Developed in February 2021, Expanded in April 2022

NIHILISM: INTRODUCTION
Nihilism is defined as “a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded, and their existence is senseless and useless.” That is where I perceived the far left of our country in late 2020 and therein formulated a 23-segment series constructed in three sections:

1. An American History Debate: Current history has been written primarily by the white dominant class. To have validity, the history needs to be rewritten from the perspective of the affected marginalized and oppressed people. This debate is posed in segments 3 thru 9.
2. An American Philosophy Debate: Our current philosophy of rights and beliefs are based on the individual, rights coming from God, and equality of opportunity, as spelled out primarily in the Declaration of Independence. Many are saying this philosophy needs to change to rights and beliefs of the collective, with rights coming from the government to result in an equality of outcome (equity) of the populace. This debate is posed in Segment 10 – 16. Segment 2 tees up this debate.
3. The American Culture: The debates in the first two categories are affecting our culture today in various ways. Some of those are reflected in segments 17-23 and the postscript.

Considerably more was written on the subject between early 2021 through early 2022, so I continued reading on the subject. The language transformed to wokeness and its values and beliefs, all built off the information in the first series. It seemingly transformed into a religion of sorts. I would define the movement today as follows:

A religion of very strong beliefs, composed of victims and victim oppressors bound together with a belief that America is evil. Evil with the tenet that it was created by those of historical privilege – the white, particularly white males – and all others are oppressed as a result. The belief system is so strong that it cannot be challenged. Many of its fanatics are fueled by their guilt. Victimization, hate, envy, segregation, equity, and revenge makes up the religion’s character.

Epilogues 1-5 reinforce this description. The religion’s intent is seemingly to help the oppressed, particularly blacks. But in reality, it is harmful to minorities, particularly for Blacks, as postulated in a series of essays by 24 prominent Blacks in Epilogue 2.
Wokeness is the subject of my first commentary, titled “A Woke Society” which can be access here

To go to the series syllabus click here: Nihilism Syllabus
To go to the book listing click here: Nihilism Book Listing