The Rejuvenating Power of Nihilism
Transcript of The Rejuvenating Power of Nihilism
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THE REJUVENATING POWER OF NIHILISM
By John Marmysz
The essence of nihilism as a psychological phenomenon is defined by a perceived
incongruity between real-life capacities and ideal standards of achievement. From
the perspective of the nihilist, nothing that we do is of worth because nothing of
which we are capable measures up to the superlative standards set by absolute
Being, Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Freedom, etc. Since perfection is always beyond
our reach, all of our accomplishments in this world are judged to be substandard
by the nihilist. Human life is, thus, a constant and hopeless struggle that involves a
perpetual falling away from the highest, most worthy ideals. The further we reach,
the more painfully we fall away from all that is true, good and perfect.
We might venture to inquire into the more general circumstances that occasion this
seemingly depressing incongruity. It is has often been suggested that the
psychological problem of nihilism is a phenomenon arising in response to larger
cultural and societal changes in the world. For instance, John Zerzan has claimed
that the march of technology, in the direction of the complete industrialization of
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society is the deep, causal factor in the emergence of modern, passive
nihilism.(1)He follows Heidegger in this regard, claiming that technology tends to
promote an instrumental sort of thinking in which human beings lose their sense of
freedom and happiness, in the process becoming alienated from nature itself.
Nihilism, Zerzan seems to believe, is a problem unique to life in late capitalist
societies where market forces and the drive towards profit and efficiency have
eroded our confidence in the highest moral values. The nihilist feels a sense of
passive despair as a result of being crushed under the heel of capitalist technology.
The ideals of Being, Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Freedom, etc., come to mean
nothing, and the passive nihilist laments this incongruity between the way that the
world is and the way that it should be, feeling powerless to change anything.
While it is highly questionable that the sole cause of nihilism is the operation of
market forces and technology, it seems less questionable that nihilism certainly
introduces a distressing predicament strongly associated with cultural crisis,
change and transition. What I would like to argue here is that nihilism has less to
do with technology, as Zerzan claims, and more to do with cultural transition
generally. The phenomenon of nihilism becomes most apparent during times of
cultural upheaval and change because it is during these periods when the
legitimacy and desirability of the collective values and aspirations of a people are
most likely to be thrown into question. During such periods, individuals may lose
the strength of their taken for granted and unquestioned confidence in the socially
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sanctioned activities and undertakings encouraged and advocated by civilization.
The shattering of this confidence may encourage meditation by individuals on the
criteria by which valuable things in general are judged. When this occurs, a period
of reflective reorientation and crisis is ushered in, and the individual is called to
re-evaluate the highest values of civilization in light of the most unconditioned,
absolute and categorical standards of worth. With this, it becomes apparent that
the actual values of civilization that we are socialized into are not, in fact, the
objects of our highest aspirations. Rather, in participating in the projects of the
collective, we were all along motivated by a more ambitious, yet hidden, desire for
perfection. Though the consummation of this desire for perfection is doomed to
failure, in falling away from it we are able to appreciate and contemplate its
grandeur. Thus, nihilism, though often emerging from the painful and tumultuous
confusion of cultural upheaval, never-the-less announces itself as more than a
simple threat. It also ushers in a period of crisis, and thus opens up the opportunity
for action and the re-evaluation of values. Whereas authors such as Zerzan
commonly emphasize the passive and despairing side of nihilism, what I would
like to do here, rather, is to underscore its active and rejuvenating powers.
We know that the ends and goals we pursue as worthwhile are, to a great degree,
conditioned and reinforced by the groups that we find ourselves in. Though all of
us may, perhaps, initiate changes in our own communities, none of us may refuse
to be born into those communities or to be influenced by them. The manner in
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which we interpret and understand the world is irretrievably colored by our
upbringing, and as we grow and mature into adulthood we inherit traditional
ambitions from the various communities and subcultures that we belong to.
Society molds and conditions the individual from the outside, rewarding those
beliefs and behaviors that are beneficial to the group while discouraging and
punishing those that threaten collective cohesion.
