Category Archives: Nihilism

Nihilism Abandoning Values and KnowledgeNihilism derives its name from the Latin root nihil, meaning nothing, that which does not exist. This same root is found in the verb annihilate -- to bring to nothing, to destroy completely. Nihilism is the belief which:

Nihilism A Meaningless WorldShakespeares Macbeth eloquently summarizes existential nihilism's perspective, disdaining life:

Nihilism Beyond NothingnessNihilism--choosing to believe in Nothingness--involves a high price. An individual may choose to feel rather than think, exert their will to power than pray, give thanks, or obey God. After an impressive career of literary and philosophical creativity, Friedrich Nietzsche lost all control of his mental faculties. Upon seeing a horse mistreated, he began sobbing uncontrollably and collapsed into a catatonic state. Nietzsche died August 25, 1900, diagnosed as utterly insane. While saying Yes to life but No to God, the Prophet of Nihilism missed both.

Beyond the nothingness of nihilism, there is One who is greater than unbelief; One who touched humanity (1 John 5:20) and assures us that our lives are not meaningless (Acts 17:24-28).

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Nihilism - AllAboutPhilosophy.org

Nihilism

Nihilism is the 10th episode of Season 14. It aired on January 17, 2019.

Michael has re-taken control of Dean as his army of monsters continues to move in on our heroes. Sam devises a plan to try and reach Dean and stop Michael before anyone else has to die.

Michael taunting Sam Dean and Castiel while in Dean's mind.

Michael continues to fight the trio and gains the upper-hand over them before mocking them on trying to get him to evacuate Dean's body since it might cause physical repercussions on Dean. Hearing this, Dean decides to not eject the Archangel but keep him locked away. With help from Sam and Castiel, Dean pushes Michael into a walk-in bar cooler full of kegs and locks him inside using a screwdriver. Michael immediately starts bashing on the door wanting out. Dean declares the door will hold because he has control over his subconscious and will have it act as the cage to hold Michael.

The group leave Dean's mind, as they are cleaning up the mess left by the monsters. Sam and Maggie are relieved that Michael's monsters scattered after being rendered in disarray without his direction. Sam thanks Maggie for protecting them, as she states it was Jack since he destroyed the monsters as she and Sam note on the latter's powers returning. Castiel is admonishing Jack on his acts since they have burned away part of his soul from the Enochian magic but Jack defends himself because there was danger. Cass accepts this and warns Jack to be careful and he promises.

Michael angrily tries to escape Dean's mind.

In his room, Dean is talking to himself in a mirror where he tells himself that he is still in control of his body while Michael is in his subconscious continuously bashing on the locked door and screams to be released. Dean senses this and continues to worry over his control before Billie appears and notes on the screaming in Dean's mind keeping him occupied. Dean thanks her for the assist she provided as she shrugs it off to the matter at hand. She reminds him of her warnings of dimension traveling and the danger it brings. Dean justifies it since Michael is now trapped but Billie is not so sure, she tells Dean of his shelf of possible deaths and they have all changed to the same thing. She reveals that each detail of how Michael will escape to take control of Dean and destroy the world. Billie shows the shocked Dean that only one details an alternate way as she hands him a thin book. Reading the contents, a stunned Dean questions this and Billie tells him it's his choice to make before she disappears.

Sam and Michael

Michael to Dean about Castiel

Dean and Billie

TBA.

Supernatural 14x10 Promo "Nihilism" (HD) Season 14 Episode 10 Promo

Supernatural 14x10 Extended Promo "Nihilism" (HD) Season 14 Episode 10 Extended Promo

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Nihilism | Supernatural Wiki | Fandom

I. Definition

What do you believe in? What gives your life meaning? How do you know whats true? If you can answer these questions without saying nothing, youre not a nihilist. Nihilism, most simply, means believing in nothing. The word is derived from Latin, nihil, which means nothing.

Nihilism can mean believing that nothing is real, believing that its impossible to know anything, believing that all values are based on nothing, especially moral values, or believing that life is inherently and utterly meaningless. We will discuss these different kinds of nihilism through its history and in section five.

Most philosophers have feared nihilism, believing that it leads to hopelessness, immorality, weakness, and destruction. Nihilism has probably been the most universally demonized philosophy in the Western world. In the East, its quite different, because, Buddhism is considered nihilistic by many philosophers, but is thought to lead to compassion and peace. We will discuss this too in the following sections.

Although many philosophers have considered nihilism almost synonymous with amorality and the idea that life has no meaning, this point of view may be outdated. Nihilism gained its fame during the years when people in the Western world were just beginning to cope with the idea that there may be no God, or that all value systems are relative to culture, and they couldnt imagine living a moral or meaningful life without God and traditional culture to fall back on. However, more recent generations have seen more optimistic versions of nihilism (see section seven).

Nihilism was named by the philosopher Friedrich Jacobi in the early 19th century; Jacobi believed that Immanuel Kants transcendental idealism implied what we will call metaphysical nihilismthe idea that nothing is real. Although this was not to be the most famous and supposedly dangerous form of nihilism, it was a criticism of Kants philosophy. Jacobi was not a nihilist. However, this motivation for nihilismthe analysis of reality as a subjective construction of minds, is a central reason for most forms nihilismthe recognition that in one way or another all meaning in the universe is created by the minds of those that perceive it.

The roots of nihilism in the Western world go back to the Greeks (like everything in philosophy!) The ancient Greek Skeptics believed that one should doubt, question, and examine all beliefs. Whether there would be any truths left afterwards remained an open question. The skeptical attitude became a crucial element of science and reason, but did not bear the fruit of nihilism in the West until after rationalism and materialism became major philosophies in the 18th and 19th centuries. Together, rationalism and materialism implied to many people that the universe was a soul-less machine, therefore devoid of real meaning.

The first famous nihilist was a fictional character in Russian author Turgenevs novel Fathers and Sons. And this reflected a reality; nihilism was growing rapidly in Russia at this time and in the late 19th century, it became political nihilism, a movement against both the church and the Russian governmenta rejection of all traditional authority. Rationalism, materialism, atheism, anarchism, nihilism, and the possibility of violent revolution all seemed closely related at that timewhich is also why nihilism is still associated with violence and destruction in many minds.

At the same time, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the most famous theorist of nihilism, argued that the world at that time was bound to become increasingly nihilistic for many years, and therefore full of despair, immorality, and pointless destruction. But, he also claimed that it was probably necessary for humanity to go through such a period in order to wipe away the irrationality of age-old traditional beliefs and eventually create a better basis for ethics and life-meaning. Of course, Nietzsches superman, the perfection of humanity, would be a nihilist, not bound by inherited ideas, creating his or her own meaning, according to their will.

Nietzsche recognized that developments in philosophy were going to encourage all of us towards nihilismrationalism, materialism, skepticism, science, and the recognition of cultural relativity. Many philosophers saw this problem and many agree that Nietzsches predictions were correct, that we have been living through the horrors that he foresaw resulting from nihilism. It would be easy to argue that much of the immorality and pointless violence we see in the world today is partially rooted in nihilism; but, we must then also note that a lot of violence is also caused by the opposite of nihilismfaith in traditional beliefs.

If 19th century philosophers saw nihilism as an approaching demon, 20th century philosophers saw it as a fact of life and searched for ways to cope with it. Existentialism, the central philosophy of the 20th century, was certainly nihilistic. And depressingly so for many; existential nihilism focuses on the ultimate meaninglessness of existence. Existentialism taught that there is no objective meaning; but, existentialists also emphasized our freedom to create meaning. And this is where nihilism began to move in a better direction. The existentialists, although often depressed, promoted the idea that we can (in fact must) give life our own meaning.

In the second half of the 20th century, new philosophies developed carrying nihilism in another directionwhich many philosophers find at least as distressing as any previous versions! Those are the philosophies / art movements of deconstruction and post-modernism. Deconstruction was a method of analysis which showed in many ways how meanings are constructed, supposedly with no ultimate foundationno solid reality behind them. And post-modernism consisted mainly of artists playing with the consequences of deconstruction and trying to create new human meaning out of this nihilistic world-view.

Every version of nihilism (see section five) has been feared by people who felt that without a foundation in objective truth or faith, it is impossible to have morality, life-meaning, or knowledge. However, there are many philosophies, such as secular humanism, Buddhism, and post-modernism which claim that it is possible to develop new and better forms of morality, knowledge, and life-meaning, without reliance on faith, which may be seen as deceptive and limiting. Buddhists base their morality on the recognition that all living things suffer and depend on each other. Post-modernists use new artistic techniques that recognize the artificially constructed nature of meaning, such as when characters in movies speak directly to the audience. So, it seems that nihilism can also lead to new and valuable forms of morality and meaning-making.

I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilisms] arrival. I believe it is one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes master of this crisis, is a question of his strength Friedrich Nietzsche

As remarked above, Nietzsche is known for sounding the alarm about nihilism in Western philosophy. More interesting is that he saw nihilism as an opportunity for humanity to master itself, and a test of our strength. It can be inferred from his other writings that Nietzsche though human beings could and should create positive meaning, if they could free themselves from the limitations of irrational traditions.

