Pussy hats: To be used as headwear, only. Ramon Dompor
It's another compilation of letters to the editor! Here are some of our favorites from this week's e-mail bag:
Nihilism is a belief that conditions in social and political organizations are so bad that total destruction is desirable for its own sake. Period. Nothing is better than something, especially if the something is our democracy. It was also the specific program of a 19th century Russian party advocating revolutionary reform, terrorism and assassination.
America, my dear sweet and beloved country, meet Nihilism. It has arrived at your door. It is filling your halls of government and it has brought with it a sledge hammer.
As they settle in, our nihilists are not just moving the furniture around to get comfortable. Or repainting. No, they are going directly to destruction. Unbelievably, they are at work destroying our government. They are already busy ripping it apart and with such a frenzy and glee and all the while screaming at us to just shut up.
This is because nihilists dont much care what we think. They dont think about much except destroying things. Whether it is getting rid of clean air or a working state department or pesky regulations or accepting people who arent the same as they are.
If one is a nihilist and has the power, it is not hard to tear down a democracy, no matter how strong and stable, and this is because the functioning of a democracy depends upon trust and men of good will. The nihilists figured that out. Use the system against itself and what ever you do, do it fast. Keep people off balance, stunned.
I have a witness. Hannah Arendt, a German-Jewish philosopher forced out of Germany in 1933, came out of the horror of the destruction of her own country with a warning of how it began. She said many in Germany during the fall of the Weimar Republic were trapped by their own ideasthe new paradigm of authoritarianism that hit them was so fast and so disorienting that they simply could not see it for what it was, let along confront it.
That odd sense of disbelief and disorientation you are feeling now is what I am talking about. It creates anxiety and an inability to know what to do. And that is what our new administration is counting onthe shocked and fearful deference of all to a suddenly unrecognizable governmentone of lies, evasion and moral rot.
You feel this disorientation when Kellyanne makes up her new absurdity for the day and it becomes the truth. Bowling Green Massacre, anyone? Or when she describes the gaping wounds inflicted on her by media. Or when you uneasily notice how happy the autocrats around the world look. If Putins smile were any larger, it would split his face in two.
You feel this disbelief and disorientation when they dismissively drag people off planes for the crime of being Muslim, or for being from one of the seven banned nations, whose citizens collectively account for zero U.S. terrorist deaths in our country since 1975. You get tired of Spicer lying. Get over it, people, he says, our ban only affected 106 people. How about 60,000 to 100,000 instead? Buried in lies. Buried in lies.
Perhaps you felt it when you heard they replaced the non-partisan board in charge of Voice of America with two twentysomething boys, one a right wing blogger
Or when they give the career diplomats and management professionalsthose who do our passports, return abducted children, evacuate American citizens in emergencies, and who process Freedom of Information requeststhe non-choice of resigning effective the next day, or be relieved of duty. And when you see the undersecretary of state for international security, en route to Europe, told to turn around and resign.
They like to dismantle the structures and agreements of our government in ways that are cruel and dismissive, even inhumane, techniques used to make the recipient feel less than human, of not being worthy of being treated with dignity or compassion.
And if you point this out, they say dont be so dramatic. Youre being hysterical. They say you are not seeing what you see, and that words have different meanings than what you thought, and that the media should shut its mouth. And if that doesnt work, they have one more alternative fact for you. I am stronger than you are now, so what you think doesnt matter anymore.
Thats what dictatorships say. Not our country. Not until now.
A Navy special ops Seal died the other day. Civilians, including children, died too because nihilists dont bother to pay that much attention. The nihilists went to dinner. And dinner was more important. Jared was there. For his military expertise? For the foie gras? You decide. Then they lied about their responsibility. Obama did it.
Notice how the original troika of Trump, Bannon and Flynn, the madman, the white supremacist, and the conspiracy blogger, worked together, as Bannon took a full seat on the National Security Council, setting himself above the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of National Intelligence. As they fired the Attorney General for refusing to back the immigration order, endangering the independence of the Department of Justice. Look at their anger and attacks against their own people, meaning us. Pay attention to their abrupt and sloppy implementation of their own flawed executive orders, their Gestapo type round-ups.
