The Antichrist

Explored in greater depth in his On the Genealogy of Morality, Friedrich Nietzsche defines ressentiment as an inferior individual’s unrealized hatred or envy towards those superior to them. In his introduction, H.L. Mencken calls ressentiment the “most important of all of (Nietzsche’s ideas)” and equates Christianity to a manifestation of mass ressentiment (3). In The Antichrist, Nietzsche argues for ressentiment as a driving force in theologians’ struggle against the Hyperboreans. He also describes Christians’ fixation on antisemitic revenge as a weaponization of ressentiment, ironic considering Christianity’s preoccupation with absolute love.

In Section 6, Nietzsche describes décadence as synonymous with “rottenness”—the loss of the life-affirming “instinct for growth, for survival, for the accumulation of forces, for power” (18). When an individual caves to décadence, they become fond of whatever is detrimental to themselves, to life itself. Nietzsche believes Christianity is a religion based entirely in décadence, as it finds virtue in humiliation, suffering, and death.

While the exact definition of the will to power is still debated, and its origins are clouded by its proliferation within Nazi circles (despite Nietzsche’s avowed anti-antisemitism and anti-nationalism), it can be described as an individual’s desire to attain control (power)—that of their environment and themselves.