But todays society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness. If one is not cognizant of this difference and holds that an individuals value stems only from his present usefulness, then, believe me, one owes it only to personal inconsistency not to plead for euthanasia along the lines of Hitlers program, that is to say, mercy killing of all those who have lost their social usefulness, be it because of old age, incurable illness, mental deterioration, or whatever handicap they may suffer. Confounding the dignity of man with mere usefulness arises from conceptual confusion that in turn may be traced back to the contemporary nihilism transmitted on many an academic campus and many an analytical couch. Viktor E. Frankl, Mans Search for Meaning

In this quote, Victor Frankl claims that our society values people only for their usefulness, and blames this attitude on a kind of nihilism, which he associates with academics, and psychotherapy. He is talking about the reduction of human meaning, by reason, to materialism and functionalismthat the only things that matter are materials and what things (or people) do, practically. He argues that if you really believe in this world-view you should support the idea of killing off all useless members of society, as Hitler wished to do. Frankls fear that nihilism could support Nazi-like policies was a common fear among philosophers in the mid-twentieth century.

Here, we define each type of nihilism, most of which are also discussed in sections I and II.

The philosophy that we cannot know anything for sure. Also known as radical skepticism. This might be considered the gateway philosophy for nihilism. It seems to be a consequence of rationalism.

The belief that nothing is real, or that nothing really exists. Historically, based on idealismthe philosophy that everything is made of either ideas, or consciousness. Buddhism could be considered a kind of metaphysical nihilism.

The rejection of faith in traditional authorities including the government and the churchalso specifically a movement of this sort in late 19th century Russia.

The philosophy that existence ultimately has no meaning, including no God, no afterlife, and no transcendental domain of any kind. Often thought of as a philosophy of despair.

The belief that there is no solid basis for morality or any ethos, and therefore, that anything is permitted. Many people have felt this is a necessary consequence of atheism, but most atheists disagree.

Methods of literary analysis and art based on the idea that all meanings are constructed by minds and culture, and have no real basis.

Buddhism teaches a form of idealismthat consciousness is the fundamental reality, and that all conceivable objects and thoughts are temporary, illusory, and ultimately emptylike thoughts. Form is emptiness; emptiness is form is a major Buddhist quote. However, in Buddhism, this realization is supposed to lead to compassion and peace.

Historically, nihilism has been closely associated with atheismthe belief that there is no God. Because traditionally, people were raised to think of God and religion as the ultimate source of meanings and morality. However, although atheism, or at least agnosticism, would seem to be a necessary part of nihilism, they are not the same. An atheist may still believe in meaning, morality, or even spirituality. For example, nature-worshipper can be atheists but still believe in nature. And some atheists, such as Buddhists, believe in the goodness of human nature and the value of compassion.

Popular film has been full of nihilistsTyler Durden of Fight Club, Agent Smith of the Matrix, Heath Ledgers Joker in The Dark Knight all express nihilistic world-views. Fight Club seems to examine the causes and consequences of contemporary existential nihilism, but not necessarily to promote it; although the urge to burn it all down has a cathartic appeal to many viewers, in the end, the protagonist tries to save lives, perhaps showing that he is not a total nihilist.

And now, for something completely different:

Eric Idles Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Monty Pythons film The Life of Brian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

The setting for this musical number makes the main lyrics of this song bitterly absurd; in this context, they express the meaningless absurdity of life. You will notice though, that as the song goes on, the lyrics more and more directly express a philosophy of existentialist nihilism. The Life of Brian was banned in Britain for years, due to its implicit atheism.

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Nihilism: Examples and Definition | Philosophy Terms

I dont believe in a future life, said Raskolnikov.

Svidrigailov tells Raskolnikov that he has been seeing his dead wifes ghost, and reflects that ghosts represent shreds and fragments of other worlds. Raskolnikov replies that he doesnt believe in an afterlife, Svidrigailovs other worlds. Raskolnikovs belief that no life exists outside of the body and his rejection of the idea of a soul represent a nihilistic viewpoint. Nihilism favors a strict materialism, a belief that reality exists only within the bounds of the material world.

Raskolnikov overhears a conversation between a student and an officer in which the student makes case for justifying the theft and homicide of Alyona, the pawnbroker. The student argues that the immorality of murdering an old woman near death who actively harms people seems far outweighed by the benefit in the countless lives her money would improve. His argument applies an ethic of utilitarianism to determine right conduct by usefulness. Making moral decisions outside of a religious value system links utilitarianism with nihilism and both with socialism.

This type of short and rude response comes from Raskolnikov often. He treats people, even family members, as an annoyance. After he commits murder and conceals the crime, Raskolnikovs mental state rapidly deteriorates, a condition that distresses both his sister and mother. The two women try to help and comfort him, but he orders them out. Raskolnikov says he loves his family, and he does, but he also isolates himself emotionally, out of feeling superior. Raskolnikovs unsentimental behavior and lack of concern for others feelings make him a good example of a nihilist.

This comment, which Svidrigailov makes to Raskolnikov, sums up the nature of their conversations throughout the book. Raskolnikov asks Svidrigailov blunt, direct, and personal questions, yet when Svidrigailov does the same, Raskolnikov sidesteps. Similarly, Raskolnikov calls out Svidrigailov on his lack of manners, yet Raskolnikov will not accept the truth when Svidrigailov says the same of him. Raskolnikov lives hypocritically: As a nihilist, he cares nothing for others feelings or social conventions, but as a conflicted human, he demands propriety from others.

Raskolnikov has been serving his prison sentence, where Sonia comes dutifully to visit him. Before, Raskolnikov felt repulsed by the idea of holding hands with Sonia, but finally, he allows her to hold his hand. Here, the narrator explains how Sonia takes Raskolnikovs action as a sign of his true love. Holding her hand symbolizes that Raskolnikov finally breaks free of his nihilistic, self-imposed psychological isolation from others, and that he discovers love. Readers might infer what the effect of this simple action means about the ultimate futility of nihilism.

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SparkNotes: Crime and Punishment Quotes: Nihilism

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Nihilism is a philosophical position which argues that the world, and especially human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. Nihilists generally assert some or all of the following: there is no reasonable proof of the existence of a higher ruler or creator, a "true morality" is unknown, and secular ethics are impossible; therefore, life has no truth, and no action is known to be preferable to any other.[1]

Nihilism is often more a charge leveled against a particular idea, movement, or group, than it is an actual philosophical position to which someone overtly subscribes. Movements such as Dadaism as well as Futurism[2] and deconstructionism,[3] among others, have been described by commentators as "nihilist" at various times in various contexts. Often this means or is meant to imply that the beliefs of the accuser are more substantial or truthful, whereas the beliefs of the accused are nihilistic, and thereby comparatively amount to nothing.

Nihilism is also a characteristic that has been ascribed to time periods: for example, Baudrillard and others have called postmodernity a nihilistic epoch,[4] and some Christian theologians and figures of authority have asserted that modernity[3] and postmodernity[5] represent the rejection of God, and therefore are nihilistic.

Prominent philosophers who have written on the subject of nihilism include Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger. Nietzsche described Christianity as a nihilistic religion because it evaded the challenge of finding meaning in earthly life, creating instead a spiritual projection where mortality and suffering were removed instead of transcended. He believed nihilism resulted from the "death of God", and insisted that it was something to be overcome, by returning meaning to a monistic reality. (He sought instead a "pragmatic idealism," in contrast to the prominent influence of Schopenhauer's "cosmic idealism.") Heidegger argued that the term "nihilism has a very specific meaning. What remains unquestioned and forgotten in metaphysics is being; and hence, it is nihilistic,"[6] and that nihilism rested on the reduction of Being to "mere value."[How to reference and link to summary or text]

The term comes from the Latin nihil, meaning "nothing". The Oxford English Dictionary gives 1817 as its earliest use in English, and Alain Rey's Dictionnaire historique de la langue franaise (revised edition 1995) gives 1787 as the first use of the word in French, nothing that nihiliste was used in 1761, though in a religious sense of 'heretic' that is now obsolete. Rey also argues that the Russian equivalent nighilizm () that appeared in 1829 was an impulse to the penetration of the term into modern language.

The Latin indefinite pronoun nihili ('nothing') is a reduced form of nihilum, a term that derives from ne-hilom, an emphatic form of the negation ne by means of hilum, meaning 'the slightest amount' and of uncertain origin. [citation needed]

Though the term nihilism was first popularized by Ivan Turgenev (see below), it was first introduced into philosophical discourse by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (17431819), who used the term to characterize rationalism, and in particular Immanuel Kant's "critical" philosophy in order to carry out a reductio ad absurdum according to which all rationalism (philosophy as criticism) reduces to nihilism, and thus it should be avoided and replaced with a return to some type of faith and revelation. (See also fideism.)