Though human desires and aspirations are certainly shaped by outside social
forces, this does not mean that internal forces play no role whatsoever in this
regard. Humans are called from within just as forcefully as they are from without.
As Emile Durkheim observes, humans have an innate "longing for infinity"(2) that
expresses itself in the unquenchable desire for the ultimate. As we struggle for
achievement, this innate endowment provides not only the motivation for our
striving, but a standard against which we judge our accomplishments. Different
individuals have, at differing times, called this internal force by different names:
Elan Vital, Will, Will to Power, Spirit, Soul, The Animating Principle, etc. It is,
however, always represented as the internal, innate life force that makes us alive
and human. This internal drive seeks dissipation and expression, never resting
satisfied so long as some of its energy is held in reserve. Its goals are very general
and very ambitious. It seeks the superlative, the ultimate and the infinite in
whatever it attempts. It desires perfection. It wants to touch Being, Truth,
Goodness, Beauty and Freedom themselves, and it remains unsatisfied so long as
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these things are out of reach.
So it is that humans are called from both inside and outside. From the inside,
nature tells us that we must engage in activity and striving. What we possess is
never good enough, and we must always try to transform what we have achieved
into something better and different. This inner drive takes perfection as its
standard, pushing us forward when we might otherwise fall into complacent
satisfaction with our already actualized accomplishments. We are constantly
reminded by this inner daimon that there is always more to do and higher levels of
accomplishment to achieve. It makes us feel dissatisfied with what we have and
motivates us to reach for what we don't already possess.
From the outside, however, society tells us that we should pursue those ends and
goals valued by, and useful to, the group. The collective gives concrete shape and
purpose to our inner drives, allowing for the realization of hopes and plans. While
the call from inside is idealistic, the call of the group is more pragmatic and
realistic. It encourages us to reign in our desire for perfection and to pursue those
projects that afford the greatest chances of success. Unqualified perfection does
not exist, the group tells us, and so in order to avoid the senseless dissipation of
our life's energy, society claims that we should redirect our efforts towards those
more modest projects that may realistically result in fulfillment.
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The inner and the outer forces that shape humans are, thus, in conflict. The inner
drive for "infinity" perpetually struggles to free itself from the constraining force
of collective expectation, while the force of the collective never ceases to
tyrannize and direct the sum total of human aspirations. Locked in a war for
dominance, the individual and the collective encounter one another as on a
battlefield. Yet, like soldiers who find their purpose in fighting the enemy, neither
the individual nor the collective can do without one another. They are bound
together by their mutual antagonism. This antagonism brings into existence an
entity that is dependent upon both and yet transcends them both. Like the war that
is larger than any of its participants, this emergent entity acts to bind the individual
and the collective ever more tightly and intimately together, perpetuating
engagement and strengthening the commitment of each side to its respective role.
This emergent entity is culture. The force of culture cements the individual and the
collective into a discontented whole.
Social scientists and philosophers have speculated endlessly concerning the nature
of the "social glue" that binds people together in groups, and though they may
disagree on many details, one thing seems clear. Culture is a force that affects and
shapes both individuals and the groups to which they belong, and no group of
individuals is able to fully break free from its influence. Culture, however, is a
teacher whose method of instruction is sometimes very covert and subtle. We
often don't consciously realize what we have been taught until our presumptions
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are thrown into question and our worldviews have been challenged as dubious.
This sometimes happens when outsiders bring to our attention certain details of
our beliefs that seem curious and counter-intuitive to them. From the "outside," the
values and concerns that a culture takes seriously may appear odd. For instance, to
an American it may seem strange that Japanese custom requires one to remove
one's shoes before entering a domicile. When questioned why this is the case, a
person from Japan might not even know how to answer. It is just the way that
things have always been done, it might be claimed, and no one has ever bothered
to offer an explicit explanation or reason for the custom. Many of the customs,
assumptions, and values that are propagated throughout a culture are of this nature.
We unreflectively absorb them, and as long as they go unchallenged and remain
ungrounded, they continue to covertly color and direct our understanding and
perception of the world around us, binding us in comradeship to some people and
alienating us from others.
