Health Homework (6.1) Overcome Nihilism ... in 2 Easy Steps ... but the first step is recognizing it
We are daily swimming in a social sea of nihilism, and we contribute to the creation of that sea unless we are mindful of the relationship
“Nihilism stands at the door. Whence comes this uncanniest of all guests?” Friedrich Nietzsche
Modern Manifestations of Nihilism:
Depression, anxiety, feeling of being lost and/or powerless
Fatigue, lack of interest, apathy, indifference…because “nothing matters”…and “everything is hopeless”
Compensatory pleasure-seeking in distraction, video games, alcohol, drugs, overeating
Compensatory and vicarious power-seeking in violence, fight sports (eg, boxing, MMA), firearms, glorification of war (eg, war/violent movies), big trucks/motorcycles, overwork and hyperproductivity
Lack of social engagement to improve one’s nation or local community, typically explained as “it does not matter” or “nothing is going to change” or “my contribution isn’t important”
Societal/Governmental Causes of Nihilism:
Insurmountable problems such as climate change, global poverty, billionaire greed—deny them and suffer, acknowledge them and suffer
Mass poisoning of the food supply (and air and water) with pesticides, mass poisoning of our environment with a wide range of corporate chemicals
Endless political corruption and incompetence, especially when forced upon the population under the disguise of “health and safety”
General lack of life-affirming values in society
Ugly environments, worthless education, meaningless jobs, superficial relationships
Constantly telling citizens that they are “free” when in fact they live in systems of debt slavery, mass incarceration, and the “school-to-prison pipeline”
Government theft of personal property misnamed “civil asset forfeiture” which blames the victim for unjust confiscation of their goods and assets
Personal/Individual Sources of Nihilism:
Death/loss/divorce of a loved companion
Poverty/bankruptcy despite working hard
Religious disorientation, existential nonresolution/anxiety
Social valuelessness, nationwide denial of life-affirming values and actions
Ugly environments, worthless education, meaningless jobs, superficial relationships
Illness, especially severe or life-threatening, especially “despite doing everything right” or “despite being a good person”
Lack of personal determination of values (psychoepistemology) and/or lack of action/discipline to embody or manifest those values
History, Definitions, Recent Examples:
Henry Thoreau (1817-1862) famously wrote that “the majority of men lead lives of quiet desperation” but the more accurate statement would have been that they lead lives of nihilism, which manifests as desperation. If we were to address only the desperate behavior, then we would leave the causative underlying nihilism untouched, and thus we would accomplish nothing other than superficial and temporary change.
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. … A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind; there is no play and enjoyment in them.”
Henry David Thoreau’s Walden [book PDF provided previously]
Friedrich Nietzsche (1845-1900) was much more accurate (than was Thoreau) when he discussed the core modern problem to be that of nihilism, not desperation, which is simply the outward manifestation of nihilism.
"What does nihilism mean? That the highest values devalue themselves. The aim is lacking; the question 'why?' finds no answer."
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power
Nihilism has been formally defined:
nihilism, (from Latin nihil, “nothing”), originally a philosophy of moral and epistemological skepticism... The term was famously used by Friedrich Nietzsche to describe the disintegration of traditional morality in Western society. britannica.com/topic/nihilism
nihilism 1a : a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless. merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nihilism
Any discussion of nihilism necessarily requires mention of Nietzsche because he is the one and only philosopher to have completely addressed this topic and to have provided the solution(s) in his printed books. However, because of his complex and beautiful writing style—which was famously nonlinear and nonacademic—individual readers have an essentially impossible time trying to individually/personally understand Nietzsche’s definition of the problem and the solution(s) he proposes; in other words, understanding the definition and solution(s) provided by the greatest mind on the topic requires an expert professor, teacher, or interpreter who has read and re-read Nietzsche’s work from cover-to-cover and debated its meanings, interpretations, and implications. In my own experience, the audiocassette* of the summary by Richard Schacht PhD (Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) was the best—and perhaps the only—way for me to understand the context and nuance of Nietzsche’s philosophy.
*The audio cassette version is much more complete than are the digital versions available for download and previously on compact disc; unfortunately, only these digital versions appear to be commercially available these days but one can still find the audio cassette, typically used.
In Health Homework (6.2—now available), I introduce and discuss what I call the “Nietsche-Reginster Solution” to nihilism, based mostly on Reginster’s book The Affirmation of Life: Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006).
It’s a really dry book, but for me it provided clarity on the issue of nihilism that I have found useful a few times in my own life, and I will share those insights in the second part of this conversation on nihilism.
I’ll close today’s introduction to the topic of nihilism with some background information about Nietzsche which provides insight into his grasp of nihilism and hints of his proposed solutions to it.
Nietzsche had numerous health problems throughout his life, and some of those diseases and disorders may have resulted from genetic vulnerabilities that he inherited from his father’s side of the family, as both his father and his younger brother died young and suffered from neurological diseases; I have held the viewpoint that he became incapacitated from the rupture of a syphilitic aneurysm, resulting in stroke and brain damage—note that syphilitic vasculitis explains most of Nietzsche’s health problems while syphilis by itself does not.
"It had long been thought that Nietzsche had suffered from neurosyphilis, general paresis of the insane, but several authorities have now disputed this diagnosis. Interestingly, the asymmetry of his pupils, an important sign of neurosyphilis, had been noted forty years earlier but was assumed to be a new finding. Other proposed causes of Nietzsche’s disease are meningioma, bipolar affective disorder followed by vascular dementia, a hereditary form of frontotemporal dementia, or mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS), a disease presenting with stroke-like episodes, epilepsy, and neurologic deficits. In 2008 neurologists from Ghent in Belgium carried out an extensive and meticulous review of original medical notes and other documents, mostly in German, and renewed their opinion that the clinical picture was not consistent with neurosyphilis. Instead, they proposed that Nietzsche had suffered the newly described neurological syndrome of cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy or CADASIL. This inherited disease of blood vessels has been found to affect mainly the blood vessels supplying the white matter of the brain. In support of their diagnosis, they pointed out that Nietzsche’s father Ludwig had suffered from an illness running a similar course, with aphasia, multiple strokes, and dementia, becoming incapacitated and dying at age forty-six from “brain softening.” One younger brother also had migraines, suggesting this was a hereditary disease." hekint.org/2020/08/11/friedrich-nietzsche-much-afflicted-philosopher/
