Nihilist Anarchism/Anarcho-Nihilism?

[sozialistentony]

I've been very curious about this for quite a while. Anarcho-nihilism seems to fit my view-points (insofar as I've seen anyway.) Rejection of all authority, religion, morality and government seems to be the basic idea of anarcho-nihilism. But I can't find ANYTHING on anarcho-nihilism. Anyone care to help? I've looked on Wikipeida and found minimal information. If anyone has any information which is fact based I'd appreciate it.

[JazzRemington]

There was a wikipedia page a long time ago, but it got deleted, because the only instance of the term appeared in a person's writings and nowhere else.

[sozialistentony]

I found a wikipeida page on it. I'll link it when I find it, but it's there. I had to search for it though -_-

[sozialistentony]

Yup, here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilist_anarchism

Brief. I know. It does mention nihilist political philosophy, if only in a sentence or two. Is this a fucking made-up ideology or something? I'm interested in it but it seems so goddamned obscure. I've found more on the Masons than this. Are there actually Nihilists out there, or what? I'm rather befuttled ...

[Invincible Summer]

I'm pretty sure this is Nihilist Anarchism: http://www.counterorder.com/

[Os Cangaceiros]

I think that fine folks like Sergei Nechayev and Lev Chernyi are probably closest to "nihilist anarchism", personally. Or at least what's historically considered to be the marriage of nihilist/semi-nihilist ideas and anarchist ideas.

Oh, and Max Stirner, of course.

[JazzRemington]

Well, there used to be a wikipedia page that was explicitly about something called "Anarcho-Nihilism." It was deleted because the only reference to the term was something a single person wrote.

[sozialistentony]

I'm pretty sure this is Nihilist Anarchism: http://www.counterorder.com/



Haha naahhh. Nihilism is defined as "A delusional belief nothing actually exists" or something to that effect. Anarcho-nihilism differs completely and is much older in origin so far as I know. Thanks for the replies guys. I'll check out those people, and any further answers are appreciated!

[Invincible Summer]

Haha naahhh. Nihilism is defined as "A delusional belief nothing actually exists" or something to that effect. Anarcho-nihilism differs completely and is much older in origin so far as I know. Thanks for the replies guys. I'll check out those people, and any further answers are appreciated!

So what is wrong with the link I provided? The site says nothing of that sort... in fact this page (http://www.counterorder.com/faq.html#12) addresses that very statement.

On this page (http://www.counterorder.com/nihilist.html) it states:


Common elements of the nihilist description:


Lack of principles
Lack of belief
Lack of attachments, i.e. to pre-existing social order
Self-description (I’m a nihilist)
Above heroes (because as a type-former they become one?)
Regards everything from the critical point of view

In practice this leads to conduct described as:


Subversive
Unorthodox
Destructive
Creative


That sounds pretty much like what you're talking about in your OP.

[Die Rote Fahne]

Never will I tire of using this quote:

"Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos" - Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski

[The Feral Underclass]

I'm not necessarily convinced that there's such a thing as nihilist anarchism. I mean, political nihilism has a lot of connections to anarchism, but to say "nihilist anarchism" seems pretty redundant to me. You also have to careful not to confuse philosophical nihilism with political nihilism, because while they share commonalities, they obviously relate to different aspects of thought. I don't think the Russian political Nihilists could be accused of not believing anything, for example. They often had very clear principles and ideas about change.

Anyway, there's a really great quote in Anarchist Morality (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/kropotkin/AM/anarchist_moralitytc.html) by Peter Kropotkin that always stuck with me when I was learning about anarchism. It's from a young Russian nihilist.


"I will be immoral, and why should I not? Because the Bible wills it? But the Bible is only a collection of Babylonian and Hebrew traditions, traditions collected and put together like the Homeric poems, or as is being done still with Basque poems and Mongolian legends. Must I then go back to the state of mind of the half-civilised peoples of the East?

Must I be moral because Kant tells me of a categoric imperative, of a mysterious command which comes to me from the depths of my own being and bids me be moral? But why should this `categoric imperative' exercise a greater authority over my actions than that other imperative, which at times may command me to get drunk. A word, nothing but a word, like the words `Providence,' or `Destiny,' invented to conceal our ignorance.

Or perhaps I am to be moral to oblige Bentham, who wants me to believe that I shall be happier if I drown to save a passerby who has fallen into the river than if I watched him drown?

Or perhaps because such has been my education? Because my mother taught me morality? Shall I then go and kneel down in a church, honour the Queen, bow before the judge I know for a scoundrel, simply because our mothers, our good ignorant mothers, have taught us such a pack of nonsense?

I am prejudiced,--like everyone else. I will try to rid myself of prejudice! Even though immorality be distasteful, I will yet force myself to be immoral, as when I was a boy I forced myself to give up fearing the dark, the churchyard, ghosts and dead people--all of which I had been taught to fear.

It will be immoral to snap a weapon abused by religion; I will do it, were it only to protect against the hypocrisy imposed on us in the name of a word to which the name morality has been given!"

[JazzRemington]

I'm not either. From what I remember of the wiki article, the rational for its existence was the writings of one person, where he wrote something along the lines of how he sought to free people from "oppressive ideas and concepts" and he called himself an "anarcho-nihilist" or something.

[-A-kRud-A-]

Anarchism itself has roots in nihilism. Bakunin used the works of Max Stirner who (it is said) Nietzsche may have been inspired by. The two weren't friends but some people say Nietzsche had read Stirners works.

I guess I would try some works by Max Stirner, The Ego And It's own perhaps. I would stay far away from any capitalist interpretation of Stirner as they've tried to use him as well to form some twisted social Darwinist perception of individualism. Ya, read Stirner. I cant post links I guess so look up The Ego And It's Own free online.