Episode 48: Ressentiment – Is it Better to be Weak and Poor?

Written by Phil in Uncategorized

Steve takes the charge on dipping into Nietzsche’s concept of Ressentiment, which we’ll define simply as:

“a sense of hostility directed toward an object that is identified as the source of one’s frustration. The sense of weakness or inferiority complex (possible jealousy) in the face of this source generates a rejecting/justifying value system, which attacks the source. This value system is then used to justify one’s own weaknesses.”

References

  • Ressentiment
  • Episode 22: Chiplessness
  • Andrew Sullivan:
    • Anger: Anger toward equal status target
    • Contempt: Anger toward lower status target
    • Resentment: Anger toward higher status target
  • Chris Burris, PhD.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • On the The Genealogy of Morals
  • Quick Video on Nietzsche’s PoS Sister (Youtube)
  • Purple Prose: Overly ornate prose text that may disrupt a narrative flow by drawing undesirable attention to its own extravagant style of writing, thereby diminishing the appreciation of the prose overall 
  • Sour Grapes: The story concerns a fox that tries to eat grapes from a vine but cannot reach them. Rather than admit defeat, he states they are undesirable. The expression “sour grapes” originated from this fable.
  • Master-slave Morality: Nietzsche argues that there are two fundamental types of morality: “master morality” and “slave morality”. Master morality values pride and power, while slave morality values kindness, empathy, and sympathy. Master morality judges actions as good or bad (e.g. the classical virtues of the noble man versus the vices of the rabble), unlike slave morality, which judges by a scale of good or evil intentions (e. g. Christian virtues and vices, Kantian deontology).
  • Social Murder: “the class which at present holds social and political control” (i.e. the bourgeoisie) “places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death”
  • Jean-Paul Sartre: one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, as well as a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. 
  • NPC (Non-player character): any character in a game that is not controlled by a player.
  • /r/Imthemaincharacter
  • Episode 42: Decadence
  • Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen 
  • Stoicism (Philosophy)
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): an empirically based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies along with commitment and behavior-change strategies to increase psychological flexibility. This approach was originally termed comprehensive distancing.
  • Serenity (Prayer): God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
  • Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
  • Brene Brown – Sympathy vs Empathy
  • Munchausen Syndrome (AKA Factitious disorder imposed on self): a factitious disorder where those affected feign or induce disease, illness, injury, abuse, or psychological trauma to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance to themselves
  • Covert Narcissism: a person who has symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) but often hides the more obvious signs of the condition.
  • Health Anxiety (AKA Hypochondriasis): a condition in which a person is excessively and unduly worried about having a serious illness.
  • Spirited Away: a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli.
  • Episode 45: Codependence
  • Alcoholics Anonymous: an international mutual aid fellowship of alcoholics dedicated to abstinence-based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually-inclined Twelve Step program.
  • Twelve Step Program
  • Eye of a Needle: a metaphor for a very narrow opening.

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