Understanding the nihilist in the White House
A new article of mine is up at PJ.
You’ve heard Obama called a nihilist. But is he? And if so, what type?
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
A new article of mine is up at PJ.
You’ve heard Obama called a nihilist. But is he? And if so, what type?
Perhaps it’s fear. D’Souza is in a re-education camp. It’s a new day in America, Sharyl Atkinsson is no longer working. Lara Logan is being destroyed. The Washington Times reporter (I forget her name) had armed, masked representatives of the federal government visit her in the middle of the night. I can’t speak to what he really is, but can only draw upon my experiences growing up hard left, and being surrounded by it. His entire persona is a lie, everything he says means something else, it’s all a sham. Every bit of it. For me, it meant growing up in an environment where it was always about something else, someone else, not us. The poor Viet-Cong, the poor Palestinians, etc. etc. Family members were scrutinized harshly, and constantly compared to superior behaving thinking individuals. Religion was mocked, morality was ambiguous. It wasn’t Pops and Frank Marshall Davis, but it was a whole lotta fellow travelers. I can only guess his nihilism took a less self-destructive turn, than mine, he externalizing his.
I read your article on PJ Media and thought you have it exactly right. I am still amazed at how many intelligent and well-informed people seem incapable of seeing Obama for what he so obviously is.
all modernity is nihilist… duh
but dont confuse communism with nihilism…
ie. nihilism is brought forth as a seeming natural explanation, while communism is ignored as an active methodology
one fits the zeitgeist, and gives us the seeming idea that what is before us is spontaneous, and due to things like ignoring facts or a persons psychology. it also negates having to read about a whole lot of stuff that people were not taught, and so, one require no effort to bring up, the other requires more knowlege
what tactics do communists use?
i dont know, lets say its nihilism, then we can just ignore the tactical, the strategic, the planning, the outside assistance and money, the play book, the coordination, the games behind the door, etc
forever we provide the cover for them
there is nothing to do about natural currents except endure, there are lots of things one can do about a planned insurection based on a ideological view and coordinated action
one leaves the armchair pol sci in their chairs, the other would require action to reinstate laws against teaching communism, the laws forbidding those advocating the overthrow of the us from advocating. and on and on
but when the pamplets in ferguson are signed by the revoltionary commuist party, the weathermen are a communist terror group, and on and on.. .
lets ignore all that, and just say its nihilism.
good job! (not)
by the way..
visiting nihilism on the public and increasing their misery is the symptom of communist games with the idea of people rising up
The Catechism of a Revolutionist… now where did we hear that before?
http://neoneocon.com/2010/06/24/the-mcchrystal-decision/#comment-167443
http://neoneocon.com/2010/06/08/our-kick-ass-president/#comment-164421
http://neoneocon.com/2012/08/16/the-white-house-announces/#comment-400288
http://neoneocon.com/2014/08/12/hillary-clinton-throwing-obama-under-the-bus/#comment-813153
http://neoneocon.com/2011/07/28/the-obama-adminstration-versus-the-environmental-scientist/#comment-257697
and a lot more…
“Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unfathomable and eternal source of all life. The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too! Mikhail Bakunin’s
Artfldgr:
You’re creating a false dichotomy. It’s not either/or. It’s both/and.
“It almost seems as though there are three kinds of humans in the world, and all of them are useful to Obama: those who are naive about human nature, those who are so cynical they equally condemn all politicians as equally bad/corrupt/selfish, and those who justify anything a public figure does if it furthers their own goals. [But] There’s a fourth: those who see more clearly that that.” neo
“There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see once they are shown and those who will not see.” Leonardo da Vinci
“This continuing denial on the part of many Americans is one of the main reasons he may succeed.” neo
Denial is of course a coping mechanism. While “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” Philip K. Dick
It’s a self-evident truth that, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
But… “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” — Aldous Huxley
Denial is only as sustainable as reality allows. Half of America is committed to paths both foreign and domestic that are unsustainable. It is not a question of if denial will collapse but of when.
PS: History demonstrates that the great danger is that when denial collapses, the majority will elevate the demagogue, to save them from the consequences of their own foolishness.