Watch their facades begin to slip as they struggle to destroy the separate powers protections of our government. Flynn is the first to leave. Kellyannes smile has definitely gone to fangs, and the Congressional leadership is looking more like the mindless zombies theyve become as they march lock step through our halls of government.
They are not your friends.
Nihilism does have a second act unless you throw it back into the pit it came from. That is the one in which the white supremacists, the neo-Nazis, the fascists, the Putin-type dictators, and the demagogues cobble together a gulag out of the rubble of our country when they are finished with their coup.
No, Im not being hysterical. Im really pretty calm. Considering they are destroying my country. We are the majority. And yes, I suggest we resist.
Rebecca Robins Sodikoff Bainbridge Island, WA
Read the rest here:
- Nihilism Wikipedia - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Nihilism | Meaningness - December 10th, 2016 [December 10th, 2016]
- Nihilist movement - Wikipedia - December 22nd, 2016 [December 22nd, 2016]
- Therapeutic nihilism - Wikipedia - December 22nd, 2016 [December 22nd, 2016]
- Nietzsches Analysis of Nihilism | The World Is On Fire - December 26th, 2016 [December 26th, 2016]
- Moral nihilism - Wikipedia - December 26th, 2016 [December 26th, 2016]
- Nihilism @ American Nihilist Underground Society (ANUS) - January 14th, 2017 [January 14th, 2017]
- Nihilism Nihilism - January 25th, 2017 [January 25th, 2017]
- The boredom of nihilism - The Tablet - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- The Chinese Ford Raptor Website Is Profound And Crazy At The Same Time - Jalopnik - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- 'Fatal,' by John Lescroart - San Francisco Chronicle - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Troy Reimink: 'This Land Is Your Land' doesn't mean what most people think - Traverse City Record Eagle - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Brendan Kelly on politics, nihilism, and the benefit of intimate shows - BeatRoute Magazine - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- Sampha's Process Review: Drifting Through Space - The Picket - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Nihilist KMOX Reporter Discusses Existential Horror of February in St. Louis - Riverfront Times (blog) - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Why the White House's nihilism is so troubling - Los Angeles Times - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Teen Nihilism Erupts in LA Premiere of Fierce, Funny PUNK ROCK by Simon Stephens - Broadway World - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Faking It: The Rise of Political Nihilism - Study Breaks Magazine - Study Breaks - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Descartes, Nihilist - First Things (blog) - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Still Waking Up - First Things (blog) - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- [ American Nihilist Underground Society (ANUS) :: Nihilism ... - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Pissed Jeans Why Love Now review: 'nihilism and cynicism' - Evening Standard - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Editorial | By any means necessary including dancehall - Jamaica Gleaner - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- The fight between Nigel Farage and Douglas Carswell is the definition of political nihilism - The Independent - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Eye in the Sky: Where Nihilism and Hegemony Coincide - Antiwar.com (blog) - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- NieR: Automata Starts With Nihilism and Futility at the Installation Screen - Geek - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- I used to love the working-class nihilism of Sleaford Mods no longer - Spectator.co.uk - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- Mereological nihilism - Wikipedia - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Four Big Critiques - China Digital Times - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- What Colony Gets Right About Living in an Apocalypse - Gizmodo - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- We're all political nihilists now - Washington Post - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Love, Western Nihilism and Revolutionary Optimism | Global ... - Center for Research on Globalization - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Occupy Wall Street: Nihilism And Communism - The Liberty Conservative - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- What Is Nihilism? History, Profile, Philosophy and ... - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Changing This Bumbling Narcissist Impossible, So We Must Depose Him - Common Dreams - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- A Defense for Moral Absence - Daily Utah Chronicle - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Withdrawing from the Paris Accord: Trump is behaving like a nihilist, not a nationalist - Los Angeles Times - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- China