The Effects of Nihilism on Society

Nihilism, essentially the belief that life has no meaning, has a great deal of potential to negatively affect society. When nihilism has a strong hold on a given society, it typically causes the destruction of the arts, the erosion of moral values, suicidal tendencies, and the destruction of any desire to improve society through progress and reform.

The pervasiveness of nihilism, particularly in Europe, continues to cause the gradual destruction of the arts. Because art is a product of inspiration and an expression of meaning, and because nihilism questions the very existence of the latter and makes the former virtually impossible, nihilism can have no beneficial impact on the arts, and it usually has a negative one. Nihilism’s detrimental effect on the arts can be clearly seen in European artistic movements such as Dadaism, which was described by it’s adherents as “anti-art” in that its goal was to strip art of all meaning. A classic example of this “anti-art” is Michel Duchamp’s “Fountain”, a urinal which Duchamp signed with an invented name. The nihilistic influence of Dadaism was so damaging that it prompted a reviewer from American Art News to declare it, “the sickest, most paralyzing and most destructive thing that has ever originated from the brain of man.

Because nihilism denies that anything, including human life, has meaning or significance, it offers no foundation for objective moral values, or, for that matter, any working, consistent ethical principles. Under nihilism, there is no absolute standard by which the actions of human beings can be judged, and so good and evil effectively cease to exist. Morality becomes a matter of personal taste and is left to the individual. In a nihilistic framework, what is “wrong” for one person may not be wrong for another, and there is no standard for universal values. Thus, it is impossible to make accurate moral judgments. One cannot say, for example, that helping people is objectively “better” than killing them. The end result of nihilism is moral confusion at best and complete chaos at worst.

The typical nihilist, insofar as he is consistent in his worldview, sees life as an exercise in futility, with no ultimate goal or significance. In light of this, it is not surprising that the adoption of nihilism as a philosophy can cause suicidal tendencies. After all, if the basic premise of nihilism is true and life has no meaning, if all human beings are just the end result of a series of accidents occurring in the backwaters of the universe, why should one not commit suicide? If nihilism is presupposed, there is no sense in prolonging the suffering, mental or physical, of an individual in the hopes that they may eventually overcome their hardships. Even if they did, death ends everything, and none of it ultimately matters anyway.

Nihilism creates in the individual psyche a crushing hopelessness which is sufficient to completely destroy any aspirations of improving society through progress and reform. The nihilist sees only the temporal, futile existence of human beings. Dreams of Utopian bliss and the survival and gradual perfecting of society can have no place in the philosophy of nihilism. Because the nihilist places so little value on the common dream of an ideal society, he is unlikely to do anything to go about achieving that end. Thus, if nihilism is allowed to have a significant influence on a given society, it is likely to hinder the progress of that society.

Because nihilism denies the existence of meaning, it is a corrosive philosophy that eats through the foundations of society, throwing everything into chaos. If allowed to dominate a given society for any extended period of time, nihilism does sever damage to the supporting pillars of that society. By destroying the arts, eliminating any objective basis for moral values, causing suicidal tendencies, and destroying the collective desire to improve society, nihilism does detriment to any large group of people who choose to hold to it as a worldview.

SOURCE: Nihilism’s effect on the arts, Dadaism – The God Who is There (print), Chapter 3, author: Francis A. Schaeffer.

SOURCE: Michel Duchamp’s “Fountain” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)

SOURCE: American Art News quote – http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Dada