Nietzsche makes a violent, passionate attempt to refer the sum total of false modern morality, not to the instinct of requital or to the feeling of revenge in general, but to the narrower form of it which we call spite, envy and rancune. What he calls slave morality is to him purely spite-morality; and this spite-morality gave new names to all ideals. Thus impotence, which offers no reprisal, became goodness; craven baseness became humility; submission to him who was feared became obedience; inability to assert one's self became reluctance to assert one's self, became forgiveness, love of one's enemies. Misery became a distinction; God chastens whom he loves. Or it became a preparation, a trial and a training; even more--something that will one day be made good with interest, paid back in bliss. And the vilest underground creatures, swollen with hate and spite, were heard to say: We, the good, we are the righteous. They did not hate their enemies--they hated injustice, ungodliness. What they hoped for was not the sweets of revenge, but the victory of righteousness. Those they had left to love on earth were their brothers and sisters in hatred, whom they called their brothers and sisters in love. The future state they looked for was called the coming of their kingdom, of God's kingdom. Until it arrives they live on in faith, hope and love.
criticism · An Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism
Slave morality as spite-morality
Brandes reports that Nietzsche traces false modern morality to spite, envy and rancune, which renamed impotence as goodness, baseness as humility, submission as obedience, and hatred as the hope for God's kingdom and the victory of righteousness.
- Revenge and ressentimentRessentiment is the creative source that renamed all ideals.
- Christianity, priests and the need to worshipChristian virtues of humility, forgiveness, love of enemies and hope of the kingdom are read as disguised spite.
- Revaluation of values (old and new tables)Slave morality is a revaluation by the impotent.