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