Instrumental Nihilism in the U.S.

 

We’re in a dangerous place here in the United States at present. Unconscionable pardons of convicted criminals and political firings of those who’ve assembled cases contrary to the interests of those now in power threaten to erode faith in our justice system. Government agencies have been gutted or dismantled to the point where reasonable concern exists whether any assistance or meaningful oversight will be available in times of disaster, famine, pandemic, or economic downturn. The balance of power between branches of government has become so lopsided that our form of democracy is now all but unrecognizable. More fundamentally, though, elections, science, and even truth itself have been called into question so frequently and forcefully as to leave us without an agreed upon objective reality from which to begin rational policy-making discussions. 

It's enough to leave one apathetic and disengaged, or even clinically depressed for that matter. It’s enough to make one cynical as to whether the right thing will ever be done, whether justice will prevail, and whether community is even worth investing our time and energy into. It’s enough to make one wonder whether the promise of this once great country means anything anymore.

Definition of nihilism

It seems that a form of nihilism has taken hold of a great number of our leaders and a large part of the electorate. Our system of government doesn’t matter. Checks and balances don’t matter. Geopolitical alliances with decades of history don’t matter. Our justice system doesn’t matter. Truth, goodness, ethics, morality, and humanity don’t matter. All that matters is that the will of one man prevail, that his actions are protected and his interests furthered.

It occurred to me that the nihilism of today is being fostered and utilized in the service of this one man. It is nihilism with at least one goal in mind. This realization prompted me to do an internet search of “instrumental nihilism” to see whether this is already a documented phenomenon. I didn’t find a lot, but I did find a passage in the work of George L. Kline that resonated with me deeply.  In The Varieties of Instrumental Nihilism he writes:

Instrumental nihilists advocate negation and destruction as means to sociopolitical or cultural ends; they thus view destruction as, in a perverse sense, constructive and creative. They do not say “Everything is permitted” (Dostoyevki’s vsyo dozvoleno) but rather, ‘Everything is permitted which serves the new order.” 

Indeed, it is not that the chaos of the storming of the U.S. Capital was desired for its own sake. It’s not that the rioters broke no laws or were convicted unjustly. They were pardoned because it serves the new order. Those pardons don’t merely allow those particular seditionists to escape responsibility for their actions. Those pardons signal to others that they need not fear behaving violently as long as that violence pleases the one who possesses the power to pardon.   

Kline was writing in 1969 about post-Czarist Russia but, from my point of view, the description above could be written about the current administration, its elected enablers, and their supporters. This instrumental nihilism keeps all of us off balance. Without any consistent platform like in the Grand Old Party of old, even supporters must constantly look to the chosen leader for the next move, the “right” answer, today’s talking point, this week’s bogeyman. In this way we’re all held hostage to the whims of one individual—if we chose to play along, that is.

But we don’t have to play along. If we recognize how this form of nihilism is being used as a weapon against us, we can more easily render it useless. Thus, rather than disengaging from civic life for the sake of our sanity, let’s reclaim our sanity through civic engagement. Rather than falling prey to apathy and cynicism in the face of a constant onslaught of negativity, let’s reclaim our confidence in the worthwhile nature of sound policy and the goodness of people so that good leaders may rise to the occasion. Rather than allowing one man to own this country’s future, let’s reclaim this country on behalf of we, the people.

            

            In solidarity with all beings,

            Mark

  

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This post is in the Power, Practice, and Peace series.

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Images

 Featured image constructed by the author using Merriam-Webster’s definition of nihilism

 

Copyright 2025 by Mark Robert Frank