This is a book about things left untold. About perennial truths grand and small, imprisoned in the catacombs of social pretense, feel-good lies and ideological projections that line up the modern human hive. More than a book, Nihilism is as an act of courage, both in its ambitious philosophical scope and willingness to take on difficult conversations about the emperor’s not-so-new clothes.
Animated by the transcendentalist spirit of ancient traditions and most notably, by Friedrich Nietzsche’s esoteric moral philosophy, this collection of essays sets out to help the contemplative human make sense of life among 21st century ruins - and love it all, nonetheless. For skeptics who look out the window to point out there are no ruins, Nihilism brilliantly excoriates our modern condition with its mazes of institutionalized confusion and deception, to expose the ruins beyond the shadow of a doubt.
The content is likely to unsettle, possibly upset, many profiles. These include literal, linear and categorical thinkers; individualists, materialists, and egalitarians; obtuse puritans, avowed hedonists and complacent fatalists; congenital malcontents, try-hard iconoclasts and neurotics of all stripes; not to be forgotten - popularity seekers and practitioners of self-deception such as the all too familiar auto-congratulatory altruists among us.
Unfortunately, this covers a massive chunk of the modern population. While a minority are sure to find their homecoming in these incisive articulations, it is a testament to the book’s life-affirming message that the author’s voice never despairs of finding listeners among the majority, without the slightest attempt to ‘educate’ or convert. This sets him apart from more melancholy thinkers like Roger Scruton with whom he shares many views on the modern predicament.
Though not addressed to an audience of trained philosophers, this is a philosophical project. The target audience remains unabashedly ‘select’ in that a certain level of appreciation for subtlety and complexity, and a penchant for spirituality and esthetics are expected from the reader. Yet one would be fatally wrong to anticipate impenetrable bloviations, pretentious jargon or razzle-dazzle stylistics (or statistics). In fact, the absence of academic pedantry and writer vanity is striking. Straightforward writing that doesn’t shy away from common parlance where needed, is replete with meaningful explanations and relatable examples, which renders abstract philosophical concepts instantly accessible. Most importantly, each essay captivates through unusual depth of observation and a palpable passion for wisdom and truth. Reflections on a wide range of psychological and socio-political topics develop into an overarching vector that makes up the philosophical backbone of the book: nihilism --> realism --> idealism --> transcendentalism.
Nihilism is a mature philosophy the author is careful to divorce from ‘Kiddie-Nihilism.’ This is the famous philosophical caricature often taken as license to throw tantrums of the existentialist sort leading to rationalization of destructive juvenile behavior. If there is no objective ground for moral truth and no inherent meaning, the thinking goes, why not be the cool cynical anarchist next door who indulges in personal comforts at the expense of all else?
Mature nihilism steers us away from this error. Instead, by accepting a lack of inherent meaning we clear the mind of all anthropomorphic belief so we can discipline it, not depress it. This is mental hygiene necessary for maximizing life prospects. Just as one cannot clearly see the potential of a floor plan when the house is full of furniture, dirt and clutter, it is difficult to make out reality when most of it is littered with solipsistic belief. By cleaning up, we can extricate Reality from social reality and its artifices.
Nihilism sets the stage for realism - the habit of paying attention to natural forces and perennial patterns. Instead of engaging in futile attempts to deny, change or escape them through projection and prescription (the irresistible ‘all men have been created equal’ comes to mind), we effectively adapt to patterns of reality over the long-term and see them as basis for valuation and moral code. If we are not interested in reality - reality is interested in us (consequentialism).
This graduates us to idealism - a Platonic mindset that values the endurable idea over the immediately tangible. Paradoxically, this mindset compels us to manifest ideas in the material realm as conscious creators and long-term planners. It is how we get reliable desirables: functional civilization, loving families, technology, ethics, a sense of belonging, and the delights of beauty that may flow from a symphony, a cathedral or simply a life well lived. Without idealism, we are doomed to live chaotically, as permanently vulnerable, reactive beings. Disorganization emerges as the root of all evil.
Transcendentalism completes the vector by bringing us the good news of salvation. The bad news for our inner individualist is that it doesn’t involve absolution from personal suffering. Neither does it promise redemption in an idealized Afterlife. We can only be ‘saved’ by rejecting the ‘weeping mentality’ and the need for personal control. In the vein of Nietzsche’s Amor Fati, we accept joy and suffering as inextricable facets of the same universal ‘meta-good’ in which we all play a minuscule part. Far from evading empathy or compassion for the human condition, this framework seeks to free us from the tyranny of personal desire, inferiority complexes, Jungian shadows and mortal fears, by turning them irrelevant. When we embrace the large scheme of things instead of ego-driven passions, the beauty of life - as it is - reveals itself in the here and now, in what was before us, and what will come when we are no more.
While the book is brimming with provocative topics as varied as the effectiveness of education, the limits of communication, the loss of belief in beauty or the logics of submission to grotesque circumstances - a vigorous rejection of egalitarianism remains central to the book’s mission. A great deal of misery, instead of promised utopias, results from the modern hive’s insistence on equality - the most alluring and fanatical doctrine of all times. Collectivism is not the opposite of individualism, as commonly believed, but the same ‘me-first’ mentality manifested in a more cowardly form. Humans bind in crowds to make self-serving demands, cloaking selfishness in altruistic concern for all (crowdism). The distinction between genuine care for others as an act of improving community and competitive altruism echoes Paul Woodruff’s warning of impostor virtues - illusions that make us feel good about doing bad or wrong things.
Like all acts of honesty, the project is not without its vulnerable points. Ontological quibbles over the subjective nature of Reality itself, not just social reality, are bound to persist. Although the author makes a compelling case for transcendentalism as the ultimate expression of human good, this leaves the reader craving further expansion on the pragmatics of anthropocentric transgression. How do humans “forgive their world for the degree of suffering and eventual death?” What sets apart those who can become intoxicated with life itself from those who keep their sober distance? A touch of Tolstoyan-Dostoevskyan grapple with the role of consciousness, self-awareness and sentiment in how the ego copes with the forces of cosmic randomness and mystery, could have rescued the work from possible perceptions of cruel optimism, as misguided as they would be. Finally, as the sequence of essays doesn’t reflect any particular order, this may obscure the logical development of the book’s overarching philosophy.
In sum, five stars for a hidden gem by a serious thinker. If minds could enter beauty pageants, this one would likely make the final rounds; and while it might not be the one with the World Peace platform, it could go a long way in delivering the Inner kind. Or an Earthquake. Your mileage may vary.
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