From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sun Feb 27 2005 - 02:54:07 GMT
Hello Marsha and all or Nothingists:
Marsha said:
If I say there is no absolute God to guide or save me, no absolute morality,
and no absolute truth, am I a nihilist? I think the answer would be yes.
If life is a process, a series of events, how could it be otherwise?
dmb says:
Yea, interesting that you should oppose nihilism with God, absoulute truth
and morality. I'd echo what Ant McWatt said about nihilism being the logical
endpoint of enlightenment (SOM) philosophy. The word has many meanings of
course, but basically it describes a rejection of values and truth. I think
its more of a historical moment, a deep and radical transition in the
culture, than a coherent philosophy. Even that crazy old crank, Nietzche,
wasn't really advocating nihilism so much as commenting on it. (Like
"decadence") Or if he wanted nihilism at all it was as a method to clear
away the Christian God, truth and morality for something better. The MOQ
asserts all of reality is composed of value, so I think we can't rightly
call it nihilistic, and yet it manages to avoid theism and makes no claims
about "absoulute" anything.
Marsha said:
Or to explore it differently, what would the opposite of nihilism require?
Purpose?
dmb says:
Well, if nihilism is the absense of God, absolute truth and absolute
morality, and those are our only choices, we're totally screwed. I want to
believe that we can reject both horns and that its a false dilemma. If
nihilism is the endpoint of SOM and the MOQ rejects SOM for its lack of
values, well then I think its safe to say that the MOQ is a third option.
Marsha said:
What of the emotions, fear and depression, attached to this word, this
concept? Are they justified? Does it follow that without absolutes, there
is chaos? Are fear and depression inherent in the definition of nihilism?
Or are they secondarily associated? How do they arrive? From what SD
system to they come?
dmb says:
Great question. Really great question. I only have a few minutes at present
and hope to expand muchly on this, but it seems to me that there is
something very important about confronting the fear and dread that
"nothingness" inspires in us. I'm not sure if the Western notions of
emptiness and nothingness are quite the same. I suspect the existentialists
and the Buddhists are mostly talking about two different things, and yet
they both find something meaningful in this meaninglessness. Go figure?
Marsha said:
I have read more than once that there are know absolutes in the Buddhist
philosophy. Could the idea of nihilism flourish in the Zen philosophy.
It's meaning and/or its emotions? Isn't this an important aspect of Eastern
philosophies to be explored?
dmb says:
One of those post-Christian mystics, name escapes me at the moment, was
quite struck by an insight she gained as her ego-self dissolved, so to
speak. She noticed, if you will, that her ego identity was built on fear,
was constructed out of fear, as a response to fear, fear of that very
dissolution. And she found that fear and ego are so intertwined and so
inseperable that they are virtually identical. And I think it was the Buddha
who said that fear and desire are the cause of all suffer. Or maybe it was
Hunter S. Thompson who said that. No, he said fear and loathing we the cause
of all partying. Yea, that's it. Gotta get my gurus straight.
Marsha said:
Or should the word "nihilism" be erased, banished from all Western
vocabularies?
dmb says:
Oh, hell no. We need the word. It describes postmodernism too well to
abaondon it, especially the more extreme examples, such as Richard Rorty.
Ask Matt Kundert. Do a google search with "rorty" and "nihilism" and you'll
get thousands of hits. Don't take my word for it.
Marsha said:
Deep in my bones I know there is no answer, there never was a answer and
there never will be an answer. Yet,,, I keep asking. I am such a foolish
woman.
dmb says:
What was the question? I'm such a foolish man.
Marsha said:
If I said there is no answer, there never was a answer and there never will
be an answer, but I'm okay with that, and in fact, I feel freedom and
contentment, would that be a nihilistic statement?
dmb says:
I would say that we are precluded from accepting SOME answers, those answers
involving God and Absolutes, but it simply doesn't follow that we can have
NO answers at all. It doesn't mean we can't have good ideas or values. Its
just means there are no longer perched on high in some transcendent reality.
DQ ain't that kind of God.
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