American History

What kind of relations of power does bad conscience produce
Nietzsches philosophy has been original and influential for contemporary thought. Many of his ideas where followed and used by other philosopher especially the post-modernists who has taken the anti-humanist and anti-totalitarian stance that criticizes power and the will to achieving it by having bad conscience.

According to him  ,  The proud awareness of the extraordinary privilege of responsibility , the consciousness of this rare freedom, this power over oneself and over fate, has in this case penetrated to the profoundest depths and became instinct, the dominating instinct. (Nietzsche 60) this new recognition that people where not just driven by forces out side of themselves, but they themselves have the power to fully implement their will, even if that meant punishing themselves.

As the weak renounced their human passions and self impose punishment for having these urges, this lead to the creation of guilt, which later emerged in to the bad conscience. There is a difference between guilt and bad conscience. Guilt according to Nietzsche is only a feeling that  serves as a reminder of a debt that was owed to some one, and the fear that such debt could lead to punishment in order to pay the debt. The bad conscience on the other hand developed   as a result of an ill Christian morality.  It was generated when the strong in the society especially the founders of a society began to be seen as owed some thing for having created the foundations of such civilizations as the years went on, people began to see such founders as gods and thus even more was owed to them. The debit the weak owed to the strong was thus for only increased, and then as Nietzsche stated the greatest exertion of power is the power to forgive, or pardon some on of their debt in essence, to refrain from punishing them. So because this indebtedness  the weak feel the guilt and anxiety of not paying such  debt, and as these multiple gods gave way to one god, with the development of Christianity, the fact that this god is going to reprieve them and has not only done that but also gave his only son ,Jesus so that they could be forgiven, makes this debt to much to bear and eventually will lead to the  emergence of the bad conscience.

Now we have  the slave who has defined good and evil, who is turned against his human ardor and shifted the will to power against himself, and  has accepted his sins cant be redeemed. As a result of this self examination and realization, is the creation of inner life or a soul--a soul that needs to be saved in order to advance to a better world.

The emergence of bad conscience produces a feudal relation between the powerful, and the slave, who thinks that he she  is a sinner therefore unworthy of having equal rights. The church as an institution has been a strong ideological defender and sanctifier of this unequal relation. Its cultural influence is widespread among the people through cathetical work, rituals, sermons, prayers and other indulgence.