A Note on
Resources
Although
nihilism is not new, it arguably has more significance now than
ever before, and yet the material that reaches into the mainstream
of public awareness is usually inconsistent or
just inaccurate. A small amount of coherent classic
literature and philosophy remains easy to find, mostly from Turgenev,
Dostoyevsky, Kafka and Nietzsche. A fair amount of serious and
in-depth research and discussion exists in large libraries, like
those in universities.
The vast
majority of content applicable to the discussion of nihilism is
tangential which makes finding it difficult because often the
expected keywords are missing. To put it another way, most of the
material of interest on nihilism is nihilistic rather
than directly nihilism, and thus much of the content
on this page falls into that category. Two pages the reader
should also view locally are
So You Want to Learn
About Nihilism?
, a primary reading list, and
Historical Nihilism,
concerning the 19th century Russian Nihilists.
Film & TV
Action & Drama:
 Jan Svankmajer
is a creative and influential Czech dada and surrealist artist
and animator, often criticizing authoritarian government and
herd behavior with his fascinating and subversive films. Of his
short films, one of my favorites is
Virile Games
(1988) a dark comical affront to spectator sports and team sport
violence.
Ossuary
(1970) is worth mention as well, featuring a (real) chandelier
made out of human bones ... lots of them.
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) is a
phenomenal movie that reenacts the highs and lows of the Red
Army Faction, otherwise known as the Baader Meinhof Gang, that
fought against militarism, unrestricted corporate influence, and
punitive government in Germany, and around the world, between
1968 and 1998.
Although character development is weak, mostly
assuming the audience already knows the outline of the RAF
history, the film makes an effort to show the groups internal
dynamics, such as the tensions between the reasoning journalist
Ulrike Meinhof and the emotional Andreas Baader:
Gudrun Ensslin:
“We’re forming a group. We’re going to change
the political situation.”
Ulrike Meinhof:
“-- How is that possible?”
Andreas Baader:
“What a fucking bourgeois question! We’ll just do it, or we’ll
die trying.”
The RAF was not anything as detached and isolated
as some tried to make them appear. According to a poll one in
four Germans under 30 supported the RAF. Nor were they nearly as
easy to marginalize through simplistic political labels:
Gudrun, after a bank robbery: "Ulrike should write a statement to make it clear
that this is the money of capitalists, that the average Joe is
unaffected."
Andreas:
"Okay, write some bullshit like that. The liberal jerk-offs
love that shit."
 The film covers a wide expanse
of events and really relies on a prior understanding of the
people portrayed, so in many ways it may not do much to explain
a misunderstood group and movement, but it does at least create
an exciting and informative narration that covers the highlights
from the period, generating greater interest and making these
events relevant in a contemporary setting of unchecked
government brutality and foreign terrorism.
As for
[Jürgen] Ponto
[head of Dresdner Bank] and his
[unintended] shooting, we say: "We never fully realized that these guys who start
wars around the world and exterminate people, when faced with
violence in their own homes, are dumbfounded." - Susanne Albrecht
The RAF recognized that the docility and
limitless tolerance of the masses isn't the question – we know
most will put up with anything just to achieve a momentary
feeling of security, just look at North Korea. The real issue is
who’s willing to stand up and do something about it, to fight
back with words and actions? In other words, if you’re waiting
for the public to rise up and revolt in collective indignation,
you’re just holding your breath. And even when they do
spontaneously resist it’s inevitably hijacked by regressive and
counter-revolutionary authorities, the alliance of mass-media
and money. And if you’re organized effort makes you reviled by
illegitimate authorities in the process, that’s really a badge
of honor.
Say what you want about the RAF, criticize their
tactics and strategy, call them terrorists or freedom fighters,
but nonetheless they were the rare few with the courage and
smarts to do something, even if it meant to die trying. They
took the violence that police and military use with impunity
around the world and turned it back against the ruling elite.
The bottom line is: when passive resistance fails and protests
go unheard, alternatives still remain.
