45 - Twofold Historical Origin of Good and
Evil.
The notion of good and bad has a twofold historical
origin.
Namely, first in the spirit of ruling races
and castes.
Whoever has power to requite good with good
and evil with evil and actually brings requital,
that is, is grateful and vengeful, acquires
the name of being good.
Whoever is powerless and cannot requite is
called bad.
A man belongs as a good individual to the
good of a community who have a feeling in
common because all the individuals are allied
with one another through the requiting sentiment.
A man belongs as a bad individual to the bad,
to a mass of subjugated, powerless men, who
have no feeling in common.
The good are a caste, the bad are a quantity
like dust.
Good and bad is for a considerable period
tantamount to noble and servile, master and
slave.
On the other hand, an enemy is not looked
upon as bad; he can requite.
The Trojan and the Greek are in Homer both
good, not he who does no harm, but he who
is despised is esteemed bad.
In a community of the good individuals, the
quality of goodness is inherited; it is impossible
for a bad individual to grow from such a rich
soil.
If not withstanding one of the good individuals
does something unworthy of his goodness, recourse
is had to exorcism.
Thus the guilt is ascribed to a deity, the
while it is declared that this deity bewitched
the good man into madness and blindness.
Second, in the spirit of the subjugated, the
powerless.
Here every man is to the individual hostile,
inconsiderate, greedy, inhuman, avaricious,
be he noble or servile.
Bad is the characteristic term for man for
every living being, indeed, that is recognized
at all, even for a god.
Human, divine, these notions are tantamount
to devilish, mad.
Manifestations of goodness, sympathy, helpfulness,
are regarded with anxiety as trickiness, preludes
to an evil end.
Deception, subtlety, in short, as refined
badness.
With such a predisposition in individuals,
feeling in common can scarcely arise at all,
at most only the rudest form of it, so that
everywhere that this conception of good and
evil prevails, the destruction of the individuals,
their race and nation is imminent.
Our existing morality has developed upon the
foundation laid by ruling races and castes.
