Politics and Nihilism

“Because the youth of today are primarily taught that the point of life is simply to achieve satisfaction, they are prone to a kind of easy relativism which seeks to not judge between superior or inferior ways of life.”

Introduction

I read Henry George’s recent series on Jordan Peterson and religion with great interest. George is characteristically even-handed in his treatment of the controversial Canadian psychologist, highlighting where he thinks Peterson makes some valuable points and criticizing him elsewhere. What caught my eye was the observation that Peterson approaches religion mainly through the pragmatic lens of its social uses. He regards Christianity and Christian culture as socially valuable, while wanting them “drained of the sacred source that created them and sustains them.” In particular, George observes that Peterson does not personally believe in the Christian triune God but nonetheless wants to preserve the truths and institutions which are associated with him.

Like George, I find this position philosophically implausible and have stated so before in some detail. My point in this article isn’t to rehash these arguments against Peterson specifically. It is instead to examine the tendency to identify with religious culture as a shield against the meaninglessness of nihilism. This is formulated in many different ways: adherence to cultural Christianity or Judaism, defenses of so-called Christian civilization, and Peterson-like defenses of the “order” and wisdom provided by traditional religious mores, which persist even when their metaphysical justification is challenged. The persistence of these positions has surprised many, especially since many who profess adherence to cultural religiosity do so without necessarily believing in God. Instead, they turn to religious values and practices as a counter to nihilistic trends in our society—from overly permissive liberal individualism to more ambiguous criticisms on the secularizing tendencies of cosmopolitanism. In the remainder of this piece, I will examine the problem of nihilism in more detail to showcase why these moves to cultural religiosity cannot actually rectify the problems they set out to solve. Indeed, in many respects, they are reactionary products of the nihilistic culture they seek to overcome.

Two Ways to Understand Nihilism

“Where has God gone?” the madman cried. “I shall tell you. We have killed him—you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God’s decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us—for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto.”—Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science