Of course, just because no justification for a particular cultural belief has ever
been offered does not mean that one might not exist. There are any number of
possible ways that one might justify, explain or account for particular cultural
beliefs. However, in order to make seemingly strange customs and beliefs
comprehensible to an outsider, such defenses must appeal to a common bond that
holds across differing cultural groups. A Japanese person might explain that by
taking off one's shoes before entering a house, it is hoped that the cleanliness of
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the house's interior will be retained. In this manner, an appeal is made to the virtue
of cleanliness, which is presumably a value that Americans adhere to in
companionship with the Japanese. Any time that we attempt to communicate,
argue and reconcile ourselves with others who possess beliefs, ideas and customs
or values different from our own we must do so by appeal to higher principles that
all involved interlocutors recognize as legitimate. Without access to such higher
principles and standards of legitimacy, no understanding would be possible
between individuals possessing seemingly inconsistent cultural beliefs. However,
since intercultural communication and understanding is possible, it follows that
there must be some general standards that human beings recognize as authoritative
and transcultural guides to correct thought and practice. When we try to
communicate with those outside of our own culture concerning issues of value and
worth, we are forced to make appeals to standards that transcend our own
particular cultural systems. The appeal to common values requires that we engage
in a process that involves abstraction from particular, concrete instances of
valuable things. No two people will agree on the value of every particular thing,
but they may agree on the more general standards by which particular things
should be judged valuable. Cultural particulars call our attention towards, and hint
at, some of the things that we consider important, but they can also obscure,
disguise and get in the way of our ability to recognize some of the more general
and abstract values that guide and condition our adherence to them. If we allow
ourselves to focus too closely on these sorts of particulars (as sociologists and
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anthropologists often do), we run the risk of misunderstanding the larger
significance and meaning that cultural practices possess for us as human beings.
Though we have become quite adept at dividing ourselves into a huge variety of
groups and subgroups, such diversity belies the fact that as human beings we share
an essence that unites us as one. This essence is the "longing for infinity."
The longing for infinity finds its voice in the struggle of individuals within the
collective, and it expresses itself through the accomplishments of culture. Yet
culture also has its own essence. Emerging out of the human struggle within the
collective, culture takes on a life of its own, reinforcing the bond between groups
of individuals. As culture develops and evolves it goes on to seek its own highest
values. This search is energized by the creative contributions of, and the battle
between, a wide variety of individuals, groups and subgroups. During periods of
cultural development, the needs of the collective and the innate drives of
individuals are most closely allied. At such times there is ample opportunity for
the individual to find a variety of means for expressing and exercising the inner
impulse for infinity. Likewise, particular collective norms and values have not
solidified to the point of reification, and so the expectations of the group are more
fluid and less unpliant than they may, at other times, become. This is a situation
that allows for cultural flowering and growth. Culture, at such times, is dynamic,
expressing itself in activity and the expansion of possibilities. It is a force of
becoming whose symptoms are animation and creativity.
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However, as Oswald Spengler has pointed out, the dynamism of culture has a
tendency towards the complacency of civilization.(3)In civilization, the drive for
infinity is quashed by the realistic and conservative forces of the collective. Its
emergence signals that the collective has won the war, and that the individual has
become a prisoner. Whereas culture is characterized by energy and creativity,
civilization is the crystallization of culture. It is rigid and static. It expresses itself
in the desire for preservation and conservation. As a culture moves towards
becoming a civilization, it experiences the realization of its latent possibilities, yet
in the process loses the impetus for further development. In civilization, culture
develops a firm identity with which it remains satisfied. The task of civilization is
the protection and perpetuation of this identity, and as civilization triumphs,
culture sings its swan song, leaving behind the very force of energetic life and
animation that made its accomplishments possible in the first place. Civilization is
earthly and lower. It dismisses the soaring visions of culture as overly general,
vague, impractical and, therefore, useless. Yet it was precisely because of these
very same characteristics that development and creative activity were first
possible. The energy of culture served to motivate the activity that led to the
realities of civilization. Whereas the accomplishment of civilization is that it has
already learned and discovered much, the liveliness of culture stems from the fact
that there are still many battles to be fought and that there is still much to do.