Rope
(1948) Two wealthy college-age types decide to enact
the philosophical views of their mentor professor and commit a
murder in the belief that "moral concepts
don't hold for the intellectually superior”. They then
hold a party and discuss the merits of murder. The conversation
goes, if murder should be allowed, but only committed by the
superior against the inferior, then who defines superior and
inferior? "Me". The professor
deduces what really occurred and is horrified at what his words
have been twisted to support. The ending of the film reveals the
little flaw in the philosophy, the main reason why we don't
freelance murder -- you just reap what you sow. Apart from the
story the film is still interesting for the experimental format
(in color) that Hitchcock used to turn his movie into a play
without edits.
V for Vendetta (2005), is rewarding entertainment for anarchists and
nihilists alike. The movie, based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel
and character of the same name, follows V as he sets about to
exact revenge and take-down a sinister police-state in fictional
near-future England. V uses a series of ingenious schemes to
foil authorities while simultaneously motivating the people to
seize back control from a despotic elite exploiting religion,
fear and television to placate the public. The film does a keen
job of depicting the use of spin on video news and entertainment
by nefarious authorities in order to always depict their angle
of events, forming a monopoly on false-truth. V:
“Beneath this mask is more than just
flesh, beneath this mask is an idea. And ideas are bulletproof.”
Although just a fictional story, the movie nonetheless reminds
us that a calculated campaign of terrorism can be quite
effective at undermining a corrupt and violent establishment, as
shown through the masked and theatrical character of V.
Personally, the most
entertaining Batman remains Batman the Movie (1966), and
of course the television series of the same time-period, now
that’s hilarious fun! But when you get tired of the laughs
there's the 2008 film
The Dark Knight
(Blu-Ray) for nihilistic mention. Dark Knight makes full use of
the film noir elements of contemporary Batman to make a dark and
intense action flick where the villain, the Joker, adopts
aspects of nihilism to act as an interesting foil against the
quasi-hero of Batman. Although the Joker is portrayed as a
criminal psychotic, by the second half of the lengthy film he
begins to explain his motivations and indeed much of the Joker’s
efforts are an attempt to show how foolish authorities are to
try and control every aspect of society, going so far as to
portray himself as an agent of chaos; “You
know, the thing about chaos? It’s fair.” At another point
the Joker sets fire to a mountain of the mafia's money saying,
“It’s not about money, it’s about sending a message: everything
burns.” The Joker points out that the way people behave
under duress is often radically different than under typical
circumstances, that civilization is composed of tenuous and
often illusionary elements that only serve to mask true human
nature. Of course the overall presentation could easily be
considered anti-nihilist because the Joker’s character is
intended as an emblem to be reviled, nevertheless this fictional
film clearly portrays how a ‘madman’ can shatter illusions and
radically reorder popular assumptions.
Punishment Park
(1971) directed by
Peter Watkins and shot in documentary style, the film is set in
the early 70s where Constitutional law has been suspended and
political ‘criminals’ are overloading the prison system so
Punishment Park in the desert is created as an alternative.
Convicted in a bogus court they race to reach a U.S. flag in
hopes of being set free while being hunted by the police and
military. This is a film that will spark discussion on the
issues of authority, politics, oppression, and violence within
society.
 Daisies (1966) There’s
an enchanting personal attraction to any artistic creation that
is so innovative or outrageous that it defies categorization.
The 1966 Czech film Daisies directed by Vera Chytilova is
just that
and, not surprisingly, it is
considered a nihilistic film.
The two main characters, both bored young women named Marie,
conclude from what they see around them that the world is bad,
consequently they should be bad too and so they proceed to
engage in a series of silly and destructive antics. They date
older men just to get a free meal then ditch them on the train,
hold an existential discussion in a bathtub full of milk, and
mostly eat like messy pigs anywhere and everywhere with unusual
and creative film and sound techniques in between.
Daisies
is part Kafkaesque surrealism, part social commentary with a
comedic flair.
