This description does a good job of providing two kinds of evocative theme but I think it doesn’t draw out the connections or distinctions that need to be clarified when people are interacting with is vs ought, or perhaps with cosmos vs. society. When describing everyday life as a physical object in the universe, I think a rock-bottom existentialism is obviously right: The universe does not owe you anything. God isn’t going to punish your oppressors or reward you for being good, and God also isn’t going to punish you if you get what you want by being arrogant and doing things that are shocking. If that’s master morality, then fine.
But when we form a society, we can choose to make a world where people who follow the rules are rewarded. We can describe obligations for people to participate and belong, and actively put energy into the system to buffer those people from random shocks. I can see how that reads as slave morality from the perspective of someone who’s an unreflective participant in it, but I think that’s also an unsatisfying way to describe an active project to defy the nature of the universe and, through work, create a world more to our liking.
So in sum I think your description here needs to clarify when this kind of be-good-and-you’ll-get-a-cookie living is bad simply because it’s inaccurate (God is not going to give you a cookie) and when you think it’s wrong because, even if people establish an enclave in which rules are enforced and people are taken care of, that diminishes the human spirit or is actively harmful to its participants.
It might also just be a matter of hierarchical perception. To use a smaller scale example:
On a day-to-day level I do my chores around the house even when I don’t feel like it, because if I do what I promised then my housemates will also do what they promised, and I’ll get the benefits of a functional place to live. That’s a quid-pro-quo with an external system but I wouldn’t call that slave morality.
If my housemates arbitrarily stopped doing their chores, I’d go and remind them them we’d all agreed to do our chores. That’s expecting others to fulfill their obligations, but I wouldn’t call that slave morality.
If they simply refused to do their chores and nothing I did could move them, and my response to that was to rend my garments and cry out to God that this was cosmically wrong and I refused to go on living, that would be slave morality. But if my reaction was to leave and find another place to live where people do their damn chores, I’d call that being a master.
This description does a good job of providing two kinds of evocative theme but I think it doesn’t draw out the connections or distinctions that need to be clarified when people are interacting with is vs ought, or perhaps with cosmos vs. society. When describing everyday life as a physical object in the universe, I think a rock-bottom existentialism is obviously right: The universe does not owe you anything. God isn’t going to punish your oppressors or reward you for being good, and God also isn’t going to punish you if you get what you want by being arrogant and doing things that are shocking. If that’s master morality, then fine.
But when we form a society, we can choose to make a world where people who follow the rules are rewarded. We can describe obligations for people to participate and belong, and actively put energy into the system to buffer those people from random shocks. I can see how that reads as slave morality from the perspective of someone who’s an unreflective participant in it, but I think that’s also an unsatisfying way to describe an active project to defy the nature of the universe and, through work, create a world more to our liking.
So in sum I think your description here needs to clarify when this kind of be-good-and-you’ll-get-a-cookie living is bad simply because it’s inaccurate (God is not going to give you a cookie) and when you think it’s wrong because, even if people establish an enclave in which rules are enforced and people are taken care of, that diminishes the human spirit or is actively harmful to its participants.
It might also just be a matter of hierarchical perception. To use a smaller scale example:
On a day-to-day level I do my chores around the house even when I don’t feel like it, because if I do what I promised then my housemates will also do what they promised, and I’ll get the benefits of a functional place to live. That’s a quid-pro-quo with an external system but I wouldn’t call that slave morality.
If my housemates arbitrarily stopped doing their chores, I’d go and remind them them we’d all agreed to do our chores. That’s expecting others to fulfill their obligations, but I wouldn’t call that slave morality.
If they simply refused to do their chores and nothing I did could move them, and my response to that was to rend my garments and cry out to God that this was cosmically wrong and I refused to go on living, that would be slave morality. But if my reaction was to leave and find another place to live where people do their damn chores, I’d call that being a master.