Culture is the battlefield. Civilization is the armistice.
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As civilization triumphs, the individual must submit to greater and greater forms
of restraint in exchange for the guarantee of a role and a place within the
civilization. So it is, as Freud claimed, that humans undergo the repression of their
innate, anti-social drives, redirecting those energies into the service of civilization.
Such diversion has both benefits and costs. The growth and flourishing of
civilization takes place, at least to a large extent, by means of squelching our
innate, human drives. We usually don't even notice this happening, and we often
become unreflectively entangled within activities and relationships that dissolve
our unique, personal awareness of ourselves and our mighty aspirations. In our
everydayness we surrender to the public world and melt away into the projects of
civilization, becoming instruments rather than selves. Heidegger calls this
situation "falleness"(4)and characterizes it as the height of inauthenticity. To have
fallen is to lose one's way in the quest for that which is most important and
worthy. It involves becoming immersed in everyday activities which, in
demanding our attention, distract us from greater, more important pursuits. These
greater pursuits, though they may be consciously forgotten, still insistently call to
us from within, tormenting us with feelings of emptiness and anxiety. So long as
we turn away from the longing for perfect Being, Truth, Goodness and Freedom,
we are tormented with the feeling that there is unfinished business to be taken care
of. Though repression, sublimation and falleness help to produce all of the grand
and wonderful accomplishments that we take pride in as members of a common
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civilization, they also have the effect of producing latent feelings of discontent and
dissatisfaction that may become manifest through mental illness, disease and
spiritual malaise. These are the tradeoffs for the benefits of civilization.(5)
During the vital and dynamic period of cultural development, we generally accept
these tradeoffs as bearable. Through ongoing negotiation and compromise, many
of the contradictions between the individual and the collective might be smoothed
over and worked out, and the duties and tasks that civilization demands of its
members may serve as conduits through which individuals pursue their own
spiritual needs. A school teacher, for instance, might pursue ultimate Truth by way
of performing teaching duties, or a scientist might pursue Being itself through
research that produces useful products and technology. However, there are periods
of time when the incongruity between the needs of civilization and the needs of
the individuals becomes so pronounced that nihilism pushes to the fore and asserts
itself as a problem that can't be ignored. When a civilization demands of its
members that they sacrifice their own inner aspirations for the sustenance of the
collective, nihilism emerges as an especially pervasive social problem.
The apex of civilization occasions the most extreme manifestations of nihilism. It
is at this point that the ideals of the past crumble into nothing and all creative
possibility is forgotten. This transition to nihilism doesn't take place overnight;
rather it is a long, protracted decline, and so the people who live through this
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period are torn between the ideals of the past and the realities of the present. The
pinnacle of development in a cultures soul also marks the point at which it must
begin to wither and deteriorate. Individuals who participate in the life of a culture
experience this slow decline as a sense of loss. Their nostalgia comes from the
feeling that the highest, most noble accomplishments lie in the past, and that
measured against those accomplishments, nothing in the present world is really
worthy.
Nihilistic decline has occurred at various times throughout recorded history, but
the apocalyptic claim that nihilism necessarily signals the final and unequivocal
death and dissolution of a culture is overly dramatic. In this I agree with Zerzan
when he writes, "Nihilism is not a one-way street with no return."(6) It seems
obvious, simply by recognizing our own indebtedness to fallen civilizations like
the Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese, etc. that cultures often become so
inexorably intertwined that it makes no literal sense to speak of a "pure" culture
with a distinct life cycle. The biological image of birth, maturity, old age and
death, which became so influential with Spengler, may be a bit misleading, in
other words. Though cultures rise and fall, they do not literally die out. Rather
their influences reach into other cultures and find new life in the interaction with
foreign customs and folk ways.
In our present day, it has been claimed that it is this very intertwining of diverse
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elements that has contributed to cultural confusion and a widespread lack of
confidence in the traditional values previously taken for granted. Multiculturalism
and diversity, while intended to promote tolerance and liberality, may also run the
risk of encouraging the kind of relativism and confusion that contributes to
nihilism. This is a major point stressed in Alan Bloom's The Closing of the
American Mind.(7) His suggestion for combating this trend is to settle on a cannon
of basic texts from which we can draw our collective wisdom and ideals.
