Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

98
DEMOCRACY TODAY
A split mind leads to strange behavior. Two answers or attitudes
are possible in facing nihilism. These two answers are inspired by
what Nietzsche called active and passive nihilism. The first is what I
would simply call ‘indifference’. Indifference is born from the insight
that nothing really makes sense: in the end it all comes to the same
and, fundamentally, nobody can change the way things are. So why
bother any longer? This attitude means withdrawing from public life
and seeking happiness in the safe cocoon of private life. It leads to
conformism and resignation. The second possible attitude is in some
ways the opposite of the first. As an answer to nihilism, one aims for
the total destruction of what exists. The act of destroying the existent
order is more important the establishment of a new order. The most
clear example of this second attitude, of course, are acts of terrorism.
But maybe terrorism is just the tip of the iceberg. The destructive
attitude from which terrorism starts is shared by a larger group than
just terrorists. It is also present in radical nationalist, racist or fundamentalist
groups and, by and large, in any group with totalitarian
characteristics. [17]
Some consequences of nihilism are thus indifference and radicalism.
Indeed, Mouffe was right in claiming that lack of hope leads to
indifference and radicalism. For her, an agonistic democracy would
solve this problem. We just showed, however, that it ultimately leads
to exactly the same problems. We could even ask ourselves whether
what Mouffe describes as the post-political or consensus-models of
democracy is not the consequence of nihilism and lack of hope rather
than what produces lack of hope and nihilism. Does not post-politics
correspond to a kind of indifference? Instead of dreaming of a bright
future, it claims only that things should be ‘managed’ and that we all
should get along. Nothing more. To me, it seems that it is more like a
product of nihilism than the engine behind nihilism.
However, one could argue that the latter only makes sense if we
hold to the political-ontological framework developed by Laclau and
Mouffe. If we just get rid of this political-ontological framework, then
17
Apart from inspired by Nietzsche, the identification of these two attitudes as a reaction
towards nihilism are also partly defined by Devenny and Critchley. Cf. Critchley (2004)
12-13 and Devenney (2009) 135.