No Man’s Land
(2001) This movie came to my attention as recommendation from a
reader of this website. It reveals the absurdity of events
within a civil war by placing both sides together, a Bosnian and
a Serb, trapped between lines. It’s a war film but with a very
distinct difference in that it criticizes not just a futile
conflict but all of the other participants as well from
peacekeeping forces to the mass media, while also challenging
the myth of political neutrality. The film doesn’t offer any
particular resolution to the basic problem but it does
poignantly demonstrate that once involved in a conflict there
may not be any practical way to get out, a message especially
germane to another civil war -- the one in war-torn Iraq.
Falling Down
(1993) features the delightfully unappealing Michael Douglas as
one angry dude pushed way past his limit and set against an
inhospitable society. Leonard Maltin gives it two and a half
stars!
For a wild ride try
David Lynch's
Eraserhead.
It's intriguing, odd
and you'll probably need to see it twice. I would call it Kafka-esque
but you might use other words. But if that's too weird see the
over-the-top movie
Diabolik, also titled
Danger: Diabolik,
from the 1960s.
Diabolik is like a nihilized version of James Bond who's sole
interest is self-enrichment and defying authority.
"This criminal paranoid [Diabolik]
seems to have dedicated himself to a one man fight against our
society!" The
sex-scene in piles of money is unforgettable, who says positive
media role models don't exist anymore?!
Shell-shocked film director Oliver Stone has had plenty of
misses and a few hits to his credit. The realistic Vietnam movie
Platoon (1986) and the easily misunderstood,
not-so-realistic
Natural Born Killers
(1994) are two films worth mention here. Oliver Stone in his own
words (audio clip):
Natural Born Killers &
social hypocrisy
Trainspotting
(1996) directed by Danny Boyle is a satire that follows, in
graphic detail, the lives of a group of young grade-A fuck-ups
as they roller coaster through the dizzying highs and terrifying
lows of heroin addiction in Scotland. Trainspotting
reveals, perhaps unintentionally, the latent desperation for
context and the urgent need to feel something, anything, amidst
an absence of meaning in the synthetic, desensitized realm of
post-modern pseudo-existence.
A good indicator of a stereotypical nihilistic film or story is
one where all or most of the main characters die at the end.
Think of
Hamlet for instance, that’s a good example but just a
suggestion not a recommendation; never liked the guy
(Shakespeare). Instead watch the far more entertaining movie
Red Zone Cuba (1966), and at least the characters die
trying! See the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of
Red Zone Cuba (1997), it’s hilarious.
Documentaries:
 The
2007 film
Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
describes the amazing story of a small group struggling to
survive in the Andes mountains after their plane crashed in
1972. The film consists of reenactments and revealing
interviews. Watch this film and then try
Module 1 in the School of Nihilism.
An informative documentary worth
viewing is The God Who Wasn’t There by Brian Flemming (2005) DVD.
Flemming is a former Christian who realized that the
contradictions and overall absurdity of Christianity, and
religion in general, are simply too much to believe in. He goes
on to explain the origins of Christianity, how it became a myth
through centuries of elaboration, and that Jesus Christ
may have never even existed. The movie is only about an hour but
the DVD extras more than make up for it.
The historical recreation film Downfall (Der
Untergang) of 2004 is a vivid but bleak
account of the chaotic final days of Hitler and his staff and
the insane behavior that inevitably emerges from an authority
structure where allegiance is based on faith and unquestioning
obedience.
A movie definitely worth watching
is called
Baraka (1993). I think it has a
nihilistic quality in the way it tries to show things as they
naturally are without any overt bias or propagandistic twists.
Baraka is a very anti-Hollywood movie, it doesn't even have
a script or any kind of story arc, although certain elements are
connected inside the movie.
Mondo Cane 2 (1964) DVD, meaning 'a dog's
world' or 'dog’s life', in Italian. This film features the same
cynical narrator as the first film (1962) but a more finely
tuned production and of course even more extreme human behavior,
ridiculous religious rituals, fashion and foolish fad, violence
and stupidity; “... the film tended to
shatter values.” Mondo Cane 2 is a lot of
low-budget entertainment, "holding up the
mirror to human nature at its most savage", but it also
presents a different, interesting, and unorthodox perspective on
the world.
