What did Nietzsche mean by heavy debt being a privilege? How can that be a good thing?

Answer 1

Nietzsche spends a LOT of time talking about debt in his book "Geneaology of Morals". But if you've read any of his books, you'll know that he has a way sometimes of saying something entirely different from what he SEEMS to be saying.

He talks about debt there in two very interesting contexts. One is the primitive sense. Someone who borrows is expected to return. And if he can't, then some sort of payment is still likely to occur... often the debtor pays the creditor in pleasure in the form of beatings.

The second sense comes when he mentions societies, which by their nature suppress the aggressive instincts of their members. The society takes on the role of protector and retributor and denies this largely to its citizens in the name of order. Nietzsche thinks that this causes that aggression to turn inward, to harm the self instead of others. Because you owe society this debt of protection, you FEEL indebted to it manifesting as a guilt when you find yourself unable to pay yet not directly punished for it.

So I can see a few reasons why Nietzsche might have said that heavy deby is a privilege. One would be the suggestion (in the first sense) that a massive debt could only be incurred if people thought you could pay it back, either in coin or in beatings. The other could be that being in heavy debt (in the second sense) suggests that you are living in a very prosperous society, a privilege few have.

Those seem a little straightforward for Nietzsche, though, and I cannot help but think of how his concluded his summary of guilt and debt - he said that guilt (indeed, almost any kind of self-punishment) as a kind of atrocity which should be pulled out by its roots. Thus what he might REALLY mean was that incurring a heavy debt was an opportunity to overcome your own guilt. Perhaps by NOT paying it back.

That sounds a lot more like the Nietzsche I know. Heh.

Answer 2

I never read the book. I get the feeling that Nietzsche was against those things that give those who he figured that did not need it greater power than what they already had. He believed to keep them in check was to make them in layman's terms suffer for what they were doing to others; anyways along those lines.

Answer 3

If a person has incured debt, that means they have made a promise to repay it. If they made a promise to repay it, then that means they have memory. If they have memory, that means they can think. It's a privilige to think and be able to make promises (apparently we're the only earthly species that can do these things) but along with that privilige means the burden of memory and debt.

Answer 4

the good credit required to go into heavy debt is special but to use that credit indicates that it is a special privilege.

Answer 5

Well, I guess you can say that the greater debt you have, the greater credit worthiness you're given and trusted to pay back.

Answer 6

Its the same as "why do banks loan money to people who don't need it?"