However, such utilitarian measures seem too self-conscious and calculated to be
truly convincing. Once exposed to the vastly divergent and contradictory wisdom
of the world's cultures, we just can't go back. We must now face the possibility
that many of the values, "truths" and ideals that we previously took to be universal
and objective are really, in fact, relative to our cultural upbringing.
This is our contemporary crisis, and it signals the beginning of the end for modern
human beings. But in the words of Giannini Vattimo, it is also signals a point of
Verwindgung, or an opportunity for convalescence and recovery. Caught in the
difficult stage of cultural transition, we must find a way of prospering in an
unfamiliar world as we reel from the shock of our passage. We must attempt to
develop concepts that make sense of our changed perception of humans and their
role in the universe. As we fall further away from traditional values, we only
prolong our feelings of homelessness and bewilderment the longer that we
stubbornly grasp at remnants of the past. This being the case, we should learn to
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refashion those remnants into something useful for the future. Our convalescence
must end at some point, and when it does humankind should emerge strong and
confident, rather than weak and grieving.
The undermining of the highest values of civilization has the effect of emphasizing
to individuals that these values were simply conventions all along, and in
revealing this fact, the threat of nihilism emerges. Once in the grip of nihilism, the
incongruity between desire and reality opens up an abyss in human life producing
a situation in which humans feels unfulfilled, incomplete and impatient with the
world. This situation, though unpleasant, is not necessarily one that should be, on
the one hand, passed over as quickly as possible, ignored or disregarded, or, on the
other, allowed to languish on forever. The problem of nihilism has the import of a
crisis, and as such it holds a transformative power that promises other things for
the future. Nihilism is the decline that follows a climax in human achievement,
and as such it allows the distance necessary for the appreciation of the completed
tasks of the past. In this way it is a bittersweet moment in the flux of life,
embodying both the pain of loss and the pleasure of beholding culmination.
Nihilism is neither a wholly negative nor a wholly positive situation. It is, rather, a
phenomenon that signals a turning point in the value structure of a civilization. It
is an opportunity to convalesce, meditate and to linger on our present condition.
"What is to be done?" This is the question repeatedly asked throughout the
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literature of nihilism,(8)and now we can begin to understand its force. The
question is in one sense a sincere request for direction and guidance, while in
another sense it is a cry of despair and confusion. It is a question posed at those
points when the highest values of civilization lose their legitimacy and people are
left in the lurch, floundering in the abyss of their lost faith. In losing the values of
convention, the nihilist is made aware of an inner drive that remains unchanged.
As it indicates a falling away from the hopes of the past, nihilism also attunes us to
our own spiritual depths. It signals the possibility for renewed growth and future
development. It is an indication both that something has gone wrong and that there
still remains an inner ambition for the pursuit of higher purposes and goals. It is a
downwards movement that creates room for an upwards movement.
If the history of culture is conceived of as a never ending vacillation between
ascent and decline, growth and decay, rise and fall, then nihilism corresponds to
those periods during which a culture experiences the exhaustion of its greatest
possibilities. Such periods have ambiguous characteristics. On the one hand, they
are the pinnacle of civilized achievement. When a culture has reached its full
potential, it has produced its greatest successes and experienced its most
wonderful triumphs. It has grown to its full height. On the other hand, such
periods also embody a climax or a pinnacle that signals consummation and
completion. There is nothing higher to reach for, and so cultural rigidity and
stagnation are initiated at the very moment when the highest achievements have
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been attained. These are the periods when the desire for conservation and the
perpetuation of the present order predominate. The symptoms of cultural nihilism,
then, may correspond with the greatest accomplishments of civilization. Whenever
these accomplishments are accompanied by the repression of the human drive to
push farther and higher, nihilism is inaugurated.
