Nihilism

Nihilism is often times used in context with Friedrich Nietzsche a philosopher that was considered to be a nihilist and a man that spent a good deal of his later life writing about nihilism. Nihilism according to Merriam Websters Online Dictionary is defined as "a belief that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless." Rob Reimen in a podcast titled What is the Best Society? states that "we are living in a very nihilistic society." Many people would claim to be nihilists today though not many could truly be as Nietzsche would explain because it would drive a man crazy to fully apprehend the entire concept of nihilism and believe in it as truth.

Rob Reimen states that "Nihilism means that nothing has any intrinsic value. Everything is related to is it useful to me? Whats in it for me? It is good for me, yes or no? And if the answer is no, things at that moment become meaningless. That's what nihilism is, the cultivation of meaninglessness." Reimen first states that Americans are living in a nihilistic society and then goes on to define nihilism as such. Here Reimen is wrong. America is not a nihilistic society.
There is a difference between being materialistic and shallow and being a nihilist. Many Americans today are caught up in the material society and the latest trends and may not care about their world and culture as much as they should and they may not always place as much value on the human life as is necessary but as a whole the society is certainly not nihilistic.

If the average person within the society were a nihilist the suicide rates would be much higher and the value of human life would be much less than it currently is. People would not stop at a crosswalk because it may be inconvenient for them to bother stopping and they hold no value for the humans life who is currently crossing the street. A society could not be held together by a bunch of people with nihilistic values. It would be impossible to Americans to thrive in such a society and the average life expectancy would be much lower. The entire idea of nihilism itself is rather laughable.

The good citizen certainly could never be a nihilist. The good citizen would care about others rights and feelings and would value all human life and would believe that it is not only their duty to do so but it was what they were born to do. They were born to care and to help and born for a purpose. The good citizen would not ask "what's in it for me" or "is this good for me". We do have good citizens within America and therefore are not an entirely nihilistic society. We are not a nihilistic society at all. Were we to be a nihilistic society our institutions for the mentally ill would be beyond there full capacities. The good citizen exists within America and within each individual American and nihilism shares no part in it.