Autor: Little, Joyce

Buch: The Church and the Culture War

Titel: The Church and the Culture War

Stichwort: Nihilismus, Nihilist(4 Möglichkeiten):

Kurzinhalt: The second choice is the "I can do anything I want" style liberation ...The third choice is despair unto death ... The fourth choice is conversion away from the circularity of pleasure and despair into the linearity of love and responsibility.

Textausschnitt: 192b The movie also reflects real life, because our salvation or damnation lies in how we respond to ordinary existence. Phil lives out the four choices available to everyone living in a nihilistic society such as ours. The first, anxiety and distress, is perhaps what Thoreau had in mind when he spoke of how most people live lives of "quiet desperation". Our therapeutic society exists in large part to cater to the needs of such people, without solving the problem at all. The second choice is the "I can do anything I want" style liberation, with its demands for immediate gratification which lead inevitably into crimes and misdemeanors. This, of course, we see working itself out around us in the abuse of a variety of things, most especially sex and drugs. The third choice is despair unto death, and this includes not only everyone who actively takes his life but everyone who gives up on life (Phil incessantly watching Jeopardy manifests despair just as much as does Phil electrocuting himself in the bathtub). The fourth choice is conversion away from the circularity of pleasure and despair into the linearity of love and responsibility. (Fs)