Friedrich Nietzsche's later work displays a preoccupation with nihilism. Book One of the posthumous collection The Will to Power (a highly selective arrangement of jottings from various notebooks and from an incomplete project begun by Nietzsche himself, then posthumously edited and released by his sister, Elisabeth Frster-Nietzsche) is entitled "European Nihilism" which he calls "the problem of the nineteenth century." [citation needed] Nietzsche characterized nihilism as emptying the world and especially human existence of meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. He hints that nihilism can become a false belief, when it leads individuals to discard any hope of meaning in the world and thus to invent some compensatory alternate measure of significance.

Though some deride it as nihilistic, postmodernism can be contrasted with the above formulation of nihilism in that the most common type of nihilism tends toward defeatism or fatalism, while postmodern philosophers tend to find strength and reason for celebration in the varied and unique human relationships it explores.

In a very different vein than just given, contemporary analytic philosophers have been engaged in a very active discussion over the past few years about what is called mereological nihilism. This is the position that objects with parts do not exist, and only basic building blocks without parts exist (e.g., electrons, quarks), and thus the world we see and experience full of objects with parts is a product of human misperception. Jeffrey Grupp of Purdue University [7], argues for a doctrine of mereological nihilism, maintaining that there are no objects whatsoever which have parts. Grupp argues that nihilism is the standard position of many ancient atomists, such as Democritus of ancient Greece, Dharmakirti of ancient India, that it is the position held by Kant in his transcendental idealism, and that it is the position actually found in quantum observational physics.[8]The other contemporary mereological nihilists are not atomists (instead they advocate a slightly diferent theory, called simples), such as the mereological nihilists Trenton Merricks of the University of Virginia, and Peter van Inwagen of Notre Dame.

In the world of ethics, nihilist or nihilistic is often used as a derogatory term referring to a complete rejection of all systems of authority, morality, and social custom, or one who purportedly makes such a rejection. Either through the rejection of previously accepted bases of belief or through extreme relativism or skepticism, the nihilist is construed as one who believes that none of these claims to power are valid. Nihilism not only dismisses received moral values, but rejects 'morality' outright, viewing it as baseless.

Postmodern thought is colored by the perception of a degeneration of systems of epistemology and ethics into extreme relativism, especially evident in the writings of Jean-Franois Lyotard and Jacques Derrida. These philosophers tend to deny the very grounds on which Western cultures have based their 'truths': absolute knowledge and meaning, the accumulation of positive knowledge, historical progress, and the ideals of humanism and the Enlightenment. Though it is often described as a fundamentally nihilist philosophy, before entering a brief discussion on postmodern thought it is important to note that nihilism itself is open to postmodern criticism: nihilism is a claim to a universal truth, exactly what postmodernism rejects.

Lyotard argues that, rather than relying on an objective truth or method to prove their claims, philosophers legitimize their truths by reference to a story about the world which is inseparable from the age and system the stories belong to. Lyotard calls them meta-narratives. He then goes on to define the postmodern condition as one characterized by a rejection both of these meta-narratives and of the process of legitimization by meta-narratives.

"In lieu of meta-narratives we have created new language-games in order to legitimize our claims which rely on changing relationships and mutable truths, none of which is privileged over the other to speak to ultimate truth." It is this unstable concept of truth and meaning that leads one close to nihilism, though in the same move that plunges toward meaninglessness, Lyotard suspends his philosophy just above its surface.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

While few philosophers would claim to be nihilists, nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche defined the term as any philosophy that, rejecting the real world around us and physical existence along with it, results in an apathy toward life and a poisoning of the human soul and opposed it vehemently. He describes it as "the will to nothingness" or, more specifically:

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power, section 585, Walter Kaufmann

In this sense it is the philosophical equivalent to the Russian political movement mentioned above: the irrational leap beyond skepticism the desire to destroy meaning, knowledge, and value. To him, it was irrational because the human soul thrives on value. Nihilism, then, was in a sense like suicide and mass murder all at once. He saw this philosophy as present in Christianity (which he describes as slave morality), Buddhism, morality, asceticism and any excessively skeptical philosophy.

Nietzsche is referred to as a nihilist in part because he famously announced "God is dead!" What he meant by this oft-repeated statement has been the subject of much heated debate, because Nietzsche simply declared this position in his Thus Spoke Zarathustra without actually arguing for it. Some argue that Nietzsche meant not that God has died in a literal sense, or even necessarily that God doesn't exist, but that we don't believe in God anymore, that even those of us who profess faith in God don't really believe. God is dead, then, in the sense that his existence is now irrelevant to the bulk of humanity. "And we," he says in The Gay Science, "have killed him."

Alternately, some have interpreted Nietzsche's comment to be a statement of faith that the world has no rational order. Nietzsche also believed that, even though Christian morality is nihilistic, without God humanity is left with no epistemological or moral base from which we can derive absolute beliefs. Thus, even though nihilism has been a threat in the past, through Christianity, Platonism, and various political movements that aim toward a distant utopian future, and any other philosophy that devalues human life and the world around us (and any philosophy that devalues the world around us by privileging some other or future world necessarily devalues human life), Nietzsche tells us it is also a threat for humanity's future. This warning can also be taken as a polemic against 19th and 20th century scientism.

Nietzsche advocated a remedy for nihilism's destructive effects and a hope for humanity's future in the form of the bermensch, a position especially apparent in his works Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Antichrist. The bermensch is an exercise of action and life: one must give value to their existence by behaving as if one's very existence were a work of art. Nietzsche believed that the bermensch "exercise" would be a necessity for human survival in the post-religious era.

Another part of Nietzsche's remedy for nihilism is a revaluation of morals he hoped that we are able to discard the old morality of equality and servitude and adopt a new code, turning Judeo-Christian morality on its head. Excess, carelessness, callousness, and sin, then, are not the damning acts of a person with no regard for his salvation, nor that which plummets a society toward decadence and decline, but the signifier of a soul already withering and the sign that a society is in decline. The only true sin to Nietzsche is that which is against a human nature aimed at the expression and venting of one's power over oneself. Virtue, likewise, is not to act according to what has been commanded, but to contribute to all that betters a human soul.

Nietzsche attempts to reintroduce what he calls a master morality, which values personal excellence over forced compassion and creative acts of will over the herd instinct, a moral outlook he attributes to the ancient Greeks. The Christian moral ideals developed in opposition to this master morality, he says, as the reversal of the value system of the elite social class due to the oppressed class' resentment of their Roman masters. Nietzsche, however, did not believe that humans should adopt master morality as the be-all-end-all code of behavior - he believed that the revaluation of morals would correct the inconsistencies in both master and slave morality - but simply that master morality was preferable to slave morality, although this is debatable. Walter Kaufmann, for one, disagrees that Nietzsche actually preferred master morality to slave morality. He certainly gives slave morality a much harder time, but this is partly because he believes that slave morality is modern society's more imminent danger. The Antichrist had been meant as the first book in a four-book series, "Toward a Re-Evaluation of All Morals", which might have made his views more explicit, but Nietzsche did not survive to write the later three books.

Nihilism is often described as a belief in the nonexistence of truth. In its more extreme forms, such a belief is difficult to justify, because it contains a variation on the liar paradox: if it is true that truth does not exist, the statement "truth does not exist" is itself a truth, therefore showing itself to be inconsistent. A formally identical criticism has been leveled against relativism and the verifiability theory of meaning of logical positivism.

A more sophisticated interpretation of the claim might be that while truth may exist, it is inaccessible in practice, but this leaves open the problem of how the nihilist has accessed it. It may be a reasonable reply that the nihilist has not accessed truth directly, but has come to the conclusion, based on past experience, that truth is ultimately unattainable within the confines of human circumstance. Thus, since nihilists believe they have learned that truth cannot be attained in this life, they look upon the activities of those rigorously seeking truth as futile. However, this interpretation is open to the same criticism as above, since, barring mystical revelation, the only way the "truth" of nihilism can have been learned is from within the confines of human experience. An attempt at reconciliation may be made in the following way:

There have been various movements in art, such as surrealism and cubism, which have been criticized for touching on nihilism, and others like Dada which have embraced it openly. More generally, modern art has been criticized as nihilistic due to its often non-representative nature, as happened with the Nazi party's Degenerate art exhibit.

Nihilistic themes can be found in literature and music as well. This is especially true of contemporary music and literature, where the uncertainty following what some perceive as the demise of modernism is explored in detail.

The term Dada was first used during World War I, an event that precipitated the movement, which lasted from approximately 1916 to 1923. The Dada Movement began in the old town of Zrich, Switzerland known as the "Niederdorf" or "Niederdrfli," which is now sporadically inhabited by dadaist squatters. The Dadaists claimed that Dada was not an art movement, but an anti-art movement, sometimes using found objects in a manner similar to found poetry and labeling them art, thus undermining ideas of what art is and what it can be. The "anti-art" drive is thought of to have stemmed from a post-war emptiness that lacked passion or meaning in life. Sometimes Dadaists paid attention to aesthetic guidelines only so they could be avoided, attempting to render their works devoid of meaning and aesthetic value. This tendency toward devaluation of art has led many to claim that Dada was essentially a nihilist movement; a destruction without creation. War and destruction had washed away peoples' mindset of creation and aesthetic.

