A Brief History of Nothing (Part II): Something for Nothing

“We presumed to be no longer worshipping anything, but were we not actually worshipping Nothing?”

“Then many more shrieks, rapid and piercing, like the yells of some exasperated and ruthless creature, rent the air. Progress was calling…”

– “An Outpost of Progress” by Joseph Conrad

Revolutionaries always have their reasons. The French Revolution itself was dedicated to the Goddess Reason. Les philosophes had their reasons; the Girondists had theirs, and the Jacobins theirs. And the mob, too, had its reasons. Indeed, the Reign of Terror was a “Festival of Reason”—summary judgments, old grudges settled, bodies mutilated, and heads severed. And it was all in the name of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. The French Revolution became a veritable frenzy of reason; the daily executions became “the Red Mass,” and the guillotine its altar.

History is often written as the history of events, as well as the history of ideas. However, history can also be understood as the play of forces, and what we call events and ideas are more or less conditioned by our expressions of these forces. We often presume that human ideas determine the forces of history, but when and how do the forces of history determine human ideas?

Nothing Lives

Friedrich Nietzsche uses the term nihilism to describe both a state of mind and a historical force. Following Nietzsche’s thinking, I want to emphasize the dynamic aspect of nihilism by arguing that Nothing is a living power not unlike what we once called gods, or even God. Nothing is not merely an absence but an actual presence of a power or force we can and do experience. We can “believe” Nothing, but we can also be moved or inspired by its entropic powers, whether we acknowledge it or not. Nothing can destroy us, or it can guide us; we can even make use of and align ourselves with its powers. And perhaps above all, Nothing can possess us.