It’s paradoxical. What most fundamentally distinguishes a master from a slave is that the former prefers death as a freeman over life as a slave.
To relate to Nietzsche: the terms “freedom from” and “freedom to/for” are not from Nietzsche; they are abstractions from something Zarathustra says:
“Free, dost thou call thyself? Thy ruling thought would I hear of, and not that thou hast escaped from a yoke.
[…]
Free from what? What doth that matter to Zarathustra! Clearly, however, shall thine eye show unto me: free for what?” (“The Way of the Creating One”, Common trans.)
The thing is, it’s the same freedom to and fro. One is free from certain things so one is free for other things. Strauss speaks of “freedom from” and “freedom for” in the context of Rousseau: if I remember correctly, he speaks of a freedom that is not a freedom for anything but only a freedom from (in Natural Right and History, “The Crisis of Modern Natural right”), meaning Rousseau advocated freedom without determining in advance what that freedom was to be used for. Strauss then adds that Rousseau was aware of this but considered it so much the better, because it meant complete freedom, without being already confined to certain uses. Still, Strauss suggests that Rousseau was also aware of the rightness of Nietzsche’s and Strauss’s criticism of this, longing back as he did for Plutarch’s heroes.
As for happiness, I was careful to add “in some sense or another”. Happiness in the sense I understand it is the feeling of freedom, and this feeling is indeed only a negative feeling–the feeling of an absence–without a “for”. Freedom is power, the feeling of freedom is the will¹, and both are indeed nothing without a “to”: the will to power (or might: Macht), and the strength to its own exertion or effusion:
“Willing: A pressing feeling, very agreeable! It is the accompaniment of every effusion of force [or strength: Kraft].” (Nietzsche, Nachlass Frühjahr-Sommer 1883 7 [225], my translation.)
I think our disagreement here again comes down to the consciousness question. I can see how VO can work without consciousness, but I can’t see how there can be value without it. I mean, might a VO-system without consciousness not just as well not exist?
[size=95]¹ Or at least the essence of will, the affect of command.[/size]
Ambulances pull up. A corpse is being dragged onto a
stretcher and men in white masks wheel it in. Smoke
billows over the scene. Lights flash.
Some distance to the ambulance and the smoke is a man,
pacing around impatiently. He wears a beret, blond hair,
blue eyes and a cigar between his jaws. His is HARPER,
40.
HARPER
The fuck are they...
He swallows the rest, chewing on his cigar. A younger
black man in a grey camouflage uniform appears by his
side, sunk through his knees, operating some wire close
to the ground. This is EDLEE, 28.
EDLEE
Sir.
Harper looks down and observes.
HARPER
Edlee, make the trucks ready to
pull in.
EDLEE
Yes sir.
He disappears. Harper goes back to staring over the
scene. He checks his watch. He punched a few buttons and
an EXPLOSION goes off in the distance.
CHAOS --- the scene in the smoke and the ambulance pull
off as men scrimmage around to collect instruments and
rush off to another vehicle.
OVER SHOULDER Harper, who has seen enough and waves with
three fingers. Three DARK HUMMERS pull up and Harper gets
in the middle one. Slowly they drive in the direction of
the smoke.
HARPER
Wait.
The caravan stops. A shot of the three cars as seen from
the smokey scene.
HARPER
Lights.
The lights of the cars go out.
Harper steps out of the vehicle and approaches the
smoking object, which appears to be a car. Two armed men
in uniform get out of the third hummer and stealthily
take his flanks while the one from Harpers vehicle takes
his back.
Harper walks into the smoke. A moment of suspense on the
face of one of the drivers.
DRIVER
Shit.
We see his POV, to the left of the smoking scene, police
cars are approaching. About half a mile to go.
The driver presses his ear and starts talking.
DRIVER
Law enforcement vehicles engaging,
three, strike, four in number,
north northwest, approximately...
75 seconds out. Confirm copy.
We cut to the face of one of the men backing Harper,
CURT. He calls out.
CURT
Chief!
No response.
CURT
The fuck.
(hesitant)
Moving in. Repeat moving in.
DRIVER
Engage.
The three men move forward into the smoke and wheels come
into motion on the dirt as the Hummers start rolling
towards the scene. Their lights flash back on and we cut
to the smoke.
The smoke is dazzling, it moves very quickly as in lots
of turbulence, a disrupted magnetic field of sorts,
something is awry. Curt comes closer.
CURT
Chief!
Suddenly, Harper appears. His face is sweaty and radiant
and he has what seems to be an animal in his hand.
CURT
What the -
HARPER
Hahahahahaaaaaa!!!!
Curts face, bewildered.
Cut to Harper, who is jumping up and down in glee, with a
rabbit in his hand.[/code]
Reading back, I realize I owe Pezer a public apology, as I realize I did actually slander him here.
Not my finest moments. I should know how to handle his stings of disappointment a lot better.