Ressentiment

In this slim but brilliant volume Max Scheler explains how the egalitarian philosophies of the modern secular age springs from the systematic resentment of those who are materially, intellectually, or even spiritually better off than oneself. Although it may pass itself off as deriving from noble humanitarian sentiment, the emotional disposition that underlies egalitarianism is the very negation of true Christian charity, which is the loving affirmation of the unique person, whatever its circumstances in life. Once you understand the irrational well springs of egalitarian thought, it is no surprise to find that the movements it has inspired down through history have typically ended up perpetrating the worst crimes against the person. All forms of totalitarianism begin with egalitarian sentiment --- and that is a fact about egalitarianism, not totalitarianism. The paradigm example is perhaps the French Revolution. After the optimism of new beginnings, the ideals of liberté and fraternité became drowned in the blood of the revolutionists' victims in their ruthless pursuit of égalité at the expense of all else. Egalitarianism has now come to be seen as a political end in itself in mainstream democratic thought, and although the desire for equality may appear never so benign, what is conceived in darkness will bring forth darkness.

This monograph constitutes a response to the criticisms of Christianity outlined in Nietzsche's GENEOLOGY OF MORALS, in which Nietzsche argues that Christianity is a "slave revolt" of the weak--an attempt by the impotent to bring down the vitality of the capable nobility. Scheler's response is multi-faceted but centers on Nietzsche's failure to understand the nature of Christian love. Christianity is not a destructive enterprise trying to bring everyone down to the same low level of its impotent faithful, who must put their trust in the next world because they can get nowhere in this one. Rather, it attempts constructively to bring everyone UP to a new level of human flourishing. Christianity's preoccupation with the poor, weak, and marginalized stems from a recognition, through divine love, of the miracle of God's creation and infinite possibilities present even in them. The following quotation well represents Scheler's position (and Nietzsche's perspectival error): "Those people [modern nihilists] saw something bug-like in everything that lives, whereas [St.] Francis sees the holiness of life even in a bug." (p. 70). This monograph is certainly not the last word on Nietzsche's famous anti-Christian polemic, and it contains many avenues of argumentation that are not described here; but it is fair to say that it articulates a capable response to the core of his arguments. And like the Texas Cottonwood tree, when the core of the trunk rots, the result is obvious during the next storm.