Resentment
Nietzsche’s concept of resentment is the idea that their is a hidden revenge motive within pseudo-altruistic slave moralities, and that there is an element of hostility within even the Friendly Weakness side of the the four quadrants; i.e., in conventional “Christian ethics,” as typified by the image of “gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” This paradox—the Friendly Weakling is a Hostile Weakling in disguise, the Flower Child a potential Mansonized robo-killer—reappears in modern clinical parlance as the concept of “passive aggressive.” Occultists in their strange jargon describe these types as “psychic vampires.”
Resentment also involves idolatry. The more certain of our views we become, the more we perceive ourselves to be victims of an impersonal world . If someone feels overwhelmed by the “real” universe, he will seek to destroy what oppresses him. And since we cannot get at the “real” universe, revenge must be directed at symbolic targets within our Emic Realitys. The capacity for neurological self-criticism, which Neitzsche calls the Will to Power, then becomes deflected into a Will to Destroy. Neitzsche here is describing the process by which we shirk responsibility. We seek revenge, but since we are only reacting, the “real” universe made us do it. Man as a reactive mechanism—the Materialists metaphor—is a man with a grudge.
One of the most well known lines of verse from the 20th Century is from Alfred Edward Housman: “I, a stranger and afraid, In a world I never made.” This is the self-image of modern humanity: The Right Man in particular, but also of the masses of ordinary men and women who have internalized the Fundamentalist Materialist metaphor and have made it their Idol.
References
- Wilson, A., Robert. (1983). Prometheus Rising Chapter 4 The Anal Emotional Territorial Circuit (Location 866). Grand Junction, Colorado: Hilaritas Press.
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Type:🔴 Tags: Psychology / Philosophy Status:⛅️