, and that the only good was power.
In my view, he lacked sight of the importance of compassion, and that we ought to find the optimum balance between compassion and power.

[MenOn]

really eye-opening video man! you are truly articulate and knowledgeable. you will definitely grow fast as a channel if you keep making such quality videos!

[bigdaddydrip]

I agree with you in that kindness as some universal answer for everything in life is obviously superfluous, as in all moral absolutes. But in the beginning you give reasons for why kindness is bad, but then go on to call that "false kindness". So what exactly do you think kindness is? Obviously, someone lying to you to make you feel better, in some contexts, is not kind. Honesty is a virtue and in some contexts will be considered kind. Its funny you try to use Nietzsche to make this argument because Nietzsche was said to be extremely polite, and in fact, he considered politeness as a cardinal virtue. The Dawn §556 "The good four. Honest with ourselves and with what-
ever is friend to us; courageous toward the enemy;
generous toward the vanquished; polite--always; that
is how the four cardinal virtues want us."

[jonmustang]

I think we do have to break away from the herd, but there is a level beyond individuation…

"That which you are, your true self, you love it, and whatever you do, you do for your own happiness. To find it, to know it, to cherish it is your basic urge. Be true to your own self, love your self absolutely. Do not pretend that you love others as yourself. Unless you have realized them as one with yourself, you cannot love them. Don't pretend to be what you are not, don't refuse to be what you are. Your love of others is the result of self- knowledge, not its cause. Without self-realization, no virtue is genuine. When you know beyond all doubting that the same life flows through all that is and you are that life, you will love all naturally and spontaneously. When you realize the depth and fullness of your love of yourself, you know that every living being and the entire universe are included in your affection. But when you look at anything as separate from you, you cannot love it for you are afraid of it. Alienation causes fear, and fear deepens alienation. It is a vicious circle. Only self- realization can break it." - -  Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

[anzacman]

Just listened to your excellent "rant".
Directly applicable to us here on NZ, where our last leader's most often spoken advise to the herd was "Be Kind". (Ardern). It was her motto .
And it's a sickness at the heart of our "nanny state".

[franklawton]

Great video mate. This really makes me think! I'm definitely trying to find the balance between selflessness, tolerance, & gentleness VS vision, integrity, & determination. Somehow it feels like I'm too much of both. Too selfish and harsh, but also lacking in integrity and boundaries. You talk about weakness disguised as empathy, and I see that everywhere!

I have a complex relationship with my father, recently I communicated firmly some boundaries and criticisms to him, and now I'm actually empowered to be much more genuinely kind to him, and I don't feel resentful when I am, because my self and my values are protected.

You talk about virtues toward the end. I believe that is key. Ultimately, it is living according to what we value (which we all mostly share) that enables flourishing individually and collectively. Living our values = having virtues. both blind attachment to superficial power as well as cowardliness & dishonesty lead us to clash with our values. When we know our values, protect them, communicate them, and live them out, we both move things forward, and treat others well. Kindness is a deeply important virtue I think we all have when we live our values, but it is rooted in (and unfolds with) the empowerment of our authentic spirit, it has to be willful, not reactive or reluctant

[thenew]

In my opinion, kindness isn't a virtue at all. Yes, it is generally preferable in most situations to be kind (except for when others are not reciprocating that kindness), but that doesn't make it a virtue. A virtue is something that actually takes effort and work to do. Just being kind doesn't take effort; donating to charity does, or helping out the friends and family who you are loyal to. These are virtues, but general "kindness" isn't.

To be "kind" in the sense most people use this word is just to be non-confrontational; it's not a positive, just the negation of a negative. Thus, to me this focus on kindness is just a type of virtue-signaling: it's elevating something that is neutral and takes no effort to the status of virtue. It's the lazy way to feel good about yourself without actually doing anything.

[timestimesx]

Students are really difficult to manage in an educational system that forces 20+ of them inside the same classroom regardless of their skills or abilities. They're not very often self-disciplined. Some of them are simply incapable of behaving. The values like the ones you've mentioned are not that important from the point of view of an individual but we do need to prioritize them in our current institutions.

[justjohnsmith]

It's probably content personalization that this video has arrived to me at a time where I'm at a crossroads with my trained personality and my real desires. However, it is welcome to know that I'm not alone in my general feelings regarding that situation. I know a lot of what it's like to be indoctrinated into docility with my upbringing as a Jehova's Witness. But being raised into one extreme, and being released from it has left me with a momentum that constantly swings me back and forth like a pendelum.

I'm currently looking for my own path free from the judgements of others and, somewhat paradoxically, free from my own judgements. Currently reading "The Wisdom of Insecurity" by Alan W. Watts. Only halfway through, but a big takeaway is that since the convention of labeling the self as distinct from the whole that the universe is, we have entered an era where we even find a schism within ourselves, where "I" oddly no longer refers to one own body, but an abstract mind/will. This is basic stuff I know, but it's interesting how Alan frames the issue stemming from the use of words themselves.

I caught myself starting to write a book report, but I won't. Thanks for this video! look forward to seeing more content.

[Veteransolo]

An old timer gave me a big example with 6 animals,
Lion, wolf, tiger, eagle, bear, and a great white shark,
He told me this,
"Listen, i travelled from Europe to America, to Asia, to Africa, and where i haven't been, and i encountered my favourite animals the lion, wolf, tiger, eagle, bear and even a great white shark, those animals are they nice? No, they definitely are not, but they were nice to certain people they knew, and those certain people were in front of me, hugging them, petting them, why? Cause they earned their trust over a big amout of time and patience, they are dangerous, they are strong, but they are not evil, they are just dangerous by default, you have to be like them, be strong, courageous, but be nice only to the certain people WHO EARNED your trust."
I asked him, "did you earn their trust?" His reply "I only had time to earn the trust of the lion, wolf and the eagle, they force you to respect them, not with demand, but with the knowledge that they are dangerous, this is what people don't understand."

That was many years ago and it's still stuck in my memory.

[CJusticeHappen]

There's being too weak to afford to be anything but amicable, and there is being too strong to have any reason to be unkind. Find Strength.

[FirstMatterCreative]

Have you read Max Stirner? He’s like Nietzsche before Nietzsche.

[siryoucantdothat]

Absolute power corrupts as well as absolute kindness there have to be a balance

[jarikosonen]

Highest value is what they say, and that's what you have to follow.

[bigdaddydrip]

The will to power is not something you have or dont have, it is a general principle of all that exists. All forms of morality, slave or master, is an expression of will to power. Will to power is even expressed through the laws of nature itself, ofcoarse, in a much lower form.

[tomkatpc]

i like your thinking - you become adolescent - but kindness isn't such a bad thing - you just need to overcome society rules they first tell you .. - have you watched "Fight Club" just now? .. i have a suggestion for you: The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau ..
.

[bigdaddydrip]

Throughout the video up until the the last part, you fail to properly define kindness in the context of your argument, and only speak of it in the context of slave morality as if kindness universally is only a slave moralist value. This might be confusing and somewhat misleading to someone knew to nietzsche. Kindness has a different meaning in the context of master or slave morality, as you eventually make the distinction in very end.