Yet in nihilistic decline, possibility is, ironically, reconstituted and new ambitions
are discovered. The life force that animates individual human beings within a
collective may be siphoned off into the conservation of the status quo, but this
force will never remain happy and satisfied there. The spirit becomes bored,
frustrated and discontented if restrained for too long. It needs to expand itself,
seeking new projects and adventures. As culture solidifies into civilization, it
offers fewer and fewer concrete challenges to the individuals who participate in its
life. This being the case, the innate longing for infinity finds fewer and fewer
legitimate outlets. Discontent grows as a result and civilization loses its allies.
With the fragmentation of the citizenry, a civilization slides into a period of
decline, and its highest aspirations become curiosities of the past. But as its
successes crumble and disintegrate, new potential is created, and the vitality of
culture is reborn. The spiritual energy of individuals is again unleashed to seek
infinity. Nihilism, in this manner, emancipates the innate dynamism, creativity and
potentially destructive capacity of human nature.
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Situating the moment of nihilism within a grander cycle of ascent and decline
grants it a kind of inevitability and necessity. Conceived of in this way, nihilism
acts as a necessary condition for all else that is encompassed within the cycle of
cultural history. Within a nihilistic historical framework, decline is understood as a
necessary stage that must follow the glorious moments of cultural ascent. If the
great accomplishments of civilization are to be marveled at and cherished, then to
deny the worth of any condition making those accomplishments possible is to fall
short of fully appreciating the struggle and difficulty involved in the pursuit of
ideals. Decline is a necessary condition for the greatness of civilization. It fits into
a bigger picture, and so should be understood not in isolation, but in the context of
history's larger processes. When understood in this fashion, nihilism can not only
be endured, but appreciated.
A grand, "objective" perspective on history stands in sharp contrast to the lived,
subjective experience of individuals within history, however. From within history,
understanding is fragmentary, and the pains, frustrations and sufferings that one
experiences may seem to be without purpose or meaning. From this subjective
perspective, one's declining confidence in the values and ideals of the past might
be experienced as a reason for regret and passive despair. Hopelessness may
follow from the death of yesterday's unlimited hopes, and the present may seem to
be without purpose. In such times of crisis, the future becomes an unknown
"nothing" which, if meditated upon for too long, has the potential to absorb and
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dissipate all motivation towards activity and effort. The notion of an endless,
infinite, unstructured future, an abyss of unknown and unthinkable possibility,
tends to confuse and overwhelm rather than to direct, motivate and focus one's
efforts.
If it was possible to gain a God's eye perspective on the drama of human struggle,
and to ally our own passions and emotions completely with the collective history
of that struggle, we might be able to do away with the sort of incongruity between
ourselves and the world that leads to personal despair. But then we would be gods,
not humans, and the transformation from the finite to the infinite would be
complete. While this may be a worthy goal to strive towards, we have yet to
achieve it. As Aristotle observed in Poetics,(9) the human mind can only grasp and
truly appreciate dramas of a limited magnitude. Any production that goes on for
too long or that is too intricate squanders its significance on an audience,
producing not pleasure but confusion and discomfort. A clear beginning, middle
and end allow us to encompass and make sense of the horrors of tragedy or the
absurdities of comedy. However, we ourselves are caught right in the middle of
human history, and so we are fated never to have access to the beginning of the
end of this life drama.
My departure point for the present discussion was the observation that many
authors, such as Zerzan, tend to emphasize the negative and destructive aspects of
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nihilism. They characterize nihilism as a force of decline that should be fought
against with all of our might and overcome with haste. However, what I have here
attempted to make apparent is that this negative force may play an important and
positive role in the transitional periods of individuals and groups. As values
change and evolve, there is often a nostalgia and longing for the past. Such periods
are opportunities for people to come to terms with their situation, take stock of
those things they believe to be important to them as human beings, and to finally
orient themselves towards the future in a meaningful manner. Nihilism is a
moment of mourning that follows the death of old values and often precedes the
birth of new ones. As such it is an indispensable juncture between old and new
times.
