The "After" and "Before" pictures, above, show a famous tree - the "Sycamore Gap Tree" - that was growing, until recently, along Hadrian's Wall, which is a Roman fortification that stretches 70 miles across northern England. Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported on the conviction of the two men who cut down the iconic tree - no reason given by the men. The Wall Street Journal called the deed a "Moronic Mission."
"Nihilism" is the word that sprang immediately to mind, when I read the two newspaper accounts I have linked, above. Here is what the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy says about "Nihilism."
NihilismNihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy.... Nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history.... It has been over a century now since Nietzsche explored nihilism and its implications for civilization. As he predicted, nihilism’s impact on the culture and values of the 20th century has been pervasive, its apocalyptic tenor spawning a mood of gloom and a good deal of anxiety, anger, and terror.... (emphasis added).
Not long ago, I saluted, as good advice, the statement that "Action Creates Hope."
"Extreme pessimism," characteristic of nihilism, is the opposite of hope, and leads us, all too often, to an "impulse to destroy." I see what was done to the "Sycamore Gap Tree" as an evidence of a pervasive pessimism and hopelessness in our world today - of "nihilism," pure and simple. Our personal and collective action to change the world is the antidote.
Whatever we might focus on, as a personal reason to despair, let's find some friends, and get together to take action that is aimed at achieving our hope for positive change. Taking action that is ultimately premised on a nihilistic view of the world will bring us to the end of it, to the place where we destroy the world, the way those two men, in Britain, took down that tree!
I take those pictures as a sign that we're drawing closer.
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