Yeah, I'm a Hard Pass On Nihilism

Not here for it.

(Then-Rep. Andy Kim, now Senator Andy Kim, helps clean up the mess left by insurrectionists on Jan. 6th, 2021. Image credit: Andrew Harnik // AP)

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The holidays are over, and as expected, the existential dread surrounding our democracy is right where we left it when we began our holiday breaks.

And yep, it sucks. It’s depressing. You are from alone in that.

I don’t blame anyone for feeling heightened anxiety in these first several days of the New Year. I don’t blame anyone for being worried about what happens next.

I don’t blame anyone for feeling tired and demoralized, in the vice grip of the Sunday Scaries every day of the week, boxed in by our fears and doubts, haunted by what might have been.

That’s all understandable and valid. Those are reasonable and healthy feelings in response to what we’re witnessing and what’s likely to come.

And I don’t blame folks for passionately disagreeing with each other on the best path forward for the Democratic Party, probably quite heated in discussion at times, because we especially need honest conversations right now. Iron sharpens iron.

But what I cannot stand—what I will not tolerate—is nihilism: the view that nothing can be done in this moment to better our world, to help the most vulnerable around us, to make a damn effort, especially when you have the privilege to do so where others don’t.

Nihilism pretends to be clarity, but really, it’s just a particularly pathetic laziness powered by narcissism.

Take that shit somewhere else. I don’t have time for it. I don’t have patience for it.

I’m not talking about people who are feeling directionless or exhausted or depressed, maybe all three, and may need a break to recharge.

I’m talking about people who fall back on the incredibly entitled and ridiculous excuse that they don’t even need to try because it won’t matter.

Bullshit.

The decision to sit there and do nothing on the basis of half-baked calculus that self-absolves personal responsibility—when so many countless people get up every morning ready to help those around them, often with fewer resources, and do exactly that—is a petulant child’s response in a moment that demands empathetic adults.

And the audacity to publicly promote this mindset as a reasonable response, in a sad bid for the validation of others, is especially ugly.

Tomorrow is January 6th, and while it’s necessary to reflect on all the horror of that day four years ago, we also have the choice to recognize those who best represent the good and righteous that was on display.

I’ll never forget when then-Rep. Andy Kim of New Jersey, now Senator Andy Kim, witnessed the horror of our democracy being viciously attacked by insurrectionists, and in the aftermath, instead of walking away, he grabbed a trash bag and got to work helping with clean-up.

That’s true leadership. That’s the energy we require from each other right now.

There are too many vulnerable people who need us in this moment to waste time on the selfishness of those who look at all the opportunities around them to help folks who are struggling and eschew all of by it by using the election as an excuse to float permanently checking out and doing nothing.

Good self-care means recognizing when we need rest and detoxing from politics and strengthening ourselves for the struggle ahead. That’s smart and necessary.

And perhaps more than anything, it means seeing through the self-absorbed facade of those who would have us believe that giving up on each other is in any way sensible.

Don’t fall for it.

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