Nikolay Chernyshevsky was the first to incorporate nihilism in the socialist agenda. The nihilist contribution to socialism in general was the concept that the peasant was an agent of social change(Chernyshevsky, A Criticism of Philosophical Prejudices Against the Obshchina (1858)) and not just the bourgeois reformers of the revolutions of 1848, or the proletariat of Marx (a concept that wouldn’t reach Russia until later).
After the failure, the Russian government began to actively hunt nihilist revolutionaries, so the first secret nihilist societies were created. One of the first to act in secrecy was called The Organization, and they created a boy’s school in a Moscow slum in order to train revolutionaries.
you know… community organizing…
they had a secret sub-group called Hell whose purpose was political terrorism
always the devil over god… no?
atheism as its main.
The entrance on the scene of Sergei Nechaev symbolizes the transformation from the foundational period to the revolutionary period. Sergei Nechaev, the son of a serf, which was unusual as most nihilists came from a slightly higher social class, what we would call lower middle class, desired an escalation of the discourse on social transformation. Nechaev argued that just as the European monarchies used the ideas of Machiavelli, and the Catholic Jesuits practiced absolute immorality to achieve their ends, there was no action that could not be also used for the sake of the people’s revolution.
and so the things that neo mentions in the article.
A scholar noted that “His apparent immorality [more an amorality] derived from the cold realization that both Church and State are ruthlessly immoral in their pursuit of total control. The struggle against such powers must therefore be carried out by any means necessary.”
fomenting race and all that is quite amoral. lying to the people to gain power to misuse? amoral. and on and on… they are only following the russian model
yes. neo mentions it, but more as an aside, not as the core reasoning of the imposers, but more concerned with the disease in their victims, as if they are not being imposed upon.
The image of Nechaev is as much a result of his Catechism of a Revolutionist (1869) as any actions he actually took. The Catechism is an important document as it establishes the clear break between the formation of nihilism as a political philosophy and what it becomes as a practice of revolutionary action.
It documents the revolutionary as a much transformed figure from the nihilist of the past decade. Whereas the nihilist may have practiced asceticism, they argued for an uninhibited hedonism.
so THATs why its ok to teach 5th grade kids how to use female condoms for anal sex… why liberal icons tend to be found out as uninhibited hedonists (from bill Cosby to Terry Bean, to Gary glitter)
the list is long and huge.. including promotion of homosexuality as a norm, eugenics as norm, euthanasia as a norm, post birth abortions (infanticide), race hate, etc
the key is to understand the differences between manipulative leaders and the ideas they infect the body politic with.
Neo.
You write:
And above, Will seems to echo these comments with:
However, if this is true, then what explains the almost total disavowal of Obama’s nihilism in the 2014 midterms? Yes, Will’s examples (D’Souza, Attkisson and Logan) are facts, but they are also singular anecdotes; minor (albeit very visible) skirmishes in the current war. To what extent do they typify successful trends? It seems to me that many commenters on the right at this and other sites draw the worst possible conclusions from visible battles while ignoring the trends (e.g., the 2014 midterm elections) of the ongoing domestic war.
I’ve written here before that, writing for myself, I refuse to see the worst result as inevitable based on the loss of a skirmish while, at the same time, I’m not a Pollyanna thinking that a conservative outcome is inevitable either.
In your excellent article, you wrote:
” it’s not difficult to believe that he would justify and order violence if he needed it and felt he could get away with it.”
Two words: Ferguson, Missouri.
I read the PJ column.
Whew…you sliced and diced Noonan’s use of nihilism with surgical prowess.
Is the reader truly that interested in straining the definition through a colander?
I am regularly amused by many who, after six years, are still trying to figure out this BOZO in the white house.
Seriously. Even on the Sunday morning news programs they continue debates as to whether Baraka is a “Leftist”, or, merely a left-leaning liberal. It’s exhausting.
The man-child is nothing short of dangerous—–not unlike those who ignore the legal system which did its job in Ferguson, MO.
(and Obama fomented that situation. As did Eric Holder. As did Al Sharpton who is paid by Eric Holder to do the very bidding of the DOJ)
Those who turn away from the FACT that a large, drug-induced black adult was caught red-handed stealing from a business, then, moments later, proceeded to show blatant disrespect for a police officer who acted (as decided by a grand jury) as a police officer is trained to.
Hmmm…..go figure.
Yep, this system is simply not designed well enough for some. To include, Eric Holder, Baraka Obama, Valerie Jarrett and Company. To include the New Black Panthers, Al Sharpton, Guy Fawkes followers, etc., etc.