Because they attempted to undermine the way art was viewed in the 20th century, the dadaists chose to name their movement after a baby phrase to show the way their anti-art was shaking everything up. Several myths regarding the invention of the name "Dada" exist, including that it was a form of mockery against Tzara, who is widely viewed as the father of the movement (in Russian "da, da" is "yes, yes", a name that still offers no indication of the art that bears it).Tristan Tzara (see Samuel Rosenstock), Jewish poet (born in Romania; moved to France) who was one of the co-founders of the Dada movement (1896-1963).

Although the word nihilism is of recent historical vintage, the attitude it represents is not, as is seen in a famous passage near the end of Shakespeare's Macbeth though Macbeth is not speaking of universal collapse or expansion but the brute and more immediate fact of human death:

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

William Shakespeare , Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5

In nineteenth-century culture, nihilism was given wide currency by the Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev in his novel Fathers and Sons (1862) to describe the views of an emerging radical Russian intelligentsia. These consisted primarily of upper-class students who had grown disillusioned with the slow pace of reformism. The primary spokesman for this new philosophy was D. I. Pisarev (1840-1868) who articulated a program of Revolutionary Utilitarianism and advocated violence as a tool for social change. Pisarev was cast as Bazarov in Fathers and Sons much to his own delight; he proudly embraced his new status as a fictionalized hero and villain. [citation needed]

After its popularization in the character of Bazarov, the word quickly became a catch-all term of derision for younger, more radical generations, and continues in this vein to modern times. [citation needed] It is often used to indicate a group or philosophy the speaker intends to characterize as having no moral sensibility, no belief in truth, beauty, love, or whatever else the speaker and his presumed audience values, and no regard for the current social conventions.

In Germinal (1885), by mile Zola, the nihilist character Souvarine dramatizes the danger of nihilism when, in a climactic scene, he sabotages a coal mine and causes a catastrophic accident, then slips away. Souvarine's lack of belief, frequently expressed, is a foil to the optimistic socialism that fuels the coal miners' revolt. [citation needed]

In Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the protagonist Rodion Raskolnikov embraces a nihilist sort of utilitarianism. Dostoevsky ultimately points out the emptiness of nihilism with the epilogue of the novel. [citation needed] In fact, many of Dostoevsky's novels dealt with nihilism. Another major example of nihilism is found in The Possessed (or The Devils), in which Kirilov sees no solution to nihilism but suicide and ultimately kills himself. The main protagonist, Stavrogin, finally sees Kirilov's dilemma and follows suit at the end of the book with his own elaborate suicide. [citation needed]

The works of Albert Camus can be read as a sustained engagement with nihilism. [citation needed] Camus was highly influenced by the works and thoughts of Dostoevsky, even writing his own play based on Dostoevsky's novel, "The Devils". [citation needed]Yukio Mishima is another example of engagement with nihilism. [citation needed]Louis-Ferdinand Celine wrote several novels of a strongly nihilist bent, most notably Journey to the End of the Night. [citation needed]

The works of Samuel Beckett, especially the play Waiting for Godot, exhibit elements of nihilism. This play has subsequently been made into a cinematic film which visually deals with the more pessimistic and cynical aspects of nihilism. [citation needed]

In contemporary literature, themes of nihilism can also be found in many of Kurt Vonnegut's books. [citation needed] Robert Stone, additionally, is a contemporary American novelist who has often thematized nihilism in his work. In A Flag for Sunrise (1981), for example, the anthropologist Holliwell is a protagonist struggling against his own nihilistic tendencies. [citation needed] Another American author who is commonly believed to deal with themes of nihilism is Chuck Palahniuk. In his 1996 novel Fight Club, for example, the ultimate goal of the book's 'project mayhem' is the destruction of modern civilization in order to rebuild humanity. [citation needed] Palahniuk, however, claims that he does not deliberately focus on the subject. [citation needed] Nathan Tyree's Novel, Mr. Overby is Falling, is another current example of nihilism in literature. In that book the main character longs for the destruction of all society, so that the world can be cleansed of evil. [citation needed] Nihilism is also a common theme in the worldview and writings of horror author Thomas Ligotti, as well as Bret Easton Ellis[9][10].

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Nihilism | Psychology Wiki | Fandom

In 2018, #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, and #NoBanNoWall coalesced into social movements that defined the year. In 2019, the #ClimateStrike led by youth activist Greta Thunberg made headlines. In 2020, Twitter hashtags might not cut it, says Moya Bailey, an assistant professor at Northeastern who studies the way digital media is used to promote social causes.

Moya Bailey is an assistant professor of culture, societies, and global studies; and womens, gender, and sexuality studies in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Bailey says that with a climate crisis bearing down on us, and with protests rooted in wealth inequality cropping up around the world, Theres more of a cultural shift that I think young people understand needs to happen, and thats not something thats easily conveyed in a hashtag or on a social platform.

Twitter, a platform that has amplified social movements for the last decade, may prove to be fading from prominence in the next.

Its a question of demographics, Bailey says. The population of people on Twitter is aging, and other social media sites that have different demographic makeup are rising up to take its place.

The average age among Twitter users in the United States is 40 years old, according to a study from the Pew Research Center this year. Meanwhile, social media sites such as TikTok and Snapchat attract a population that is largely under 30 years old, according to Pew and MediaKix, a company that tracks media trends.

Because they have such different demographic makeups, different trends emerge among these various platforms, Bailey says.

On TikTok in particulara social media platform on which users post short-form mobile videosYou do get cat memes and distraction, but theres also a bit of nihilism, Bailey says.

Baileys noticed a nihilistic bent among younger generations in general, she says.

I think they, more than anyone, get a sense that the writings on the wall, Bailey says. For folks like Greta Thunberg [a 16-year-old who is leading global protests over climate change] and her cohort, theres a sense that theyre making a lot of noise, but people arent changing their behavior.

Bailey says that to focus too closely on trending hashtags is to miss, in some sense, the ways that [young people] are organizing, and their savvy in terms of understanding the limits of politics as usual.

Among her own students, Bailey says shes seen a renewed interest in building communities in person, offline. Shes also seen young people make different choices than their older cohorts about how to spend moneyliving with roommates rather than buying a house in order to have more money to spend on causes in which they believe, for example.

There are ways that young people are agitating for change that remain invisible online, she says.

For media inquiries, please contact Shannon Nargi at s.nargi@northeastern.edu or 617-373-5718.

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The rise of TikTok, Snapchat, means the biggest hashtag of 2020 might not be a hashtag at all - News@Northeastern

Nowadays, memes go through the internet like excrement through the titular character of the The Untitled Goose Game. As were rocketing through this information superhighway like fish in a tube (remember when the people of Twitter longed to be salmon?), clasping onto bits of digital detritus just long enough to see if they spark joy before discarding them, trying to remember even last weeks best meme can feel hilariously futile. (You know, like a woman yelling at a cat.) Once you start scrolling back through the year in memes, though, its a bit like trying kombucha for the first timeby turns, disorienting and potentially gross, then rather pleasing.

The year 2019 has been a difficult and uneven one. Online, political memes flew back and forth like spitballs, and even some of the most innocent ones (like that fish tube) took on a sense of ecstatic nihilism. People also had fun this year, finding joy in the mundanely bizarrelike watching hundreds of gummy bears appear to be singing along with Adele. Here are some of the years most important memes, great and gross alike.

30 to 50 Feral Hogs

In early August, the nation was grieving two back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas, and country musician Jason Isbell tweeted in support of banning assault weapons. In response, Arkansas dad Willie McNabb authored a now-famous tweet: Legit question for rural Americans, he wrote. How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?" The phrase 30 to 50 feral hogs swiftly became a meme, a kind of latter-day thoughts and prayers, a way to express frustration with Americas gun-control laws in the face of preventable violence. As I wrote at the time, The banality of mass shootings and politicians' callous response is brain-breaking, and so is the diversity of experience in America. It's hard to find consensus when one person's absurdist image is another person's backyard.

Baby Yoda

If the internet had a favorite child in 2019, it was the Child: the breakout star of The Mandalorian, the tiniest, greenest, most lovably bat-eared Force user in the Star Wars universe, Baby Yoda. Without a word (and with some very cute sips of soup), Baby Yoda conquered the internet with memes. People Photoshopped the little cherub into every situation you can imagine, went mad captioning screenshots, professed undying love, and thenas things hit Peak Weirdpeople started admitting that they wanted to breastfeed it. Baby Yoda is still a young meme and the The Mandalorian isnt over, so this internet culture moments future is hard to see. One thing remains clear: Love Baby Yoda, you must.