bans 'Soft Burial', a novel about deadly consequences of land reform - Business Standard - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- Former Grateful Dead Tour Manager Chimes in on Long Strange Trip Documentary - Relix (blog) - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- 'It Comes at Night' Review - Washington Free Beacon - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- China's Latest Book Ban: An Award-Winning Novel About the Deadly Consequences of Land Reform - The News Lens International (press release) - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- How Carmen Ejogo Helped Build a Personal Apocalypse in It Comes at Night - Den of Geek US - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- SMOKERS' CORNER: DEATH CULTS - DAWN.com - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Jim Dey: Another fatal shooting raises the same question why? - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Why Millennials Love 'Rick and Morty' - Study Breaks Magazine - Study Breaks - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Searching for the Last Sincere Festival Experience at Download 2017 - Noisey - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- The book Christians should read instead of 'The Benedict Option' - America Magazine - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Film Review: 'All Eyez on Me' - Variety - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- The Pendulum is Swinging Back Toward Liberal Forward Momentum - HuffPost - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- Death cults - The Statesman - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- 5 reasons why 'Wonder Woman' is the superhero movie America needs right now - LGBTQ Nation - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- Review: Prodigy HNIC - SPIN - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- The Nihilism of Julian Assange - The New York Review of Books - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Atlanta's Videodrome is the Last and Greatest Video Rental Store - Geek - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Why Prodigy Was A Once-In-A-Generation Rapper - Complex - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Prufrock: How Brainwashing Works, Julian Assange's Nihilism, and Emily Dickinson's Hope - The Weekly Standard - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Samantha Bee Mourns the Death of Language - New York Times - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- Trump's bluff on White House tapes wasn't just dishonest it was also a failure - Washington Post - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- In the Almost-Great Baby Driver, Hollywood Goes Asperger's - National Review - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Against Nihilism - MTV.com - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Can Robert Mueller be trusted? - Fox News - June 24th, 2017 [June 24th, 2017]
- Opinion: Gingrich admitted Trump was being dishonest - Holmes County Times Advertiser - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- A Reply to Rod Dreher on Worldview - Patheos (blog) - June 27th, 2017 [June 27th, 2017]
- Vince Staples burns through nihilism and house beats on 'Big Fish ... - Mic - June 29th, 2017 [June 29th, 2017]
- Islamic Terrorists Aren't Nihilists, They're Firm Believers In Evil - The Federalist - June 29th, 2017 [June 29th, 2017]
- On Religion: Wrestling again with the gospel according to Bob Dylan - Herald and News - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- Wrestling again with the Gospel according to Bob Dylan | Features ... - Bristol Herald Courier (press release) (blog) - July 1st, 2017 [July 1st, 2017]
- Praying for Hemingway | America Magazine - America Magazine - July 1st, 2017 [July 1st, 2017]
- Human Exceptionalism: We Understand Significance - National Review - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- Politics podcast: Anna Krien on the climate wars - The Conversation AU - July 3rd, 2017 [July 3rd, 2017]
- Omnipotence at the price of nihilism - Patheos (blog) - July 6th, 2017 [July 6th, 2017]
- The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers - Film School Rejects - Film School Rejects - July 7th, 2017 [July 7th, 2017]
- Alternative rock comes to Grass Valley - Auburn Journal - July 7th, 2017 [July 7th, 2017]
- Data SheetSaturday, July 8, 2017 - Fortune - July 8th, 2017 [July 8th, 2017]
- Altstadt Echo - Reposed In Nihilism - Resident Advisor - July 11th, 2017 [July 11th, 2017]
- I'd Be A Nihilist If I Weren't A Hedonist - Patheos (blog) - July 14th, 2017 [July 14th, 2017]
- Review: 21 Savage Hits the Limits of Nihilism on Issa Album | SPIN - SPIN - July 15th, 2017 [July 15th, 2017]
- 'Rick and Morty' Creators Explain Why The Show is Horrifying - Inverse - July 22nd, 2017 [July 22nd, 2017]
- Ill Behaviour, review: the chuckles are broad but the grisly nihilism is rather unpalatable - Telegraph.co.uk - July 22nd, 2017 [July 22nd, 2017]
- Lana Del Rey: Lust for Life review topical tunes and retro bombs - The Guardian - July 24th, 2017 [July 24th, 2017]