He said there are three types of happiness:
- The lowest form is that of the slave, who only seeks comfort and rest. It's a passive form of happiness, that basically consists of forgetting about yourself – in the form of working too much, gambling, drinking, etc.
- The highest form is the happiness of the master; sought in fighting and conquest, in action and tension, in "war". The more power, the more happiness.
- Finally we have the happiness of the child, achieved through play and creativity.
None of them is more real than the other. High happiness is real happiness for masters, in the same way that low happiness is real happiness for slaves. Besides, according to the German philosopher, we can find all the three types in each one of us.
Contemporary happiness, though, is more the slave type: we look for comfort, ease, security, leisure, rest and anesthetic. But what we actually need is a society in which each person can have something to fight for, and object to conquer. We need a society of masters, a meaning for our lives.