Epstein Didnt Kill Himself

Disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein took his own life in prison last August while awaiting trial for trafficking minors. Because Epstein was connected with powerful figures, and because the guards outside his door were asleep and the cell contained no cameras, his death sparked conspiracy theories repeated by journalists and politicians alike. The theories (which suppose anyone from President Donald Trump and the Clintons to the deep state might have wanted the guy dead) are united by a single sentence that has become a meme: "Epstein didnt kill himself." Its appeared in news clips, on sweatshirts, and most recently, defacing a piece of art valued at $120,000 that happens to be a banana duct-taped to a wall. Its like a billboard for disillusionment and mistrust, I wrote this November. And its everywhere.

Storm Area 51

When Matty Roberts created a Facebook event this June proposing that the American people storm Area 51, notorious fount of alien-related conspiracy theories, because they cant stop us all, he was joking. Then 2 million people said they were going, and 1.5 million more were interested. The flurry generated media attention, stern warnings from the US military, and so many alien memes you hoped somebody would beam you up to get away from it all. When the scheduled date for the event arrived this September, only 134 people showed up and none made it inside, though about 1,500 more attended Storm Area 51 meme-themed music festivals that day. No aliens were discovered, but it was a lesson in the powerand at times, strange pretendnessof internet culture.

OK Boomer

If youre over 40 and have displeased a teen this year, you may have even heard this meme aloud. After years of stuffy, out-of-touch articles about how millennials (and now Gen Z) are killing off industries from diamonds and real estate to napkins with their frivolous ways and politics-infused complaints, younger generations came up with this blunt dismissal of their own. Its intergenerational tension boiled down to a single phrase: OK boomer. Its been used to protest racism and climate change denialism almost as often as its been a snippy response to an uncle. Each time, though, it hits the mark.

Hot Girl Summer

Everyonemen and women, young and old, from the Kardashians to Tom Hankshad a hot girl summer this year thanks to Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion. The MCs catchphrase became a go-to Instagram caption, YouTube video title, tweet, headline, IRL quip, and marketing slogan. It was a chance for everyone to embrace their own sexy in a season often filled with potential body shaming, and for Megan Thee Stallion, it was a business opportunity. Embracing a trend among meme creators (and meme creators of color in particular), she quickly trademarked the phrase, avoiding the all-too-common fate her predecessors have faced: a corporation something you created and monetizing the crap out of it by selling merchandise without offering you a cent. Her fans were thrilled.

Sorry to This Man

The setup sounds like internet culture Mad Libs: Hustlers star Keke Palmer was taking a lie detector test as part of a Vanity Fair interview when she was asked if her character True Jackson from True Jackson, VP was a better vice president than Dick Cheney, and then was shown a photo of Cheney. Palmer genuinely had no idea who the former vice president was. I don't know who this man is, she said. I mean, he could be walking down the street, I wouldn't know a thing. Sorry to this man. The phrase became a meme, used as a stock reply to anything confusing or worthy of dismissal, a wholly unapologetic sort of apology often with a feminist bent. Its easy to see why it went viral: Sometimes, I wrote this September, ignorance is diss.

The Game of Thrones Cup

Of all the many memes that accompanied the final season of Game of Thrones, none was quite so emblematic of the experience of watching the show as the very anachronistic white coffee cup viewers spotted on a table beside Daenerys Targaryen. It was a crowning embarrassment for HBO in an already poorly received season, and a bitter disappointment for fans who felt that a story they had been invested in for a decade was being given a slapdash finish. It was also Photoshopped into oblivion and sparked a great many jokes: Was it a flat wight, or perhaps a Lord of the Light roast? At the time, the only winner I saw was Starbucks, who many assumed were the purveyors of the cup: They've gotten an estimated $2.3 billion in free advertising, and the cup isn't even theirs. As for the rest of us, our watch is over.

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The 8 Most Important Memes of 2019 - WIRED

Everybody knows the story of A Christmas Carol (BBC One, Sun, 9pm): Its an indelible classic about one brave iconoclast, an irreligious captain of enterprise and profaner of mint sweets, whose vigorous work ethic and high expectations of those around him marks him out among the bleating, lock-step sentimentalists of mandatory Christmas cheer.

Yet, in a stinging critique of how the individual must be ground down by mass-mentality and conspicuous consumption, Charles Dickens has his free-thinker hounded, bullied and psychologically tortured by three vengeful spirits. Finally, tragically, he succumbs: shaken, hysterical and penny-tossing, he joins the throng of the merrily mind-washed. Its basically Orwells 1984 in reverse. God bless us everyone!

Hey, if youre going to reimagine A Christmas Carol, at least have some fun with it. In Steven Knights dark and gritty retelling of the Christmas staple, though, Dickens gets the Peaky Blinders treatment, but with neither the excitement nor the fun. Bah! Humdrum!

We begin in a snowy, grey graveyard, where an aggrieved urchin full of hatred with an even fuller bladder unleashes a gush of scorn upon the headstone of one Jacob Marley (Stephen Graham). The camera plunges into the ground, down inside the coffin with him, to find Marley conscious, perturbed and vociferously aggrieved by the trickle. The inscription clearly reads, Rest in Peace, he complains, blinking away the drops, before the screen thickens into a frost that bears the title. Chilling

Cut to London, 1843, where streets crowd with extras yelling street hawker things with the accents and volume of a hundred exasperated John Bercows. Here Ebenezer Scrooge (Guy Pearce, severe, curmudgeonly, but still kind of hot), rations out four coal pieces for his sole employee Bob Cratchit (pained, class-conscious, but still kind of hot), while demonstrating various signs of conservatism, nihilism, autism, and depression. How many Merry Christmases are meant, he muses, mostly to himself, and how many are lies?

Truth, though, spills from the mouths of Cratchit, another purgatorial blacksmith who begins Marley on his quest, and the Ghost of Christmas Past (Andy Serkis), who has decided to try out an Irish accent. This corresponds, to some degree, with a stridently postcolonial critique of Scrooge and Marley, no longer merely overlords of a counting house, but imperial industrialists whose workers have died in in vast numbers in factories from Manchester to Bombay to Honduras.

Thus is Scrooge given a scowling socio-economic historical context. And, with his compulsive counting, helpless verbalising and his nephews understanding that hes just in pain, thus is he given a glum modern psychology. Filmed in profound darkness, thus is he also very hard to see past the glow of your Christmas tree lights. And, with all of these embellishments, thus is one of Dickenss rare pithy works padded out to three hours across three episodes.

How padded? Well, by the end of the first instalment, Scrooge has not yet received the Ghost of Christmas Past, which is to say weve barely covered the novellas first 26 pages worth of plot. In that time we have so elaborated Scrooges backstory as to make him, essentially, a corrupt mass murderer and the epitome of all the sins of British industrial capitalism.

Now, I dont know how radical Knight intends to be, but it would take more than three visitations to push that kind of protagonist even close to redemption. So why bother? God damn him, everyone!

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A Christmas Carol on BBC review: Guy Pearces Scrooge is cruel, but still kind of hot - The Irish Times

50 SHANA CLEVELANDNight Of The Worm MoonHARDLY ARTIts title inspired by Sun Ras The Night Of The Purple Moon, the second solo LP from the La Luz singer and guitarist moulded the interstellar jazz auteurs cosmic bent to her own fingerpicked acoustic guitar. As wonky chord sequences echoed Syd Barretts solo work, and pedal steel and synths provided an eerie, psychedelic air, Cleveland sang of grief, dreams and nameless terrors in the Californian darkness.

49 STEPHEN MALKMUSGroove DeniedDOMINOWhile last years Sparkle Hard was Malkmuss most accessible effort to date, here the songwriter explored his more outr interests with this basement electronic album. Despite a troubled gestation, Groove Denied turned out to be a laidback triumph: its laptop production was hazily vintage, reminiscent of early Cabaret Voltaire and Human League, while its inspired tracklisting gradually took the listener from machine-tooled abstraction to more traditional, guitar-based songs.

48 LIZZOCuz I Love YouNICE LIFE/ATLANTIC2019 found Minneapolis-based singer/rapper Melissa Viviane Jefferson propelling her whipsmart rhymes, bodypositive message and occasional flute solos into the mainstream, with third album Cuz I Love You reaching the Billboard Top 5. A savvy, boisterous antidote to moody rap nihilism, the album placed Lizzo firmly in the lineage of Outkast and Missy Elliott, with the latter turning up to anoint her successor on the irresistible Tempo.

47 NRIJABlumeDOMINOThe debut album by this Domino-signed supergroup exemplified why the new wave of British jazz has been such a breath of fresh air. Despite featuring a number of the scenes major players saxophonists Nubya Garcia and Cassie Kinoshi, trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey, trombonist Rosie Turton and more it never felt like anyone was queuing up for a solo, instead striving to fashion a supremely harmonious blend of 70s astral jazz and contemporary global flavours.

