"Nihilism...2: In psychiatry, the delusion in which everything is unreal or does not exist."
-Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, Edition 20
"Belief has nothing to do with reality."
-Occultist Motto
It is assumed that the city and confederation of Athens, great slaveholding oligarchic "republic" and colonizing force, gave away its democracy to the "tyrants." But in reality, the Athenians were conquered over time, eventually to become part of a different sort of republic that was in less denial of its freedom-crushing imperialism: Rome. Not much really changed. (Except perhaps the official language.)
While the Romans were throwing off any residual and miniscule democratic practices, they decided to engage in a war of conquest against their Celtic neighbors. In that ancient "War on (some) Barbarians," Roman legions occupied and destroyed Celtic lands and crushed any resistance in a modus operandi called "Pax Romana" which lasted about four hundred years. The thing about the Celts is that they didn't call themselves "democratic" or think of themselves as "superior" and yet one idea was important to the Celts: freedom.
Not the freedom of living under a government that has recognized individual rights, but the freedom of living among a people who had traditionally elected their "leaders" for certain tasks; the freedom of living among a people who were disgusted with any person who would choose to give up their freedom for a few comforts (especially since it could be shown that free people could live to enjoy their lives); the freedom of living in a society that respected the individual's right to choose their own way, from the lowliest cowherd on up to the most famous and legendary warrior queen. Why else would you think the Celts of Gaul, of Iberia, and of Britain fought for so long against the Roman Empire? They didn't need pithy quotes from "Founding Fathers." They already had been living in what they were alluding to whenever they justified their endless struggle against the Legions. But eventually, that social vision was crushed with its possibility not even acknowledged.
"The Celts?" I can hear you ask. "What? Weren't they headhunters who sacked both Rome and Delphi to strike fear into the hearts of the civilized and didn't they drink all of Germany's beer?" If you believe so, then you probably believe all of the propaganda about Iraqis being a threat to the security of America too, so there may not be hope for you after all. The Celts sacked Rome and Delphi, to be sure, but that was due to local interference from Greek and Roman politicians and the Celts thought they would give a little nudge to show the free people are everywhere a threat to those who choose slavery. (Granted, the tactic worked but it backfired later when a powerful Roman Empire decided to agree with the premise and then proceeded to crush any free people they came across.) Just because the Roman propaganda was written down almost two thousand years ago and endlessly repeated since then, does not make it any less of a lie.
Because of cases like the above, one could easily argue that freedom and democracy are rare flukes that can never work (despite the fact that the Celts lived in such freedom for 1500 years, arguably longer in some areas). What is the point? You can ask. Why bother even trying to be free in that way when we can be, some much more comfortable if we just go along with the flow, even if the flow is towards a hierarchy that degrades people and treats them like commodities? Why believe in choices or in freedom? Why even think that anything matters at all, especially since it seems that anyone who wants freedom can not win the struggle? Why should you care? Especially since you hate your job, or your marriage, or your life, or your friends, or your politicians. How can you change anything, when you can't even seem to elect the right politicians? How can you be free when you think that freedom is just an illusion? Well, that's what THEY want you to think. THEY want you to doubt the possibility so much that you are paralyzed into inaction. And then you will get back onto your assigned treadmill, back onto your assigned role in the line, and obey. Why not obey? After all, it's in the Bible, and look at how God rewards those who are obedient.
Looking at the situation, it's no wonder why anyone wouldn't just sigh and give up, or become a nihilist of some sort. But is that really what you want? Nihilism is simply, to paraphrase Marx, the sigh of an oppressed creature. (Not that I care for Marx, it's just that he was spot-on in a few observations.) Nihilism is understandable however. More understandable than simply going along with the enthralling flow in an unthinking state. But if you are smart enough to see through the game of hierarchies and the game of slavery, then why would you not wish to at least choose freedom for yourselves? Your belief that nothing matters is what paralyzes you into not doing anything at all, which only reinforces the belief. (You know the score on how self-fulfilling prophecies work.) In this day and age of rampant cynicism and nihilism, it may be hard to imagine a culture that had "Better to be dead than to be a fat slave" as one of its values, but that culture existed for centuries and its people fought against anyone's encroachment of their freedom (some argue that their descendents are still fighting).
As some of you call yourselves Discordians, you may take inspiration or solace in the fact that there have been times and places on this world where people were free. In the USA of today, there is still (despite the best efforts of the Bush regime) great swaths of social and legal space to be free. But if you fall asleep and then believe that none of it matters, perhaps you are making yourselves worse than those who choose slavery. Some people choose slavery out of fear, or out of some wish to make their children comfortable, or out of some tactic of feigned inactivity while planning to fight-on some other day, but nihilists...what is your reason for denying freedom? What keeps you able to sleep at night? What makes you think that you are smarter than everyone else, so smart that you think that nothing much matters and those who struggle are merely wasting their time? Hah, sucker! Didn't you learn yet that you are the one who chooses to give meaning to what you do? The gods aren't going to do it for you, even if you believe in them.
Fess up. If you are nihilist, why do you think that belief is any less stupid than any other belief? Just something to think about.
-Irreverend Hugh, KSC
September 6th, 2005
Rant 131
Rants Vol. 2 Index