Science Fiction:
You want a film that
will knock your socks off? Try
Forbidden Zone
(1980, colorized version 2008) by Richard Elfman, an outrageous
live-action cartoon musical sci-fi-like comedy that defies
categorization, with a nihilistically gratifying
break-all-the-rules attitude.
Creation of the Humanoids
(1962) This is an obscure, thought-provoking film (reportedly
Andy Warhol's favorite!) that addresses the fundamental human
issues of memory, identity, self-perpetuation, and physical
form. Once you get past the mushroom clouds and the comical
robot history scene, the story is that a brief but devastating
nuclear war irradiates the planet lowering the reproduction rate
of humanity. Robots are constructed to fill labor needs, become
advanced to the point of similar appearance and behavior, and
then steadily overtake the human population ... but things are
not what they seem.
This is not an action film, it's mostly a talking film, but
nonetheless it has a fascinating quality to it, it is in color,
and it’s surprisingly intelligent considering the genre and the
time period. Who, or what, will replace you when you die?
 Zardoz
(1974). Although
superficially a rather odd sci-fi movie, Zardoz is one of my
favorites and it has a pretty powerful message, or at least it
did for me. It's about a future dystopia, knowledge, revolution
and some well-placed nihilistic destruction.
The Black Hole (1979) is a sci-fi adventure but
not in the all too typical phony see-no-evil, everyone lives
happily ever after way. The dark atmosphere and serious tone set
this film apart to make it the most anti-Disney of Disney films.
The nihilistic quality of the film is evident through the
fantastic slogan
"The journey that begins where everything ends." How
exciting to imagine an entirely new world on the other side
where all the rules in this one no longer apply! You may not be
surprised to learn this was a very influential film to me as a
kid.
The Black Hole borrows heavily from Star Wars and
2001 A Space Odyssey but it’s a kids film that’s
entertaining and sparks the imagination, it’s not meant to be
scientifically analyzed for technical errors.
Television:
The Golden Pince-Nez
(~1994) is the title of a
Sherlock Holmes
TV story featuring Nihilists. Although 19th century Russian
Nihilists are the feature characters in this particular story,
the Sherlock Holmes series by Granada British TV, with Jeremy
Brett as Holmes, is very well produced, intelligent, and quite
entertaining. Another example, The Illustrious Client
(1991) is about the blindness of love – and the hazards that
follow from it
For a different kind
of TV series watch
Bullshit
where Penn & Teller,
being familiar with flim flam and fakery themselves, use a blunt
(and rather abrasive) mixture of comedy and criticism to
illuminate the fraud and hucksterism of pop-culture's worst
excesses, from end of the world beliefs and alien abductions to
phony medical cures and beyond.
Sledge Hammer!
(1986) TV series on
DVD. David Rasche plays Sledge Hammer, a renegade cop and
self-described nihilist who talks to his revolver, uses the wall
of his apartment for target practice, drives to the scene of the
crime in a bullet-hole riddled car and generally acts as
destructive and over-the-top as possible. The series is
basically a spoof of the classic Dirty Harry / Magnum Force
rule-breaking cop films; it's hilarious thanks to dead-pan
delivery of Sledge Hammer lines like,
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing," "I'm not afraid of anything ...
except world peace," and
"I'm a nihilist not
a [hair] stylist."
Music
The significance of art and music
shouldn't be underestimated. History has shown that the
beginnings of revolutionary movements are often preceded by
sympathetic artistic expression. That and since tragically few
read anything edifying anymore most contemporary nihilism is
audio or video based. Post-modern nihilism and pseudo-nihilism
alike is mostly cookie-cutter pop plastic but a few efforts are
worth mention even if for no other reason than because I happen
to like the product. Another page the reader should also view is
the art section titled
Beyond Recognition.
Some music suggestions:
Agnostic Front; Dead Yuppies * Bad Religion;
Against the Grain, Recipe For Hate, Process
of Belief - "The process of belief can
be an elixir when you're weak...."
