android
07-30-06, 11:02 PM
Philosophical nihilism remains one of the most controversial ideas in the modern era. While it is not offensive in any of its parts, its concept rejects our enlightened creed of compassionate individualism. The American Nihilist Underground Society (ANUS) has been promoting nihilism since 1987 through a combination of absurdistic mockery and idealistic writing.
NIHILISM
Rejection of all inherent value frees us from a fascination with both materialism and moralism. These beliefs assert that what exists has ultimate value, and therefore that it is an end in itself and not a means to a life process. Nihilism asserts the opposite, and thus begins a path which leads us past fear of death to a heroic worldview.
http://www.anus.com/zine/philosophy/index_nihilism.html
MEDITATION
Like the quieting of distraction and distortion within the mind brought about by meditative focus, nihilism pushes aside preconception and brings the mind to focus within the time of the present. Influences which could radically skew our perceptions - emotions, nervousness, paranoia, or upset, to name a few - fade into the background and the mind becomes more open to the task at hand without becoming spread across contemplations of potential actions occurring at different levels of scale regarding the current task. Many human errors originate in perceiving an event to be either more important than it is, or to be "symbolically" indicative of relevance on a greater scale than the localized context which it affects, usually because of a conditioned preference for the scale of eventiture existing before the symbolic event.
http://www.anus.com/zine/philosophy/nihilism.html
EVOLUTION
Nihilism needs no justification. It follows the pattern of nature, which is evolution: successive replacement of previous forms of organization ("order","design") with better ones. There is no moral imperative to do any given act, only a practical one, in that if a proposed design works better even in some small way, those design details can be incorporated into the status quo, thus forcing it to the next level of evolution.
http://www.anus.com/zine/nihilism/
NATURE
This reminds me that whatever force created this universe is present in all things, as if each of us were a device driver or daemon running on a giant UNIX system, and that in its purest gaze, nature is not afraid of death because it does not die, even if its objects are destroyed and consumed. It is eternal, and whatever force engendered and sustains it grants consciousness to its bugs much as to its humans, aware that when they die, consciousness flows back into the whole and then out again to a new set of creatures. Life cannot die (barring ecocide by selfishly individualistic humans) but death is one of the colors of its palette, an unavoidable ochre to stain the canvas so that a watcher might feel an emotion in the contrast as the eye passes over form and vision, a story unfolding.
http://www.anus.com/zine/articles/nature
IDEALISM
Nihilism is a belief in nothing, which if you unpack it linguistically, means a positive belief in the value of nothing. Nothingness can be applied to all of our neuroses, fears, impressions, and the illusions produced by poor interpretation of our own senses. What is left is a clearer view of reality. We may never have 100% clarity in viewing our world, but the closer we get the more powerful we become. Thus nihilism strips aside anything that comes between us and a perception of structure and context in the world.
http://www.anus.com/zine/articles/definitions
As you can see, nihilism is one of the few undiscovered countries in philosophy, and one which will never be socially acceptable or marketable. ANUS has resisted the need for consumerist popularity and social acceptance, preferring solitary truth to endless companions in a bed of lies.
American Nihilist Underground Society (ANUS)
http://www.anus.com/
NIHILISM
Rejection of all inherent value frees us from a fascination with both materialism and moralism. These beliefs assert that what exists has ultimate value, and therefore that it is an end in itself and not a means to a life process. Nihilism asserts the opposite, and thus begins a path which leads us past fear of death to a heroic worldview.
http://www.anus.com/zine/philosophy/index_nihilism.html
MEDITATION
Like the quieting of distraction and distortion within the mind brought about by meditative focus, nihilism pushes aside preconception and brings the mind to focus within the time of the present. Influences which could radically skew our perceptions - emotions, nervousness, paranoia, or upset, to name a few - fade into the background and the mind becomes more open to the task at hand without becoming spread across contemplations of potential actions occurring at different levels of scale regarding the current task. Many human errors originate in perceiving an event to be either more important than it is, or to be "symbolically" indicative of relevance on a greater scale than the localized context which it affects, usually because of a conditioned preference for the scale of eventiture existing before the symbolic event.
http://www.anus.com/zine/philosophy/nihilism.html
EVOLUTION
Nihilism needs no justification. It follows the pattern of nature, which is evolution: successive replacement of previous forms of organization ("order","design") with better ones. There is no moral imperative to do any given act, only a practical one, in that if a proposed design works better even in some small way, those design details can be incorporated into the status quo, thus forcing it to the next level of evolution.
http://www.anus.com/zine/nihilism/
NATURE
This reminds me that whatever force created this universe is present in all things, as if each of us were a device driver or daemon running on a giant UNIX system, and that in its purest gaze, nature is not afraid of death because it does not die, even if its objects are destroyed and consumed. It is eternal, and whatever force engendered and sustains it grants consciousness to its bugs much as to its humans, aware that when they die, consciousness flows back into the whole and then out again to a new set of creatures. Life cannot die (barring ecocide by selfishly individualistic humans) but death is one of the colors of its palette, an unavoidable ochre to stain the canvas so that a watcher might feel an emotion in the contrast as the eye passes over form and vision, a story unfolding.
http://www.anus.com/zine/articles/nature
IDEALISM
Nihilism is a belief in nothing, which if you unpack it linguistically, means a positive belief in the value of nothing. Nothingness can be applied to all of our neuroses, fears, impressions, and the illusions produced by poor interpretation of our own senses. What is left is a clearer view of reality. We may never have 100% clarity in viewing our world, but the closer we get the more powerful we become. Thus nihilism strips aside anything that comes between us and a perception of structure and context in the world.
http://www.anus.com/zine/articles/definitions
As you can see, nihilism is one of the few undiscovered countries in philosophy, and one which will never be socially acceptable or marketable. ANUS has resisted the need for consumerist popularity and social acceptance, preferring solitary truth to endless companions in a bed of lies.
American Nihilist Underground Society (ANUS)
http://www.anus.com/