Nihilism and Revolution
In response to Lenin's post here.
If we clarify the objection here to be towards "passive nihilism" (the kind I would advocate over destructive "active nihilism") then we run into a strange problem. If active nihilism is the desire for the destruction of existing orders, with the naive implication that once destroyed a new, better order will somehow arise, then passive nihilism is in some sense an opting out of the political process. A refusal, a self-negation. The implied judgement in Lenin's post is that passive nihilism is detrimental to the human cause, but for the passive nihilist the human cause is essentially worthless. How do you criticize on humanist grounds an trans-human philosophy? (Maybe we can work on that term "trans-human"--antihumanist doesn't seem right either.)
The fact that passive nihilism is perhaps impossible maybe speaks to his point. If it is unattainable, then are we obligated to move in the other direction?
If we clarify the objection here to be towards "passive nihilism" (the kind I would advocate over destructive "active nihilism") then we run into a strange problem. If active nihilism is the desire for the destruction of existing orders, with the naive implication that once destroyed a new, better order will somehow arise, then passive nihilism is in some sense an opting out of the political process. A refusal, a self-negation. The implied judgement in Lenin's post is that passive nihilism is detrimental to the human cause, but for the passive nihilist the human cause is essentially worthless. How do you criticize on humanist grounds an trans-human philosophy? (Maybe we can work on that term "trans-human"--antihumanist doesn't seem right either.)
The fact that passive nihilism is perhaps impossible maybe speaks to his point. If it is unattainable, then are we obligated to move in the other direction?
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