* The Clash;
Give 'Em Enough Rope * Devo; NewTraditionalists * Dope; Felons & Revolutionaries
* The Faint; Danse Macabre * Gary Numan;
Sacrifice: Question of Faith -
“When children kill children
don’t it make them wonder, don’t it make them question their
faith?” – A , Exile, Pure *
Gang of Four;
A Brief History of the Twentieth Century
*
Green Day;
Insomniac, 21st Century Breakdown * Information
Society;
Don't Be Afraid
*
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Jerry Jihad &
The Evildoers – Mine is Not a Holy War,
"Time to jump ship, Time to scream and
shout!" Mine is Not a Holy War is set of a
dozen Devo style protest songs from Gerald Casale
reincarnated as Jerry Jihad, a fictional caricature for the
21st century under George W. Bush. You may even notice that
two songs are remakes of Casale circa 1974-1977 (see
Hardcore Devo Volume II). |
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Marilyn "shock is all in your head" Manson:
"When you create chaos, ideas are turned upside down, and
everybody looks at things in a different way." |
Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed, 1975. Probably the
most controversial album ever released; it's not music but
it may well be a monumental work of dada art - or something
else entirely!
"... once you hear Metal Machine Music, it frees you
up. It's been done - now you can do anything."
- Reed |
|
Like Metal Machine, Hardcore Devo
Vol. 2 (1974-1977) by Devo is another great album
because the only commercial marketability either one has
today is due to the fact neither one has had any commercial
marketability in the past! There's a certain appeal to
things that are so different they can't be sold because
current audiences lack the context to assimilate them. |
KMFDM
* Nine
Inch Nails; [With Teeth], The Hand that Feeds -
"Just
how deep do you believe?" * The Offspring;
Ignition, Smash * Pink Floyd; Another Brick in
the Wall
* The
Pixies; Doolittle,
Debaser -
"I wanna grow up to be, to
be a debaser, debaser!" *
Rancid; Let's Go,
Nihilism - "Release me from moral assumption,
Total rejection total destruction..." * Amused To
Death by Roger Waters * The Sex Pistols; Never Mind
the Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols, The Great Rock and Roll
Swindle, The Swindle Continues *
|
SNOG: referred to as the
"soundtrack
for Nihilism" with songs like Hooray!!, Justified
Homicide and Old Atlantis - "Let's see some storms, I'd like to
see some rain, or better still, let's burn it all down again."
|
* Tears for Fears; Elemental, Break it Down
Again - "No revolution maybe someone
somewhere else, Could show you something new to help, With the
ups and downs, I want to break it down, Break it down again ...
Break it down again, No more sleepy dreaming, No more building
up, It is time to dissolve..."
... and the award for most nihilistic song goes to: Burn
“I don't believe in your institutions…”
by Trent Reznor.
Winner of the least nihilistic song award (drum roll): I'm
a Believer by the Monkees!
Books
|
Fathers and
Sons, by Turgenev
It's a running narrative written in a typically Russian
way but not overly long. Turgenev romanticizes the role
of the Nihilist to create an entertaining novel.
The
Career of a Nihilist, written by Stepniak,
1890. This novel provides insight into the lives and
actions of the 19th century Russian Nihilist
revolutionaries
The Assassination
Bureau, Ltd, by Jack London. A good novel to read,
shows his nihilistic side.
|
Notes From the
Underground, by Dostoyevsky. A first person
exposition of life in (or at least near) the gutter.
And just about any
of Franz Kafka's novels although my personal favorite is
The Trial. The Trial is a neat book but it's
difficult to explain. It explores the irrational nature
of bureaucratic life in Kafka's uniquely phantasmagoric
style.
|
|
For a detailed examination
of the nature of nihilism and its evolution into the
'anti-Nihilist' archetype read Nietzsche's The Will
to Power.
