Nihilism is Not a Belief

Straight forward.

Philosophers piss their pants,

People turn away in disgust

Who is this nihilist, the man with no belief

An ideology that negates all ideology

A self contradicting nimrod

 

No it is not a belief, it is a condition

When you realize fate is beyond your control

When you are powerless to do anything

Even earn the respect of your fellow man

The nihilist doesn't believe in nihilism, nihilism overwhelms him.

Reviews

[MoriartyMesa]

A better chap than me once said, "A pessimist, is what an optimist calls a Realist". I liked this as any one with half a bean should.




Nice work kid, but let me pose this; when is a Nihilist not a Nihilist?

[Budimir Zdravkovic]

Thank you for the kind comments, I'm glad you appreciated my work. So when is a nihilist not a nihilist? Lets explore the question. First there are different definitions of nihilism, there is Nietzsche's definition. There are the 18th Century Russian nihilists who denied the existence of authority, this is definition of nihilism is in fact a form of anarchism. I would call that political nihilism. Then there is the metaphysical nihilism which is the "I don't believe in anything tangible or authentic" kind of nihilism, which I guess my poem deals with. I think the biggest thing that distinguishes the metaphysical nihilist from other people is that the metaphysical nihilist does not have a purpose, he or she believes that existence is absurd or futile and there are no such things as moral truth or scientific truth etc. Now for the other kinds of nihilisms I would say that's like comparing apples and oranges they are just not reducible to each other.

I find the same thing to be true for concepts like freedom, for instance individual freedom is not reducible to political freedom. We know plenty of countries and dictatorship where certain individuals have unlimited freedom, freedom to control others or torture them but we wouldn't consider them "free countries" because they lack political freedom. There is also metaphysical freedom, which is the whole argument of free will vs determinism. Metaphysical freedom is definitely not reducible to our experiences of individual freedom or political freedom.