Violent mobs across America and Western Europe now destroy and vandalize statues, monuments, war memorials, churches, and public buildings on an almost daily basis. Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of rogue Minneapolis police officers a wave of protests and riots broke out across the country. Looting of stores and restaurants soon gave way to more purposeful attacks on statues and other public structures organized by Black Lives Matters (BLM) and Antifa. Ostensibly treated as a response to “institutionalized racism” it has been explained in much of our official media as merely a way to remove images related to racism that are now deemed offensive to African Americans and other minorities. . . .

Attacks commenced on all statues and all types of public buildings and monuments. This included statues of abolitionists, Abraham Lincoln, Union soldiers, and even the memorial to the famous all-black 54^th Massachusetts Regiment, perhaps the best known example of African American heroism during the Civil War. . . .

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Supporters of BLM and Antifa dismiss opposition to these attacks as a distraction from the topic of “institutional racism” or as an example of racism itself. Yet, it is precisely these groups that have made it a point to target public monuments. Others, including many on the center and the right have deplored such acts as examples of ignorance by protesters, or perhaps some failure of the educational system, or as merely irrational or illogical actions of angry mobs. Such discussions miss the point entirely. . . .

Nihilism emerged as an essential handmaiden to radical left-wing politics in Russia in the 19^th century. Its effects were not confined to the Left but were also adopted by extremists on the right. Nihilism seeks to “clear the ground” of all that came before, to sweep away the all old “structures” the radicals saw as impediments to progress and the realization of a utopia free of injustice, oppression, and inequality. Those “structures” included political systems, religion, economic arrangements, institutions of civil society, the family, individual conscience, and even language itself. The forms the structures took—be they good or bad, progressive or reactionary—made no difference. . . .

Nihilism became a creed for large segments of the educated classes in Europe before the First World War and after, including groups like the Futurists and other proto-fascists. F. T. Marinetti wrote in the 1909 Futurist Manifesto, “Let the good incendiaries come with their carbonized fingers!… Here they are! Here they are!… Set the library stacks on fire! Turn the canals in their course to flood the museum vaults!… There go the glorious canvases, floating adrift! Take up the picks and the hammers! Undermine the foundations of the venerable cities!”

Nihilism, however, turned out not to be a prelude to a better and freer world but to new forms of diabolical cruelty, terror, and genocide. All forms of 20^th century totalitarianism grew from nihilism. Breaking eggs proved far more enjoyable and seductive than the complexity of making omelets. The power to destroy without limits proved irresistible. Each new “structure of oppression” that was destroyed revealed new structures to be targeted; and along with the structures the people associated with them. Eliminating the Church was not enough if the clergy remained. . . .

Attacks on people are invariably preceded by attacks on their symbols. . . .

The scope of the Nihilist’s destructive vision is without limit.

The Nihilist seeks not only the destruction of physical enemies but more importantly their spiritual destruction as well. . . .

Nihilists annihilated language too. Words change meanings constantly. The Soviets devoted endless resources to editing and rewriting dictionaries and encyclopedias. Who was an ally one day could be an enemy the next. Words like Jew, kulak, class enemy, bourgeois, leftist or rightist mutated as needed, eliminating the differences between true and false. . . .

The turn toward Nihilism today shares all these features. Old structures of “institutional racism” must be eliminated and the ground cleared for a new utopia, “undo racism” and “decolonize” everything. . . . Destruction of physical symbols and monuments proceeds apace accompanied by rituals of public humiliation on street corners or social media. Those subject to such rituals must participate in their own abasement. . . .

Failure to accept one is a racist is proof of racism, turning logic on its head. With each potential target destroyed, new targets emerge in a never-ending orgy of vandalism. Resistance to the Nihilist mob is proof of guilt and justifies any and all abuse in response, verbal or physical, to those who do not knuckle under and accept obliteration. . . .

The result of a turn toward Nihilism is certain, particularly absent is any force with the will to resist the impulse to destroy. Such forces are rare in societies that have convinced themselves they are guilty of an endless rap sheet of historical crimes. The very concept of law enforcement is under assault. . . . What form totalitarianism may take in this case cannot be foreseen, for each manifestation is unique in its cruelty, degradation, and horror. Without forceful and just resistance to Nihilism and the Nihilists, generations hence will look back on our time as the beginning of a new dark age.

(Excerpt from Front Page Mag. Written by John Radzilowski.)

How do you feel about nihilism and totalitarianism impacting our nation?