God and the
State, by Michael Bakunin; where anarchism meets
nihilism. Sometimes rambling narrative covers religion
as slavery, science in society and other topics.
|
|
Also the works of
Soren Kierkegaard are good for a perspective on
nihilistic emotion, existential philosophy. The
biographical perspective may be as good or
better for the average reader. |
|
Life can only be
understood backwards; but it must be lived
forwards. |
|
To get an idea of how Andy
Warhol viewed the world try The Philosophy of Andy
Warhol, by A. Warhol 1975. To me it was a little
frustrating to read because it barely scrapes the
surface of what he was really about, especially in the
nihilistic sense. But it's a good start.
|
it doesn't mean if you don't
believe in nothing that it's nothing. You have to treat
the nothing as if it were something. Make something out
of nothing.
B: if you know life is nothing, then what are you living
for?
A: For nothing.
|
For a detailed and
fascinating look at the nihilism and nihilists active within the
dada art movement as witnessed by one of the founding members
read Dada art and anti-art, by Hans Richter, Thames &
Hudson world of art, 1964, 2004 reprint.
Interested in
fiction? Read epic author H.G. Wells'
excellent novel
The Island of Dr. Moreau,
because the main character, Edward Prendick, becomes a nihilist
after enduring the harrowing terror of the island then escaping
and returning home to England. The endemic and chronic terror,
pain and fear of Dr. Moreau's island is an allegory for the
product of artificial law and technological progress
contradicting natural equilibrium which characterizes our modern
world.
Also, Wells' powerful short story The Country of The Blind
demonstrates the tenacity of self-limiting ideology or theology,
the force of social conformity and the futility of direct
argument with true believers blind to knowledge and reason.
"It may be beautiful," said Medina-saroté,
"but it must be very terrible to see."
Also:
-
H.P. Lovecraft, various
-
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, 1999.
-
Sylvia Plath -
“She
views death as an escape from the sadism of life." Sylvia
Plath was a tortured poet. Her story is an interesting one
because she had an almost perfect life in a physical sense but
the reverse was true in her mind. I especially like Mad
Girl's Love Song.
Incidentally here's two great
sources for books, the first is free and the second is very
affordable.
-
The
Digital Library has online texts free for
download, but personally I don't think the digital format is
that convenient to read in.
-
Which is why I prefer
Dover publications; many books are only a few
dollars, like Turgenev and Dostoyevsky for instance.
Nihilism & Related Internet Links
Nihilism is usually either unknown
or misunderstood so not surprisingly the Internet resources are
spotty at best. What I've
found worth visiting is listed here:
Although not specifically about nihilism these links may be
useful and edifying for Nihilists, or those just interested:
Quotes For Nihilism
"True genius is creative and makes all from nothing." -
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
"No such thing as good luck, Must
all face the fact, You reap what you sow, It’s just a natural
fact" – The Hedonist by Daniel Ash
"[R]eligious concepts are parasitic upon moral intuitions." -
Pascal Boyer
A
widely held criticism of law is that it is a tool used by those
with power to serve their ends. Rather than upholding principle,
law thus distorts our shared values and common sense by its
application of rarified opaque terminology and legalistic logic,
rooted in arcane precedent and procedure, which drives outcomes
which often defy what makes good sense. - William A. Cohn, 2010
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." - Barry
Goldwater, 1964
"The
universe we observe has precisely the properties we should
expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil
and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference." –
Richard Dawkins
"What can be broken, should be broken." - Dmitrii Pisarev,
Nihilist spokesman and 19th century Russian literary critic.
"Don't accept the old order,
git rid of it." - Johnny Rotten
[T]he force of culture shapes both behaviour and biology across
generations. Culture has been confused with genes because
behavioural studies are short-term, while culture operates on
the scale of generations with a kind of tyranny and force that
has not been widely recognised. - Sue Savage-Rumbaugh
"If God really existed it
would be necessary to abolish him." - Mikhail Bakunin
"Hell is other people." - Jean-Paul Sartre
Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are
men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain
without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the
awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one;
or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and
physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing
without a demand. It never did and it never will. - Frederick
Douglass
"No system has ever as yet existed which did not in some form
involve the exploitation of some human beings for the advantage
of others." - John Dewey 1921.
