A nihilist believes that life is meaningless and the only known truth is the existence of the self. For Nietzsche, there is no objective order or structure in the world except what we give it. Penetrating the façades buttressing convictions, the nihilist discovers that all values are baseless and that reason is impotent. An anti-foundationalist is one who does not believe that there is some fundamental belief or principle which is the basic ground or foundation of inquiry and knowledge. Karen Carr concludes, the happy anti-foundationalist approach is alarming. If we accept that all perspectives are equally non-binding, then intellectual or moral arrogance will determine which perspective has precedence. Worse still, the banalization of nihilism creates an environment where ideas can be imposed forcibly with little resistance, raw power alone determining intellectual and moral hierarchies. It’s a conclusion that dovetails nicely with Nietzsche’s, who pointed out that all interpretations of the world are simply manifestations of will-to-power.
As a narcissist’s self importance approaches infinity, the relative value of everyone else’s opinion approaches zero. Extreme narcissism and nihilism are functionally equivalent. Some people may turn to nihilism because of trauma or after coming under the influence of a narcissist. Political nihilism is the position holding no political goals whatsoever, except for the complete destruction of all existing political and social institutions – along with the principles, values, and social institutions that uphold them. The narcissist is calculating. He is utilitarian through and through. He refuses obedience to the basic requirements of the natural moral law, for obedience implies that there is something larger than himself of which he is not the measure, but which measures him. He is calculating for the sake of procuring power; for it is power that allows him the control he needs to protect himself from exposure and from his having to face his own finitude.
There is no better insight into the workings of the mind of the morally depraved and narcissistic leader than what is provided in chapter 18 of Machiavelli’s The Prince. The principal characteristic of such a leader is not prudence, but craft. Until now, nihilism and totalitarianism were considered opposites: one an orderless state of affairs, the other a strict regimented order. On closer scrutiny, however, a surprising affinity can be found between these two concepts that dominated the history of the first half of the twentieth century. Fyodor Dostoevsky had, in his work, explored what happens to society when people who rise to power lack any semblance of ideological or moral convictions and view society as bereft of meaning. There are eerie similarities with Trump’s narcissistic actions and rhetoric on the campaign trail; the January 6th riots, and the fiasco with secret documents “stored” at Mar-a-Lago.
Political nihilism is the belief that no government is really needed, it believes that humans can get by without any social institutions. Full political nihilism denies the meaningfulness of all social institutions, and results in personal political apathy. It is the belief that one can just drop out and be an observer and be fine as most of our youth do. “Totalitarian nihilism” is being used to describe a state of affairs in which any leader from among the population (and there is no “absolute leader” – hence the “nihilism”) can have his own ideas about something and then violently enforce them as he wishes – hence “totalitarianism.” The totalitarian ideology (whether it be nihilism, communism, Nazism) gives people the same feelings of safety as faith in a higher power might, but is far more dangerous. For the most part it is a form of radical skepticism – noting the specific values that are being negated are not themselves nihilistic.
Skepticism may also be cast through an identity lens and used for political ends, such as blaming social media misinformation on the opposing group, which can deepen the political divide over truth and falsehoods. Disinformation often layers true information with false – an accurate fact set in misleading context, a real photograph purposely mislabelled. The key is not to determine the truth of a specific post or tweet, but to understand how it fits into a larger disinformation campaign. Effective disinformation campaigns involve diverse participants; they might even include a majority of ‘unwitting agents’ who are unaware of their role, but who amplify and embellish messages that polarize communities and sow doubt about science, mainstream journalism and Western governments. On a tactical level, disinformation campaigns do have specific aims – spreading conspiracy theories – claiming that the FBI staged a mass-shooting event, or question who actually won the 2020 US election.
Often, however, the specific message does not matter. Many think that the pervasive use of disinformation is undermining democratic processes by fostering doubt and destabilizing the common ground that democratic societies require. Perhaps the most dangerous misconception is that disinformation targets only the unsavvy or uneducated, that it works only on ‘others’. Disinformation often specifically uses the rhetoric and techniques of critical thinking to foster nihilistic skepticism. Disinformation campaigns attack us where we are most vulnerable, at the heart of our value systems, around societal values such as freedom of speech and the goals of social-media platforms such as ‘bringing people together’. For example, internal emails and interviews with key participants reveal for the first time the extent to which leading advocates of the rigged election theory touted evidence they knew to be disproven, disputed or dismissed as dubious. As individuals, we need to reflect more on how we interact with information online, and recognize how easily we can be manipulated.
Nihilism of the Alt-Right refers to the attitude that the future collapse of civilization is impossible to avert; an attitude has evolved in the movement that no matter what one may do or believe, the end is rapidly approaching and inevitable. The Alt-Right want to be on the winning side, or if this is not possible, help bring down the existing system. Participants in the Alt-Right have responded and are continuing to respond to their deepening nihilism with suicidal mass violence aimed at those they believe are most to blame for their hopelessness: women, people of color, immigrants, and the traitorous white men who sympathize with them. Similarly, white evangelical nationalist ideas of self-preservation are driven by a negative response to the increased diversification of US society. They have no trouble backing violence to bring down the system, driven by the conviction that the end times foretold in the Book of Revelation are at hand.
Existentialism asserts that people make decisions based on subjective meaning rather than pure rationality. Existentialism is the attempt to confront and deal with meaninglessness…to not succumb to nihilism or despair: to not give up or avoid responsibility. Existentialists believe the world intrinsically has no objective meaning, but through a combination of free will, awareness, and personal responsibility, we can create our own subjective meaning. The nihilist says there can be no right or wrong, let’s do whatever we want, while the existentialist says you and I alone must figure out to make life meaningful and good – we must, in fact, work without cosmic aid to figure out what ‘good’ itself is.” Existentialists are looking for a way out of man’s inhumanity to man – we look around, but we must blame ourselves for the suffering and horror; and we must look to ourselves to ensure such horrors happen rarely.
The perception we have of our own ability to change – to find an inner means of repair and strength – is instrumental in the pathways of mental wellness. Often, we have to acknowledge that change is sometimes difficult or close to impossible. Empowerment happens when individuals and organized groups are able to imagine their world differently and to realize that vision by changing the relations of power that have kept them in poverty, restricted their voice and deprived them of their autonomy. Let us focus on empowerment that focuses on increasing poor people’s freedom of choice, and action to shape their own lives. Where is the main resistance to change? There is a small group who have been made very wealthy by the existing system. Change is a threat to them. It is this group that loves its status quo so much that it sees its own change as an underhanded attack on its way of life.
Democracy is in decline because economic inequality is on the rise. The bedrock of democracy is citizens’ political equality despite unequal wealth, as high inequality inevitably erodes the barrier between wealth and political influence. In the US exists a nihilistic populism driven by Donald Trump that directs his followers downward against marginal, and outwards against foreigners, rather than upward against the powerful. Dostoevsky warned of the strain of nihilism that infects Donald Trump and his movement: power for power’s sake, playacting at revolution. The only way to fight against this nihilism is to replace cynicism with a politics that offers the possibility of meaningful change. This means proposing bold progressive programmes that would dramatically challenge the status quo. In order to restore democracy in America it will be necessary to throw off neoliberal policies of wage suppression, deregulation, and tax cuts; and, once again, put political power in the hands of the American working class.