Eric Hoffer wrote, "...every radical adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem: we
undergo a test, we have to prove ourselves. It needs inordinate self-confidence to
face drastic change without inner trembling."(10)I suspect that such self-
confidence is very rare, and that the "inner trembling" that characterizes the
experience of nihilism in the individual is more common than not during periods
of cultural transition. Widespread spiritual suffering, frustration and despair
normally accompany major changes in collective values. Sociologists and
psychologists have studied this phenomenon extensively, finding that the upset of
routine, habit and tradition tend to have unsettling psychological effects upon
communities of individuals. It is during such times of turmoil that the assumed and
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taken for granted are challenged and thrown into question, destroying the
coherence of the collective worldview. With the shattering of the taken for
granted, individuals lose the familiar framework that allows them to organize and
interpret the vast and chaotic phenomena of reality. They may become confused
and overwhelmed, being forced to recognize how easily their most dearly held
assumptions about the world are swept away by forces bigger than they can
control or even comprehend. Such challenges to our understanding of the world
are often experienced as painful and disruptive.
The pain, suffering and turmoil involved in cultural transition is not something to
be avoided, however. Change is not only necessary, it is unstoppable, and though
it often takes us in directions that seem progressive, we should also recognize that
change just as often occurs in directions that may be perceived as regressive.
Today, the contributions that nourish and feed our communities come from a wide
and diverse variety of people whose experiences and backgrounds differ radically.
Currently we are experiencing an explosion in the amount of serious and valuable
discourse that originates from increasingly diverse perspectives. Under these
conditions it is likely that not everyone will agree on exactly what constitutes
cultural ascent and what constitutes cultural decline. On the contrary, we may be
certain that in such a milieu the transitions considered by some to be favorable and
wonderful will be considered by others to be loathsome and nihilistic. For these
reasons it seems to me that the phenomenon of nihilism will never wholly
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disappear. Especially in the dynamic and multicultural world of today, it will
remain a persistent and chronic phenomenon that brings frustration and pain while
also spurring continued reflection and meditation on the nature of value.
Notes
(1)John Zerzan. "The Age of Nihilism." Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed. Vol. 18. #1 (#49/Spring- Summer,
2000), p. 39.
Some other works suggesting that nihilism is a result of capitalism and technology include: Y. Sogomonov, P.
Landesman. Nihilism Today. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1977; Gianni Vattimo. The End of Modernity. Baltimore:
The John Hopkins Press, 1988; Arthur Brittan. Masculinity and Power. New York: Basil Blackwell, Inc., 1989; Cornell
West. Race Matters. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.
(2)Emile Durkheim. Suicide. New York: The Free Press, 1951. p. 257. (Durkheim, in the 1800s, conducted this
classic investigation into the phenomenon of suicide, finding that suicide rates in France tended to increase during
times of social change and industrial or economic crisis. He called this type of suicide "anomic," meaning that it
resulted from a sudden change in the character of the social values that constrain and shape the expectations of
citizens.)
(3)Oswald Spengler. The Decline of the West. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. p. 31. In 1927 Freud wrote, "...I
scorn to distinguish between culture and civilization." He considered both to be those "respects in which human life has
raised itself above its animal status and differs from the life of beasts." See: Sigmund Freud. The Future of an Illusion.
New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1964. p. 2. This equivocal usage is continued in Civilization and Its
Discontents.
(4)Martin Heidegger. Being and Time. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. pp. 164 - 168.
(5)David Michael Levin argues that mental illness, and specifically narcissism, depression and schizophrenia are results
of the nihilistic forgetfulness of Being. He also claims that cancer has a similar cause. See: David Michael Levin (ed.)
Pathologies of the Modern Self. New York: New York University Press, 1987. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) offers descriptions of a variety of mental disorders, many of which
appear to have features similar to the experience of nihilism as I have defined it. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is the
affliction that I was surprised to find had the most nihilistic sounding characteristics. See: Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1994.
(6)Zerzan. p. 41.
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(7)Alan Bloom. The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. Vattimo. p. 4.
(8)It even appears as the title of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's famous novel: What is to Be Done? Ithaca and London:
Cornell University Press, 1996.
(9)Aristotle. Poetics II.7.1450b.25.
(10)Eric Hoffer. The Ordeal of Change. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1963. p. 3.