Nothing is more delightful than to confuse and upset people.
People one doesn't like. What's the use of giving them
explanations that are merely food for curiosity? The truth is
that people love nothing but themselves and their little
possessions, their income, their dog. This state of affairs
derives from a false conception of property. If one is poor in
spirit, one possesses a sure and indomitable intelligence, a
savage logic, a point of view that can not be shaken. From:
Dadaism by Tristan Tzara,
1918 and 1922.
FUBAR - slang acronym
- Fucked Up Beyond All Repair
"Destroy first, and construction will look after itself." - Mao
"If you ain't angry, you ain't paying attention." - Mumia
Abu-Jamal
"It is by examples not by arguments that crowds are guided."
and,
"The precise moment at which a great belief is doomed is easily
recognizable; it is the moment when its value begins to be
called into question." - Gustave Le Bon
"We are constantly wondering if we should reproduce with this
person or not, whether we should eat or not eat, but insects are
pure action. They are horribly perfect. That's why they are
scary and why we hate them so much." - Film Director Guillermo del
Toro.
"Like
other lifeforms, we [humans] exist only to replicate ourselves."
- George Monbiot
"Coincidences, in general, are great stumbling blocks in the way
of that class of thinkers who have been educated to know nothing
of the theory of probabilities." From: EA Poe's The Murders in
the Rue Morgue.
"Prudence therefore consists in knowing how to distinguish
degrees of disadvantage," - Niccolo Machiavelli.
"A great deal of time
and intellectual force are lost in the world, because the false
seems great and the truth so small and insignificant." -
Maria Montessori
He who
experiments must, while doing so, divest himself of every
preconception. It is clear then that if we wish to make use of a
method of experimental psychology, the first thing necessary is
to renounce all former creeds and to proceed by means of the
method in the search for truth. - Maria Montessori
"All
human victories, all human progress, stand upon the inner
force." - Maria Montessori
If a
man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if
he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in
certainties. [Therefore] read not to contradict and confute; Nor
to believe and take for granted; Nor to find talk and discourse;
But to weigh and consider. - Sir Francis Bacon
"Dear God,
we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing." -
A dinner prayer by Bart Simpson.
"There is
no evil, but that it brings some good." - Russian proverb
"All good
things were formerly bad things; every original sin has turned
into an original virtue." - Friedrich Nietzsche, GM III, 9.
It
doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvellous universe,
this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of
animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with
all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can
merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle
for good and evil - which is the view that religion has. The
stage is too big for the drama. - Richard Feynman, physicist
"There
is nothing so absurd that it has not been said by philosophers."
- Cicero
"We must
overthrow the material and moral conditions of our present-day
life. . . . We must first purify our atmosphere and completely
transform the milieu in which we live; for it corrupts our
instinct and our will, and constricts our heart and our
intelligence" -
Mikhail Bakunin
"If you
want to scare people, you talk about evil.” - Noam Chomsky
"True
enlightenment is not photogenic." - Corpson
"The laws
of history tell us that only when the old is gone can the new
take its place." - Wei Jingsheng
"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy
merely to be normal." - Albert Camus
“Hitting
bottom isn't a weekend retreat, it's not a goddamn seminar. Stop
trying to control everything and just let go! - Tyler Durden in
Fight Club the movie.
"One
cannot be a part-time nihilist." - Albert Camus
破旧立新
(Destroy
the old, establish the new)
"Destroy or be destroyed—there is no middle way! Let us then be
the destroyers!" - Mikhail Bakunin
"Belief and seeing are both often wrong." -
Robert McNamara
"Meanings generating
meanings - the process has backed us into a particular corner, a
kind of cave, where sunlight seldom enters." - Tarthang Tulku
"A promise to go to
heaven won't put salvation in sight." - Tim Armstrong
"[S]ince
there is no wrong or right, you just reap what you sow." - Peter
Murphy
"The
modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched
itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence
can find any foot-hold. It is a fact that we are suffering from
nihilism." - Albert Camus
Now
that we have nothing, we can begin; To be the revolution - now,
Be the revolution - now ... - David J (David Jay Haskins )
The
gun livens things up. The colonized European comes alive, not to
the subject and problem of the violence of our circumstances,
but because all armed actions subjects the force of
circumstances to the force of events. - Andreas Baader, 1973
"We
are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever
believed in. Some of us just go one god further." - Richard
Dawkins
“Regimes collapse when people are no longer afraid and think
they’re no longer alone.” - Gordon Chang, author.