46 LAMBCHOPThis (is what I wanted to tell you)CITY SLANGUnder Kurt Wagners tutelage, Lambchop are an object lesson in how a band can evolve gracefully. The work begun on 2016s FLOTUS exploring the possibilities of electronica was sustained on the immersive, thought-provoking This (is what I wanted to tell you), which navigated a path through the organic and the electronically adjusted, aided by sometime Bon Iver drummer Matt McCaughan, Calexico trumpeter Jacob Valenzuela and Nashville veteran Charlie McCoy.

45 SLEAFORD MODSEton AliveEXTREME EATINGIts getting shitter! Sleaford Mods a raw and uncompromising duo remain a difficult band for horrible times. Unsubtle but penetrating observers of the UK, Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn here presented a bleak, if occasionally tuneful, world informed by our toxic domestic politics, without ever actually being sucked into the mire. Check the promo clips of the singer putting the bins out and walking disdainfully around the neighbourhood of Eton College itself.

44 ROBERT FORSTERInfernoTAPETEWhen Robert Forster announced the release of a new Go-Betweens boxset last month, he did so safe in the knowledge that his latest album stood shoulder to shoulder with the work of his celebrated former band. Inferno brought his customary wit and elegance to bear on a set of wonderfully pithy songs about ageing, family, climate change and the artists place in the world.

43 WH LUNGIncidental MusicMELODICJames Murphy has taken a lot from Manchesters musical heritage, but WH Lung reversed the flow with their strong debut album. With the group originally intended as a studio-only outfit, Joseph E, Tom S and Tom P paid painstaking attention to the eight songs on Incidental Music, carving their sparkling electronic rock with one eye on New Order and the other on Berlin-era Bowie.

42 FAT WHITE FAMILYSerfs Up!DOMINOA remarkable turnaround for Britains scuzziest band, whod previously lost their way attempting to live up to their dissolute reputation. But relocating to Sheffield, they mainlined some of that citys synthpop sleaze, adding strings and sax to produce a compelling album of dank disco cabaret, with deliciously murky lyrics to match.

41 BILLIE EILISHWhen We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go?DARKROOM/INTERSCOPEThe years pop phenomenon, courtesy of Bad Guy a record of such creepy delivery and intention it threatened to darken the skies at a radiant Glastonbury Eilish had no problem extending her vision to a full album. Here, production by her brother Fineas OConnell gave off a padded-cell ambience, which well suited songs falling somewhere between 90s R&B, Dr Dre and Nine Inch Nails.

40 VAMPIRE WEEKENDFather Of The BrideCOLUMBIAOnce, they tapped out bookish Afroindie from the confines of a Columbia University dorm room. But Vampire Weekends fourth album was a genuinely cosmopolitan effort. Six years in the making, it gleefully mashed up all manner of musical styles the glorious Harmony Hall alone veered from 70s folk rock to 90s gospel house, via Gilbert & Sullivan but at the heart of it all, singer Ezra Koenig remained charmingly vulnerable.

39 BONNIE PRINCE BILLYI Made A PlaceDOMINOWill Oldham has been busy over the last decade, reworking his own catalogue and paying homage to his heroes. I Made A Place, however, is something else: his first collection of new, selfpenned songs since 2011s Wolfroy Goes To Town. A continuation of his work rather than a reinvention, this is a stately, sophisticated set of country-rock songs, the likes of This Is Far From Over certainly a match for those of his songwriting idols.

38 75 DOLLAR BILLI Was RealTAK:TILIn 2016, Rick Brown and Che Chen issued a debut Wood/ Metal/Plastic/ Pattern which purported to come from Brooklyn, but which seemed to have emerged from a different continent altogether. Three years on, their second, larger record expands on that initial promise. Alive with Tuareg guitar electricity and longform drone, I Was Real proposes a kosmische of the earth: capable of easeful travel across great distances, while always retaining something solid underfoot.

37 THE MURDER CAPITALWhen I Have FearsHUMAN SEASONWhile they match fellow Dubliners Fontaines DC for fire and fury, The Murder Capital processed their anger through a more angular post-punk sound on their debut album. Rhythms stutter la Joy Division or early Cure, while vocalist James McGovern sounds, at times, like a young Ian McCulloch; Dont Cling To Life and the lengthy Green & Blue are as epic and dramatic as the Big Music of the early 80s, helped along by Floods atmospheric production.

36 DAVEPsychodramaNEIGHBOURHOODStreatham rapper David Dave Omoregie may have capped a triumphant year with a starring role in Top Boy 3, but his debut album Psychodrama the recipient of this years coveted Mercury Prize was no generic gangster chronicle. Sounding preternaturally wise, he tackled racial inequality, mental illness and domestic abuse over brooding strings and needling piano, although the slinky Location proved he could still cover the rap bases.

35 STURGILL SIMPSONSound & FuryELEKTRASimpson has never been one to stand still, creatively speaking. His first album, High Top Mountain, was a traditional country effort but since then he has moved away from heartlandcourting endeavours. Sound & Fury presented another big shift in direction for Simpson this time with anime visuals, strutting disco-boogie, grunge and pulsing modern blues joining the party. However nuts Sound & Fury became though, Simpsons commitment to heartfelt songcraft remained reassuringly intact.

34 FONTAINES DCDogrelPARTISANMy childhood was small/But Im gonna be BIG! The opening declaration of Fontaines DC singer Grian Chatten is alive with the irrepressible momentum of the young band going places. This debut, sure enough, surges onward through post-punk styles big and small, from The Fall to REM, to Prolapse and Idlewild. Always energetic, generally cathartic, occasionally see Television Screens in particular revelatory, they alight on moments of thundering lyricism quite their own.

33 THE RACONTEURSHelp Us StrangerTHIRD MANBack after an 11-year hiatus, Jack White and his co-conspirators picked up where they left off with Consolers Of The Lonely. Thats to say, anyone fearing the kind of indulgences White brought to last years solo album Boarding House Reach will have enjoyed the more conventional rock leanings of Help Us Stranger. The vibe was uncluttered and exuberant including a cover of Donovans Hey Guy (Dig The Slowness) while the attendant tour was among the years live highlights.

32 KIM GORDONNo Home RecordMATADORAfter the serious noise of her Body/ Head project, we were probably unprepared for the vibrancy and colour (even jokes) of No Home Record. Working with art-pop producer Justin Raisen, Gordon framed her Mark E Smithlike observations (see for details especially: Air B&B) within compositions which vaguely alluded to her past as the first lady of US noise, while never leaning on it to help her determine her future.

31 MICHAEL KIWANUKAKiwanukaPOLYDORThis expansive third album from the British-Ugandan singer fulfilled the early promise of his previous efforts. Full of beguiling melodies, affecting lyrics, sharp playing, rich arrangements and sympathetic production, Kiwanuka confidently delivered multiple pleasures. Strings wash, choirs purr, and the balance of analogue and electronic overseen by Kiwanuka, Brian Danger Mouse Burton and hip-hop multiinstrumentalist Inflo was expertly maintained. Kiwanukas references Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye are given psychedelic goosing, as on first single You Aint The Problem.

30 JESSICA PRATTQuiet SignsCITY SLANGThe epithet LA-based singersongwriter tends to conjure up notions of sun-kissed escapism, but Jessica Pratts enchanting third album was more Muswell Hill than Laurel Canyon. Her plucked guitar and strange, waiflike voice was gilded with occasional flute, piano and creaky synths that made it all sound like a tape reel discovered in someones loft, untouched since 1967 or perhaps even 1667.

29 TRASH KITHorizonUPSET THE RHYTHM Post-punks not dead! After a fiveyear rest to pursue other projects among them the very good Shopping and Bas Jan Rachel Aggs, Gill Partington and Rachel Horwood reconvened for this fine third album. For sure the trio fluently speak the language of 1980: spare production, articulation of every note, songs called things like Dislocate. More impressive, though, is how Aggs guitar flourishes and the sparing use of sax and piano make it all more than the sum of its parts.

28 JENNY HVALThe Practice Of LoveSACRED BONESFollowing on from her Blood Bitch album, a high-concept investigation of blood, from menstruation to vampire movies, the seventh album by Norwegian artist Hval turned love into a kind of visitor attraction. A work of immersive, textured synthesiser and billowing trance, The Practice Of Love was paced like a DJ set, incorporating stunning drops in tempo see the spokenword contributions of Vivian Wang on the title track and thoughtfully ecstatic highs.

27 THE NATIONALI Am Easy To Find4ADSomething of a surprise, coming hot on the heels of 2017s Sleep Well Beast, the bands eighth studio album was inspired by a collaboration with filmmaker Mike Mills. As a consequence, I Am Easy To Find saw the band expand to include a cast of female vocalists (including former Bowie bassist Gail Ann Dorsey) guiding and redirecting the songs away from Matt Berninger. It paid off: I Am Easy To Find continued The Nationals uninterrupted creative trajectory.

