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Query:

I teach in a Catholic high school.  Among the courses I teach is one for first-year students on the Socratic questionn.  Another teacher, who is more experienced, teacher has advised me to introduce students to the idea of nihilism, and I’d like to know what you think.

I see his logic.  Our culture has become largely nihilistic, and it's better for students to confront the idea in an intellectually rigorous Christian environment than to encounter it for the first time "in the wild," where it may well knock them off their feet.  He's particularly insistent on including Nietzsche. 

On the other hand, you’ve written that being introduced to Nietzsche at a young age was harmful to you.  I definitely had not heard of him at fourteen.  Even at sixteen or seventeen, the question of suffering was just beginning to dawn on me in a serious way, and I could take it only in small doses; I don't know what I would've done with nihilism at that age

How deeply do you think I shoud explore this topic with high school freshmen?  The Nietzschean option -- rejecting the Socratic question outright—is one that some of them are already thinking about without even knowing the man's name.  However, I want to make sure I handle this in a way that sets them up for happiness rather than disillusionment.

 

Reply:

Such a good question!  How do we make students become aware of the seduction of nihilism, without allowing them to fall prey to it?

My first thought is not to treat nihilism as a philosophy, because it isn’t one.  A philosophy is rational and coherent, or at least tries to be.  Nihilism is incoherent, or self-undermining.  The very statement that nothing has meaning undermines itself, because anyone who says this supposes that his own statement has meaning.  Students are all too easily intoxicated by that sort of nonsense.  “Wow, man!”

So rather than treating nihilism as a philosophy, I would treat it as a version of the sin of despair:  The form the sin takes when it tries to clothe itself in the garments of a philosophy.  I would also encourage students to call the nihilist bluff.  As Roger Scruton said, “A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is ‘merely relative,’ is asking you not to believe him.  So don’t.”

Some teachers think that in order to inoculate their students against nihilism, they should have them read authors like Nietzsche, but at the same time warn against their nihilism.  I disagree.  This is like trying to teach a wholesome view of sexuality by having them watch pornographic movies, while at the same time warning against lust.  High school students have reached an age at which they can begin to demand and understand rational arguments, so, yes, we do have to address their power of reasoning.  But they have not yet reached an age at which their power of reasoning is so strong that it cannot be overthrown by seductive language and images.

On the other hand, I think your colleague’s idea of inoculation is also partly right.  Like the developers of vaccines, I would use a weakened version of the virus.  Moreover, I would find the weakened version “in the wild,” for most high school students have already encountered various forms of nihilism.  Where?  Not in books, but in the surrounding culture.

For example, macho nihilists say, "There isn't any meaning, but I'm brave enough to live without it."  That’s just a pose.  They can't really live without meaning -- they seek it in the idea of living bravely.  The problem is that they haven't anything to be brave about.  Pop nihilists say, "Meaning is a drag -- who needs it?  I'm so cool I like life pointless."  That’s another pose.  They don't really like life pointless -- they seek meaning in seeming to like it pointless, in being cool.  The problem is that in a pointless life, being cool is as pointless as everything else.  Self-destructive nihilists say, “Since there isn’t any meaning, there’s no reason to live.”  But why is a person who is unable to find meaning troubled?  Because his expectation of meaning has been frustrated.  Why was the expectation there in the first place?  Because existence is meaningful, and our minds have been created by an infinitely meaningful God who desires to bring us to Himself.

In the nineties, my students often encountered nihilism “in the wild” through the grunge lyrics of Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide.  The music scene changes every fifteen minutes, and I don’t try to keep up.  So ask them where they’ve come across the idea that life is meaningless.  Suppose they mention a song lyric.  Try taking eight or ten lines of it – not too much! -- analyzing just how its seductive spell works.

Probably the most powerful seductive technique of such lyrics is sheer repetition.  Adolescence is a time of turbulent thoughts and feelings, sometimes lofty, sometimes giddy, sometimes way down low.  Nihilism is an echo chamber.  It doesn’t work by justifying the way-down-low thoughts, but by endlessly repeating them, the way a sorcerer repeats the words of an incantation, or a suicidal person repeats suicidal thoughts over and over in his mind, even though they aren’t true:  “I’m worthless.  Everything I touch turns to ashes.  Nobody loves me.  Nothing will ever change.”

One part of the cure is simply to stop repeating those thoughts.  They aren’t true anyway.  The fact is that though I may be discouraged, I am precious to God.  Though I may have failed in one thing, I can do a lot of things.  I am capable of loving other people, and there are people who love me.  Reminding ourselves of such facts requires discipline, especially in adolescence, because adolescents tend to wallow in their moods and feelings.  But the point of discipline is that it can be learned.  Besides, what I am feeling today, or this month, is not forever.  Nothing but God is changeless.

The other part of the cure is to start thinking about what is good and beautiful instead.  St. Paul writes to the young Church in Philippi, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  When I was young, I thought he was saying that we should pretend everything is fine even though it isn’t.  Not so.  He and the other New Testament writers have a lot to say about suffering.  For example, they talk about offering our sufferings to Christ to be united to Him, who suffered for us, in order to be made more like Him.  But realism about suffering doesn’t mean wallowing in it

 In fact, most human beings are more impressed with the goodness of life than with the evils which intrude into it, and this tendency of human minds is right.  There can be health without sickness, but sickness cannot even exist except as something amiss in what would otherwise be healthy.  There can be beauty without ugliness, but ugliness cannot even be perceived except as something wrong with what would otherwise be beautiful.

You’ll notice that although I am not treating nihilists as true philosophers, I am dealing with them some big doses of philosophy.  For example, in the previous paragraph I'm tacitly relying on philosophical theme of evil as a privation of good, which is one of St. Augustine’s themes.

Which reminds me:  Have your students read Augustine’s Confessions?  Everyone likes stories, and he writes with amazing insight about his own confused adolescence and early adulthood.  If you think it would be helpful, you might also share with your students stories of other people who descended into nihilism and escaped from it.  I see that you’ve read mine.

The best antidote to nihilism you can offer your students is the joy and meaning they can see in your own life in faith.  So don’t hide it!

 

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