In a
society that has abolished all adventures, the only adventure
remaining is to abolish society. [Graffiti from 1968 French
Student Protests]
The
great soul of power extends far beyond states, to every domain
of life, from families to international affairs. And throughout,
every form of authority and domination bears a severe burden of
proof. It is not self-legitimizing. And when it cannot bear the
burden, as is commonly the case, it should be dismantled. - Noam
Chomsky
“You
don’t realize all the things you have in this world, much more
than you need, and you do much less than you can." - Roberto
Canessa
"Words divide us, action unites us." - Tupamaros
From Freydis:
The Nihilist says, I want to see things as they
really are.
The fact that reality is both consistent and
comprehensible is utterly devastating to philosophy.
Nihilism is where you go when you can't find anything to
believe in.
People respond to nihilism in different ways.
There is no natural evil, and no malicious intent
exists within the forces of the universe.
The will to live is biological; the will to die
is psychological.
The universe does not operate according to
human values.
People commit suicide all the time; being a nihilist is not a
prerequisite.
A Nihilist
does not 'believe' in nihilism because nihilism offers nothing
for anyone to believe in.
Life has no point, it’s pointless; life is a process not a
destination!
Nihilism: when everything is wrong and you
can’t find what's right.
Violence is a universal language.
Chaos is where the opportunities are.
Ignorance is
conservatism.
In this
dangerous world, intelligence and cunning are your only true
allies.
Absurdity is its own message.
The Nihilist mindset: Break it down, what do you get? Turn it
upside down, what sticks and what falls out?
Nihilism
is the organic, sensible response to artificial chaos.
Not even the healthy are safe in
a forest of disease.
It's often the case that the
answer you get depends on the question asked; perspective is
important.
Change is just another word for
opportunity; the creation of change is the creation of new
opportunities.
Until you think for yourself you
won't have control over your own life.
Every sunset is someone else's sunrise
Nihilism: Faith not required
If you don't see the appeal of
nihilism then you still have something you believe in.
Freydis
Recruitment
& Élan Posters
This is a collection of
graphic designs that can be printed out as posters or used as
digital desktop backgrounds. The black and white designs are
fairly simple and should work on most any
printer. The remainder are for color printers or digital 'walls'
and computer desktops. Poster
3 was created by Qaox, 6 by Corpson
and 23 by Kevin.
9-16,18 are 'bumper sticker' designs, and #28 is a stencil for
painting surfaces.
These graphics can be printed
and distributed freely but please don't crop or cut them (except
on the stencil where necessary). Put 'em on the wall, in a
window, or the flat surface of your choice. Add a
phone number on the bottom and get questioning (or
threatening!) phone calls, be imaginative.
17.
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18.
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Nihilism
'business card'
designs
When words fail let the card do the talking
This consists of word.doc files that are pre-formatted for printing business size
cards on special paper that you can buy at the office supply
store. I recommend using card paper made for printing on both sides,
then you can put quotes on one side and the Nihilism, or symbol
designs, on the other.
The text, and especially the
images, can be difficult to get centered on the card because the
document's appearance does not directly match the printed
product. I've formatted everything as accurately as I can,
but depending on your printer settings and the type of paper you
use it might require slight adjustments.
Local Nihilism & Contact Information
Interested in
Nihilism as a way of life? Want to meet other Nihilists in your
region? The CounterOrder
Communications Network connects Nihilists from around the world:
For more information on local
Nihilism, or anything else, Freydis, the creator of this
website, is on Twitter,
e-mail, and also
Holology.
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