26 ANGEL OLSENAll MirrorsJAGJAGUWARThough this Asheville-based singer-songwriter has always reinvented her sound, moving from earthy folk to raw post-punk to lusher pastures, her fourth record proved to be her most extreme transition yet. Here, industrial synths and scything avant-garde string arrangements collided to bring a dramatic, gothic grandeur to Olsens ruminations on lost love and emotional isolation. Above the turbulent arrangements, her voice provided a mighty and quivering constant.

25 NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSEColoradoREPRISEA timely reunion marking the 50th anniversary of Youngs first record with Crazy Horse Colorado also found Nils Lofgren, newly promoted to full-time member, adding appropriate musical lift and heft to proceedings. There were customarily heroic jams like Milky Way but also a vein of melancholia, as best heard on Olden Days, that helped underscore the losses Young experienced during a difficult 2019, including his former wife Pegi and long-serving manager Elliot Roberts.

24 THE SPECIALSEncoreUMC/ISLANDThe bands first new material since they reformed 10 years ago, Encore is at its best when it not only honours The Specials past a mournful trombone solo or a dive into the ska vaults but pushes in new directions, too. A cover of the Equals Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys, for instance, offers imposing taut funk. Elsewhere, Terry Halls soul-bearing reports of his struggles with mental health add poignancy, while the socio-political barbs reinforce their role as vital cultural commentators.

23 ALDOUS HARDINGDesigner4ADThree albums in and New Zealander Hannah Aldous Harding remains impressively tricky to pin down. Recorded with utilitarian precision in Bristol and Wales, aided by John Parrish and Huw H Hawkline Evans, Designers brisk, catchy folk-pop initially felt like a startling contrast to the heavy drama of previous album Party although a sense of unease seeped through into the albums crespuscular second half.

22 LEONARD COHENThanks For The DanceCOLUMBIAYou want it even darker? How about this from beyond the grave work put together sensitively by Cohens son Adam? Compiled from late-doors studio recordings and then complemented by performances by the likes of Beck, Feist and Cohens sometime vocal partner Jennifer Warnes, the tone ranges from deep wisdom and finality (The Goal) to the wryly seductive (Her nipples rose like bread, Len whispers on The Night Of Santiago). A slim but essential volume.

21 RHIANNON GIDDENS feat FRANCESCO TURRISIThere Is No OtherNONESUCHOf the projects Giddens has been involved in since 2017s Freedom Highway, There Is No Other might just be the finest. A collaboration with Italian multiinstrumentalist Turrisi, it addressed the other of the title through its examination of Islamic influences on Western music: thus the title track mixed banjo with Middle Eastern percussion, Giddens impassioned vocals meshed with lute on Ten Thousand Voices, and a take on Ola Belle Reeds Gonna Write Me A Letter highlighted the blues explicit links to Africa.

20 BRITTANY HOWARDJaimeCOLUMBIAThis striking solo debut from the Alabama Shakes singer swapped stirring Southern soul for something more intimate and experimental. Marshalling a small group of skilled players, including jazz pianist Robert Glasper, she explored Prince-style purple funk, neo-soul and even electropop as a backdrop for moving ruminations on race and relationships.

19 PETER PERRETTHumanworldDOMINOPerretts sudden, miraculous reappearance back in 2017 with his first solo album proper, How The West Was Won, was one of the more surprising returns of recent times. Fortuitously, Humanworld was every bit as good as, and at points even better than, its predecessor. Made with his sons Jamie and Peter Jr joining him on guitar and bass, Humanworld foregrounded Perretts gifts for compressing all the drama of lifes ups and downs into simple, unpretentious pop.

18 JENNY LEWISOn The LineCAPITOLLewiss fourth solo album evoked the expensive sounds of prime Fleetwood Mac, and featured some of the finest players of that hallowed era, from Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner to Benmont Tench and Don Was. On The Line was resolutely not a period piece, however, its sumptuous production only serving to better highlight the bleeding edge of Lewiss lovelorn ballads, from the wayward Taffy to the deliciously lugubrious Hollywood Lawn.

17 MODERN NATUREHow To LiveBELLA UNIONA move from inner London to the fringes of Epping Forest encouraged Jack Cooper to abandon Velvets wannabes Ultimate Painting and focus on this inspired urban-rural hybrid, driven by tight motorik rhythms but rich with the cadences of British folk rock. Effusive sax breaks from Sunwatchers Jeff Tobias sealed the deal.

16 SHARON VAN ETTENRemind Me TomorrowJAGJAGUWARIts been a busy time of late for the New Jersey native motherhood, acting and a counselling degree while further changes were in evidence on this, her fifth studio album, which found Van Etten edge away from guitar towards piano and vintage synths. The results were often gloriously catchy the Springsteen-esque Seventeen though elsewhere songs like Jupiter 4 evoked the pulsing drones of Suicide and the dissonant hiss of Memorial Day shared the corrosive atmospherics of Lows Double Negative.

15 BON IVERi,iJAGJAGUWARHis Wisconsin wood cabin long since overgrown, Justin Vernons fourth Bon Iver album was an experiment in musical crowdsourcing, finding starring roles for everyone from Bruce Hornsby to former Spank Rock rapper Naeem Juwan. Continuing the revelatory exploded view songwriting approach of 2016s 22, A Million, but with real musicians and singers taking the place of samples and effects, it found thrilling new ways to convey moments of soaring, communal joy.

14 RICHARD DAWSON2020WEIRD WORLDFor his follow-up to Peasant, Newcastles folk auteur turned his keen eye on 21st-century life, singing of racism, soul-sucking jobs, homelessness and mental illness: Its lonely up here in Middle England, he laments on Jogging. To match the coarse subject matter, Dawson swapped the harps and strings of Peasant for electric guitar, drums and synths; Black Triangle, then, recounts the desperation of a UFO obsessive over wailing metal, while the gruelling Fulfillment Centre dissects damaging consumerism over Tuareg rhythms.

13 OH SEESFace StabberCASTLE FACEAs in life, as on record. Manic intensity is the John Dwyer way, his energies for keeping Oh Sees on an unforgiving schedule of writing, playing and recording mirrored in the brisk-tempo garage motorik that is the stuff of Face Stabber. Always different, always the same, here the band occupy some reassuringly familiar space to last years Smote Reverser: their thundering double drummers are the propulsion for their turbulent passage into guitar orbit.

12 JULIA JACKLINCrushingPOLYVINYLThe slacker thrills of Dont Let The Kids Win, Jacklins 2016 debut, did little to suggest the depths of raw emotion that the Sydney-raised songwriter would plumb for its powerful follow-up. Jacklins extraordinary voice, wracked lyrics and the slow, sparse electric pulse suggested early Cat Power or Low, with Head Alone a demand for space, both emotionally and physically, and the closing Comfort a cautious resurfacing after romantic and touring troubles: Ill be OK/Ill be alright

11 CATE LE BONRewardMEXICAN SUMMERFor her fifth solo LP, Carmarthenshires Cate Le Bon left behind the acidic guitars and tumbling krautrock of 2016s Crab Day for a softer bed of pianos, marimbas, saxophones and synths. The result, mostly written in isolation in the Lake District while Le Bon was studying furniture-making, was a slow-burning triumph, a grower that took many listens to reveal its enigmatic, intoxicating centre.

10 WILCOOde To JoydBpmThroughout their storied 25-year career, Wilco have consistently questioned themselves and their creative purpose. So Ode To Joy their 11th studio album found Jeff Tweedy and his co-conspirators once again recalibrating their sound and direction. Ode To Joy stripped everything back to its key components, favouring a hushed, spacious palette on which Tweedy could transmit his songs about mortality, love, the state of the world and more. Also: their Wilcovered CD for Uncut was pretty amazing, we humbly thought.

9 BIG THIEFUFOF4ADThe quartets second album of the year, Two Hands, also picked up some appreciation from our writers, but their superb first LP of 2019 made the biggest impact. Adrianne Lenkers songs, from the weightless Cattails to the ominous Jenny, were never less than stunning, but they were elevated by the sensitive, sinuous arrangements: one moment Big Thief could sound as folky and rootsy as a campfire singalong, the next as expansive and airy as the cosmos high above.

8 BILL CALLAHANShepherd In A Sheepskin VestDRAG CITYAfter Dream Rivers spacious meditations on the natural world, six years later we find Bill Callahan keeping things within four walls. Bliss would be overstating it Callahan is too nuanced a writer for that but this is a record far more domestic than watery. Now a husband and father, here Callahan admits us further than ever before into his private world. The sound is as intimate as the sentiment, even if the record occasionally hints at strange currents beneath the tranquil surface.

7 BRUCE SPRINGSTEENWestern StarsCOLUMBIAA change of pace from the sturm und drang of the E Street Band, the longdelayed Western Stars found Springsteen at his most autumnal and meditative. The songs were bleak narratives and lingering pen-portraits of fading actors, injured stuntmen and jaded lovers ruminating on their unhappy lot. The lush orchestrations and ambitious, sophisticated arrangements felt closer to 60s West Coast folk-pop than Springsteens usual beat. As a consequence, Western Stars was an unexpected and welcome stylistic detour.