Progressives and Liberals have always been motivated by change for the sake of “change”. It is in their DNA. This potus and his cabal follow this mantra. Employing Saul Alinsky rules.
Slice and dice nihilism as y
I read the PJ column.
Whew…you sliced and diced Noonan’s use of nihilism with surgical prowess.
Is the reader truly that interested in straining the definition through a colander?
I am regularly amused by many who, after six years, are still trying to figure out this BOZO in the white house.
Seriously. Even on the Sunday morning news programs they continue debates as to whether Baraka is a “Leftist”, or, merely a left-leaning liberal. It’s exhausting.
The man-child is nothing short of dangerous—–not unlike those who ignore the legal system which did its job in Ferguson, MO.
(and Obama fomented that situation. As did Eric Holder. As did Al Sharpton who is paid by Eric Holder to do the very bidding of the DOJ)
Those who turn away from the FACT that a large, drug-induced black adult was caught red-handed stealing from a business, then, moments later, proceeded to show blatant disrespect for a police officer who acted (as decided by a grand jury) as a police officer is trained to.
Hmmm…..go figure.
Yep, this system is simply not designed well enough for some. To include, Eric Holder, Baraka Obama, Valerie Jarrett and Company. To include the New Black Panthers, Al Sharpton, Guy Fawkes followers, etc., etc.
Progressives and Liberals have always been motivated by change for the sake of “change”. It is in their DNA. This potus and his cabal follow this mantra. Employing Saul Alinsky rules.
Slice and dice nihilism as y
Slice and dice nihilism as desired. Baraka Obama is dedicated to changing America just as he promised in 2008. It is probably his most transparent moment.
“what explains the almost total disavowal of Obama’s nihilism in the 2014 midterms?”
Obama’s approval rating is at 40%… thus the 2014 midterms were not a disavowal of Obama but a reflection of a disavowal of democrat leadership in Congress.
If by Nov. of 2015, the GOP is perceived by the majority of Americans as equally ineffective, new democrats will be elected in their place.
Given 1) the GOP’s track record, 2) their recent declaration in chambers that they will NOT oppose Obama’s Executive Ordered ‘amnesty’, 3) Obama’s veto power, 4) the MSM’s unceasing propaganda and 5) the certain assignment of blame to the GOP by Obama, dems and the MSM… there is a real probability that “the almost total disavowal of Obama’s nihilism in the 2014 midterms” will turn out to be… temporary.
Conversely, given the above factors, if the GOP does well in the 2016 election, it will not be due to their competence but rather a reflection of Obama’s continued apparent incompetence, that actually conceals design.
Rachelle –
During the 2008 campaign, someone over at NRO (I think) noted that many people were projecting views on John McCain. Thus, rational people could believe that (I think this was the example used) McCain was for gun control, while other rational people could believe that McCain was against gun control. Obviously McCain couldn’t hold both positions, as they were contradictory. But people on both sides of the argument believed that he was in their camp. The writer noted that in such cases, people were projecting their own views onto McCain.
I think we’ve seen something similar – and to a much greater extent – with Obama. That’s why he’s managed to deceive so many people as to his true intentions for such a long time. The key to such a task is to leave the on being projected onto as a blank slate so that nothing shown actively contradicts the projected views. And that’s what we’ve seen with Obama.
– Large chunks of his past are veiled
– Much of what he said in his speeches were empty platitudes designed to make people feel good, but devoid of any real meaning
The result of that is someone who makes you feel good, and thus must be your friend. Friends think like you do, so he must think like you do. And because you haven’t heard anything about his past to indicate that he disagrees with you, he must agree with you.
For a rather shameless example of this sort of thing on display, merely look at the “Did you know?” snippet in President Reagan’s Whitehouse.gov biography that talks about how Obama is just like Reagan!
Of course, the problem with Obama’s strategy is that one is forced to take positions when in the public eye. And the longer one is in the public eye, the more positions one will be forced to take. Obama has now been in the public eye for several years, and the projecting doesn’t work as well as it once did.
Good article Neo. As Neo suggested in her article, Obama is clearly engaged in active nihilism. The open question is where he wants to take the country.
