The scary nihilism of the Left
American Heritage Dictionary – Cite This Source ni·hil·ism
(nī’ə-lĭz’əm, nē’-) Pronunciation Key
n.
- Philosophy
- An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence.
- A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.
- Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief.
- The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.
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Nihilism is the end of everything we know and the replacing of those knowns with . . . nothing at all. It is a vacuum. An absence of values, an absence of honor, an absence of faith, belief, love, hope. Perhaps it’s also an absence of war and hate and fear, but given the disappearance of all things positive, the result sounds remarkably like a blank, vegetative, meaningless, and entirely hopeless existence.
And that, according to Evan Sayet, an ex-liberal deep in Hollywood’s heart, is the Left’s ultimate goal: nihilism. Carve out 47 minutes for yourself and listen to what he has to say (below). Part of me wants to say “It’s a good speech, but he’s just exaggerating to make a point.” And part of me, having drifted to my neo-con position from the liberal side of life knows that that meaninglessness was where my life was going and that he’s described the belief systems from which I escaped.
Incidentally, on a related topic, think of Matt Sanchez, the Army corporal who went to Columbia University and exposed its violent, repressive “liberalism.” While he was at CPAC, he was outed as a former gay porn actor. He’s since renounced that life style (good for him), but he said something fascinating about it when discussing his journey from left to right:
Porn reduces the mind and flattens the soul. I don’t like it. That’s not hypocrisy talking; that’s just experience. I sometimes think of myself, ironically, as a progressive: I started off as a liberal but I progressed to conservatism. Part of that transformation is due to my time in the industry. How does a conservative trace his roots to such distasteful beginnings? I didn’t like porn’s liberalism. In porn, everything taboo is trivialized and everything trivial is magnified.
Being in the adult entertainment industry was sort of like being in a cult, and like all followers of a cult, I have a difficult time figuring out when I stopped believing in the party line. I can tell you, though, that by the time I finished my brief tour of the major studios, I was pretty disgusted with myself. It was an emotional low, and the people who surrounded me were like drug dealers interested only in being with the anesthetized in order not to shake off the stupor of being high.
Why did I become a conservative? Just look at what I left, and look at who is attacking me today. (Emphasis mine.)
In other words, for many, conservatism is the search for meaning. It’s the recognition that the human condition is not innately flat, empty, and without either high notes or low; instead, it’s the belief that, because the human condition encompasses good and bad, it is incumbent upon us to recognize the bad and embrace the good.
Anyway, make the time, watch the video, and let me know what you think:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c]
Hat tip (for the video): American Thinker