6 JOAN SHELLEYLike The River Loves The SeaNO QUARTERThe Kentucky singer and guitarist has quietly proved herself to be one of the finest songwriters of recent years, and her sublime fifth album was naturally entrancing. Recorded in Iceland with her adept collaborators Nathan Salsburg and James Elkington, with a little help from Will Oldham and a few local musicians, these 12 acoustic tracks are gossamer-fine, sometimes profound and utterly timeless.

5 LANA DEL REYNorman Fucking RockwellINTERSCOPEA thematically rich record crazy love during end times Norman Fucking Rockwell positioned the singer-songwriter somewhere between Eve Babitz and Carole King. Over baroque piano ballads and dazzling folk, the albums narrators found themselves adrift in Del Reys deeply seductive vision of California, populated by neer-do-wells and fly-by-nights. References to Laurel Canyon, Dennis Wilson and CSN cast a retro haze; but Norman Fucking Rockwell is very much Del Reys own vision. Witness Venice Bitch, the nine-minute epic that crowned this elegant and complex album.

4 THE COMET IS COMINGTrust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep MysteryIMPULSE!Having put a rocket up the jazz scene with last years incendiary, politically charged Sons Of Kemet album Your Queen Is A Reptile, Shabaka Hutchings channelled that fervour into the return of his cosmic synthnsax outfit, The Comet Is Coming. As with the best spiritual jazz records, Trust In The Lifeforce was equally blissful and raging, both out-there and in-here the most intoxicating collision of beats, jazz and apocalyptic visions since DJ Shadow discovered David Axelrod.

3 PURPLE MOUNTAINSPurple MountainsDRAG CITYI spent a decade playing chicken with oblivion, revealed David Berman in the opening number of what was tragically to prove Purple Mountains first and last album. Day to day, Im neck and neck with giving in. We know now that oblivion won. But Bermans generous final act was to give hope to others by excavating the darkest recesses of his psyche with such eloquence and humour, all set to his unique brand of endearingly louche country-rock.

2 NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDSGhosteenGHOSTEEN LTDIf Skeleton Tree loosened the moorings, then Ghosteen found Cave boldly cutting the rope, severing all ties with the glowering caricature of old. Instead, this was an epic, dreamlike odyssey through grief and towards hope, accompanied by migrating spirits and galleon ships, sick babies and Jesus freaks, all engulfed in whirls of analogue synths and spectral, multi-tracked voices. As he sang, Its a long way to find peace of mind but it was a journey that enriched us all.

1 WEYES BLOODTitanic RisingSUB POPLast year, our Albums Of The Year poll found seasoned veterans like Low and Yo La Tengo discovering new sonic methods to convey their apprehension and sense of displacement during these complex times. Similarly, our 2019 survey shows how many of our other core artists have also grappled with ways to articulate their responses to an increasingly tumultuous world. For Wilco, Lambchop, The Specials and Brittany Howard, for example, their albums during 2019 mixed both personal and political themes with uplifting results.

The same is true, too, of Weyes Bloods Natalie Mering whose fourth album Titanic Rising, released in April, confronted the problems facing us all head on. Her 2016 LP, A Front Row Seat To Earth, had begun to consider our planets fate; but the themes that recur in Titanic Rising proved to be weighty: climate emergency, the decline of natural resources and the struggle to find emotional connection in an increasingly technological world. For the front cover of Titanic Rising, Mering submerged an entire bedroom, complete with teddy bear and laptop. Show me where it hurts, she whispered at the end of opener A Lots Gonna Change; you could be forgiven for thinking she was addressing Earth itself.

Weyes Blood ushered in 2019 with Andromeda a swooning update of early-70s West Coast pop, filled with sci-fi wonderment, where Mering transformed her earthy quest for love into a celestial concern. The rest of Titanic Rising, meanwhile, is an exercise in baroque post-modernism, full of lavishly orchestrated and structured compositions. Titanic Rising also showcases Merings remarkable alto part Judy Sill, part Nico that lies between folk and torch singing. There is a dignity and otherness at work here: her voice sweeps robustly over swelling crescendo of Something To Believe, while A Lots Gonna Change finds her delivery softer and more intimate. By the end of the year, Mering was sharing the stage of the Hollywood Bowl with Lana Del Rey and Zella Day, singing three-part harmonies on a cover of Joni Mitchells For Free. An indication, if you need one, of Merings breakthrough with this remarkable, transcendent album.

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Uncut's 50 best new albums of 2019 - Uncut.co.uk

If you thought the era of New Wave that swept across the Atlantic in the 1980s and 90s from the UK to the U.S. had passed, you are sorely mistaken. Push Button Press is holding up the flag high for all the goth kids out there that refuse to let go of their angst and skepticism and don their black platform shit-kickers with pride.

Push Button Press have come from the underground and smuggler dens of Ybor City, descending onto this world like a dark cloud of truth here to wash away our contentment. They are a rebuke of the sunny pop records that young suburban artists cultivate; they are the knife in the darkness that cuts away the bullshit and exposes the depths of our feelings.

With their first EP release in 2018, titled Spectacle 1, they have solidified themselves as the champions of youth everywhere who dont view the world through the rose-colored spectacles that our parents thrust upon us. They dont write songs about lies and empty aspirations; their songs touch on many of the same pillars of society that bands like Joy Division and the Cure wrote about.

Push Button Presses single Night Out paints the landscape of South Florida nightlife that many will never see, but most know its there. Lyrics like the chorus Take a walk with me/See the bricks beneath our feet/Its not too far to throw by now, which express this want to rage and break society instead of going through another night of mindless imbibing. I can carry the weight for one more night/I can bare the horror one more time. Push Button Press delves deeper into this feeling of pointlessness and the horror of the nothingness that is the songwriters existence. Its sentiments like these that speak to the disaffected youth of a glutenous culture.

Its as if they are past fighting the weight of the surrounding mirage that we call life and have decided to simply speak truthfully about the longing that people have and the waste that we have all become. Reading this, one may think that Push Button Press is seeing something that isnt there, but their music suggests its more likely you have simply decided to look away and pretend their nihilism isnt founded.

Push Button Press is signed to Cold Transmission Music, a German record label; if there is anyone out there that understands artists like Push Button Press, its Germans. Ten minutes in Berlin would make anyone realize this fact. Its tracks like the song 5 C that write about the end of the world. Its the idea that the world is spiraling out of control and natural disasters are tearing at our civilization, and we simply ignore whats happening by denying science and stopping all discourse by turning a blind eye.

Artists like Rob Smith of the Cure would be proud that a genre of music he helped foster into a tidal wave during the Cures time at the top is still alive and kicking because artists like Push Button Press refuse to stop writing. Their synth-heavy music that echoes both nightmares and dreamscapes has a profound impact on the listener. The voice of singer Jim Walker adds so much post-punk style too, that sometimes when you listen to Push Button Press it feels like you are being transported back to the 90s and all the grunge and attitude that comes with the era.

The song Mire and the Sea (S Y Z Y G Y X Remix) is a crowd favorite of Push Button Press, and is played in clubs all over South Florida. The pulsing sensations and the rolling goth thunder that is the drums of Mire and the Sea makes it a truly amazing remix. After spending a year of my life living in Berlin, this song would be a perfect example of what can be found in the nightlife scene out there. A city known for having the greatest nightlife in the world would find the remix to Mire and the Sea as a truly dark and perfect situation for the dancing german hoards that enter nightclubs all across the country on a Thursday night and often dont leave until Monday morning.

One of the really great things about New Wave is that unlike so many rock n roll acts, the idea of remixing a record is a popular way of collaborating. You wouldnt normally see someone like Neil Young or the Who choosing to have a DJ or producer remix their tracks, but with New Wave and the whole post-punk/goth scene, the idea of remixes work really well because of the synth heavy choices many groups make with their music. The other remix on PBPs EP is for the track Dream of Fire, produced by Icy Men. The song is a track that feels like desperation, a desperation for others to force upon the singer their idea of what a dream should be. With lyrics like They put the dream in my arm, its as if hes explaining that the dream is a drug that poisons our mind and we get addicted to the dream.

So, if you are looking to get a dose of raw synth post-punk, then do not miss out on Push Button Press on Friday. Their album Spectacle 1 is a conceptualized record that plays great live. You can get all dressed up in your pleather platform boots and smooth on your black eye shadow (totally acceptable for men and women), and prepare to dance to some truly spectacular music that will have you thinking about the bully in your freshman class and how one day you will show him.

10 p.m. Friday, December 27, Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., West Palm Beach; 561-832-9999; sub-culture.org/respectable-street. Cost is $8 at the door.

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For Push Button Press, Post-Punk Angst Is Still All the Rage - New Times Broward-Palm Beach