Nihilistic times
Nihilistic Times: Thinking with Max Weber by Wendy Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What are “nihilistic times”? Our times, today, when for politicians, media hosts and other opinion leaders, nothing is sacred, there is no clear standard of right or wrong, truth or falsity that they are required to observe, and thus no clear aim or purpose to any of our lives. That is, no purpose beyond “freedom”, understood to mean license to do whatever we like. This lack of clarity about principles makes us susceptible to charlatans and demagogues, “influencers” whose only claim to authority is the size of their followings— a full church, a massive throng at a rally, or even millions of voters ready to believe, or act as though they believe, whatever their leader says.
We have been here before. Scientific investigation discredited religious certainties about the creation of mankind, the purpose of life, and the physics of the Earth and the universe, a situation that Nietzsche expressed as “God is dead.” The belief that nothing is sacred or unquestionably true became sufficiently widespread in the course of the 19th century to be given the name, “nihilism”— from nihil, “nothing” in Latin.
Without God, philosophers and scientists sought, and numerous charlatans offered, some other principle for people to cling to and give meaning to their lives. The proliferation of religious sects, many newly invented, was the subject of William James masterly study, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1901-02). Belief in the greatness and destiny of one’s “nation” became a very popular substitute for God— as suggested by the German nationalist slogan, Gott mit uns.
Political philosopher Wendy Brown sees this condition, nihilism permitting any fantasy or doctrine to be considered as valid as any other, as dangerous not only to an individual’s psychological health, but also to the survival and defense of a humane political community, able to take care of its members and solve collective problems.