Friedrich Nietzsche
philosophised that morality was a doctrine invented by the inferior
to restrain the superior, this point can be broken into two sections, which must be individually dealt with. The first is that morality, is
in fact a concept, which I believe it is, as everyone has a different
interpretation of what I considered “moral”. I also find it
difficult to believe that people would behave in an upstanding and
ethical way if the thought to do so has not imposed on them by a
higher power, through both positive and negative reinforcements,
which could be anything from a parent putting a disobedient child on
the naughty step, to an almighty entity promising eternity in
paradise as a reward for following a set of guidelines. I believe
that if we were still under the laws of natural selection many of us,
if not all, would gladly murder a rival in order to survive,
fortunately evolution has dictated that humans work better as a
community, where it became necessity to ensure each others safety,
even if it was for our own self-interest.
The second point of this we must consider is
that there is, as Friedrich put it “Übermensch”
or Superhuman,
many historians believe that this lead to Hitler's “Master race.”
However Nietzsche himself was critical of both anti-Semitism
and
German nationalism.
He stated that beyond humanity was ascertainable and should be the
goal of every individual and collective. I agree that there are some
who are superior to others, for example Carl Segan compared to the
cast of Jersey Shore. However if it were to come to a point where
everyone had the mental power of the great minds of our era, that
would be considered normal or average, and if we continue along this
path of intellectual evolution it would come to a point where we
became creatures of pure consciousness at a sentient level and thus
achieved a state of Übermensch.
If we put these ideas
together we conclude that in order to achieve this god-like grandeur
we must cast off the shackles of morality, to through away our
concepts of good and evil, to do not what is right, but what is
logical.
“Fear is the mother
of morality.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
