Why Nihilism?
Nihilism is considered evil,
extreme, something so bad that many refuse to use the word to describe
themselves even when the label would be apt. Others use the term to
try and silence enemies.
Yet I consider myself a Nihilist
and I’m not crazy or attention seeking, I’m just trying to label my
feelings and ideas as accurately as possible. I look around and I
don’t see any belief set or political stripe that I can believe in,
not even one I could feign allegiance to. This world offers me nothing
to hope in, a society where cowards and failures are called heroes and
made into role models, where war is called peace and death is called
life. I hate what I see and despise those responsible for it all.
Immigrants to America have been told the streets are paved in gold but
all I see are potholes and weeds growing in the ever-expanding cracks.
We’re given garbage and told we can build skyscrapers with it. I’m
sick of the lies, the foolish fantasies, and all the reeking fumes
that support our pseudo-pop-culture built on vapid values. How does it
make you feel?
So many problems and issues have
become so complicated and convoluted yet we’re socially compelled to
keep trying the same things, to keep banging our heads against brick
walls and each other to find a happy and acceptable solution; why? Who
says I have to buy into this? Who says I have to buy into religion,
traditional beliefs, and standard ideologies? Why am I being compelled
to die for my country right or wrong? Why is our society placing so
much effort into stopping drug abuse and suicide even as the rates of
both continue to climb?
Maybe instead of treating the
symptoms we should target the source – the utter lack of substance
behind contemporary values. People kill themselves because they are
driven by lies, people drug themselves to escape a living hell and
find a dying peace. Why not just blow it all to hell and at least
create a chance of starting over?
The typical answer within democracy
is to just increase inclusiveness. By this reasoning the more people
participate the more they will be happy with the outcome. Ha! What
does it really generate? More talk, less action, more conflict and
fewer useful results. Solutions never come from endless dialogue they
come from movement and change. It’s delusional to think that every
situation has a solution achievable through construction, that every
wound can be healed with a bandage. It’s that stereotypical cockeyed
optimism which deems every problem rectifiable through a smile and a
nod. Destruction is often desirable, even the optimal solution, yet in
our ambient culture it is always addressed as the last option, why?
Nietzsche once wrote, "All good
things were formerly bad things.” Maybe we should rethink guns, drugs
and disease. I think I like every force humanity can’t conquer, every
force that destroys to live and forces the living to fight or die
creating a reason for life.
Now is the time to break what can
be broken, to revaluate everything, and discover a totally new way of
living. Now is the time for Nihilism.
Nihilism Defined
Nihilism is a view
composed of skepticism coupled with reduction. 'Political' Nihilism is
active, not passive, and can be summarized as when conditions in the
social organization are so unhealthy as to make destruction desirable for
its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility. In his 1861 novel Fathers And Sons, author Ivan
Turgenev accurately defined this worldview, "A nihilist is a person who
does not bow down to any authority, who does not accept any principle on
faith, however much that principle may be revered."
A common but
inaccurate description of nihilism is a "belief in nothing", a misleading
phrase that defines the nihilist as one merely trading one belief for
another. Instead we should substitute faith for belief where 'faith' is
defined as the firm belief in something for which there is no proof, and
therefore the nihilist is actually characterized by the absence
of faith. A universal definition of nihilism could then well be the
rejection of that which requires faith for salvation or actualization and
would span to include anything from theology to secular ideology.
Within nihilism
faith and similar values are discarded because they've no verifiable,
objective substance, they are invalid serving only as yet another
exploitable lie never producing any strategically beneficial outcome.
Faith is an imperative hazard to group and individual because it compels
suspension of reason, critical analysis and common sense. Nietzsche once
said that faith means not wanting to know. Faith is "don't let those pesky
facts get in the way of our political plan or our mystically ordained path
to heaven"; faith is "do what I tell you because I said so". All things
that can't be disproved need faith, utopia needs faith, idealism needs
faith, spiritual salvation needs faith; reject faith.
The second element
nihilism rejects is the belief in final purpose, that the universe is
built upon non-random events and that everything is structured towards an
eventual conclusive revelation. This is called teleology and it's the
fatal flaw plaguing the whole rainbow of false solutions from Marxism to
Buddhism and everything in between. Teleology compels obedience towards
the fulfillment of "destiny" or "progress" or similar such grandiose
goals. Teleology is used by despots and utopian dreamers alike as a
coercive motivation leading only to yet another apocryphal apocalypse; the
real way to lead humanity by the nose - tell them it's all part of the big
plan so play along or else! It may even seem reasonable but there is not
now and never has been any evidence the universe operates in a
teleological way - there is no final purpose. The universe does not
operate according to human values! This is the beautiful simplicity of
nihilism that no other idea-set has. By breaking free from the tethers of
teleology one is empowered in outlook and outcome because for the first
time it's possible to find answers without proceeding from pre-existing
perceptions. We're finally free to find out what's really out there and
not just the partial evidence to support original pretext and faulty
notions only making a hell on earth in the process; reject teleology.
Active or Passive?
The randomness of
nature is a powerful asset because it negates the credibility of
teleology, that purposeful predestination that undermines
self-determination. So you have the option to passively accept the
socio-historically established concoction of false absolutes, 'truth' and
moral laws that can be nothing but myth, or you can accept real for what
it is and assume the healthier role of active participant constantly
defining existence through perception and intelligence. In this way
defining existence is predicated upon life, and a conscious awareness of
sensory input combined with a critical interpretation of what that input
means. And the more highly developed the consciousness, the greater the
intelligence and the more effective and functional existence becomes.
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Passivity is a myth. We are all intricately enmeshed within a
dynamic system that doesn't just demand but compels active decision-making. |
Direction
Often what appears
to be the extreme message is actually just tomorrow's story today. One can
ignore it and panic when it eventually arrives, or learn from it and be
ahead of your time prescient, prepared, and devoid of fear and panic. We
live in a dynamic era where traditional values have been warped by
authorities to serve unjust ends contrary to public well-being. It's an
era of contradiction that often necessitates counterintuitive conduct,
where sanity is nihilism and patriotism is sedition. The recourse for
survival within this context of the erosion of traditional meaning is
nihilism.
Nihilism
is the organic, reasoned response to artificial chaos, the intentional
chaos manufactured by government, religion and mass-media.
A plan is secondary to the ideas
because the artificial structures around us, the outcome, is a product of
the collective vision and once concepts are implemented details sort
themselves out afterwards. The new will grow on the ash heaps of the old.
Remember: today you have the luxury of making a decision no one else can
make for you; choose carefully which side to be on.
"The beginning of a
revolution is in reality the end of a belief."
- Gustave Le Bon
Death to God
Death to Government
Death to Philosophy
Death to Ideology
Death to Debt
Death to Morality
Beyond right and
left, beyond right and wrong...
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