To the average American it is probably less frightful to believe that Obama as a leftist ideologue who wishes to turn us into Europe than it is to believe that he an Islamic sympathizer who is actively promoting the rapid Islamization of the USA. The alternative, that Obama wants to turn us into a typical Islamic hell hole is much more frightening. Many people who are willing to acknowledge Obama’s leftist leanings are probably unable to admit his Islamist core.
It is much too frightening for many Americans to entertain the possibility that Obama’s America is not an American version of Europe but rather an Islamized America. After all, at the moment Europe is not a bad place. The people are relatively free and relatively prosperous. Obama’s Islamized America is a much more frightful place. If we are lucky, he will turn America into a copy of Indonesia or Malaysia which still have a degree of religious freedom but which both have independent Sharia courts in addition to civil courts. At the worst he will turn us into a Pakistan or an Iran in which Islamists rule supreme and in which Sharia law is the supreme law.
Maybe what Peggy is trying to do with all her recent columns on Obama is to skate very close to the edge of calling him an unrepentant Alinskyite but never actually going there straightforwardly — because to do that would put her in the “crazies” camp and deny her access to the inner circles of politics, not to mention threaten her perch at the Wall Street Journal.
What she does succeed in doing, though, is to paint a fairly clear picture of a radical, and perhaps readers of her columns are picking up on that.
For whatever reason the many ignore the evidence before their eyes about Obama, the reason Noonan, Brooks, and all those in the punditry class and those in the word trade (Christopher Buckley among them) seem more than a bit obtuse about Obama is because he is one of them. Obama, certainly not a wordsmith as is Noonan, is though, a wordmonger — they’re his wares for sale. And Noonan et al are mesmerized by words. Speak in millenarian tones, as does Obama — slowing the rise of the oceans, we’re the one’s we’ve been waiting for — and the ordinary person thinks to himself WTF? Those same tones, however, seem to beguile the wordy set — I can hear them — “gee I love that kind of talk”.
What is rarely realized about those who live in liberal cloisters, far removed, from ordinary life, is they are wrapped with more than one layer of bad habit. Noonan seems more than well insulated.
Geoffrey Britain,
“. . . there is a real probability that “the almost total disavowal of Obama’s nihilism in the 2014 midterms” will turn out to be… temporary.”
If the GOP acts as you note they could, then yes, they will be replaced by a new wave of Dems. I offer that this is as it should be. The real question for me is: “Will the GOP begin to realize that they can’t continue as Dem-lite?” If they continue as such, then the choice will be Dem more often than not.
My point, GB, is that I think too many on the right see small skirmishes (Attkisson, D’Sousza, Logan) as indications of the outcome of the war. I think that this is a false reading. Furthermore, while Attkisson may have been muzzled by CBS, she seems to be doing a pretty good job of striking back, getting her story out and causing an unknown amount of residual damage to the leftist MSM. Bernie Goldberg has been singing this song for a decade (see his books Bias and Arrogance), now Attkisson comes along and provides proof positive that Goldberg has been accurate all along. Perhaps a new meme is beginning to ne formed in the mind of the American public.
George Pal,
“Obama, certainly not a wordsmith as is Noonan, is though, a wordmonger — they’re his wares for sale. And Noonan et al are mesmerized by words.”
I think that is an excellent point.
She’s afraid. Peggy of the measured cadences and NPR delivery, is afraid. Afraid of losing a lot of things. But as many here have pointed out she is most afraid of what she would see if she did have the courage to really look: she would lose the last of her illusions.
That last comforting illusion being that the deeper kind of Nietzschean philosophical nihilism, one which sets human anthropology completely on its head, has not yet become the default position of the postmodern left. But it has.
There’s not a trace of Natural Law man left in their view of anthropological reality – just accidental appetites and welling and receding fields of domination. Peggy dare not look. Her conservatism could not survive an encounter with that kind of gleeful, entropy embracing unknowing.
“Man does not behold the face of the Gorgon and live.” LOL
At least not Peggy’s kind of humankind.
T you are definitely an optimist. I, by nature, am a pessimist. And as of last week feel like have been beaten into submission. Now with the revelation that Cryin’ John and Doughboy McConnell are going to do nothing, I see no hope at all.
As I wrote last week: BHO and the Dems have played a brilliant game… they won and it looks like there’s absolutely nothing to be done about it, especially with the GOP caving.
You nailed it neo. He is a narcissistic destroyer.