The Dangers of Total Equality: How Nihilism and Relativism Lead to Totalitarianism
Summary:
- The video explores the dystopian concept of total equality, using Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "Harrison Bergeron" as a cautionary tale where individuality and freedom are suppressed by mandating handicaps, illustrated by the story's setting and characters.
- It posits that the modern push for extreme equality stems from Viktor Frankl's "unheard cry for meaning" and Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of nihilism, which arose from the "Death of God" and the loss of objective values, shown through images of Frankl and Nietzsche's quotes and abstract art reflecting disorientation.
- Nietzsche predicted that this absence of objective truth leads to relativism, making individuals susceptible to authoritarianism and conformism, depicted by art illustrating subjective wills and conformity.
- George Orwell's "Animal Farm" illustrates how a revolution for equality can devolve into a corrupt dictatorship, where a ruling elite emerges despite initial promises of universal fairness, with images of Orwell and allegorical art from the book.
- Orwell's "1984" further exemplifies a totalitarian society through psychological manipulation, mass surveillance, and the eradication of individuality via control of mind, body, information, and language, shown with the 1984 book cover over surveillance imagery.
- Nietzsche's "preachers of equality" are described as those driven by resentment, seeking to level society and suppress excellence, masking their impotent desires with calls for "justice" and "equality," depicted by Nietzsche, his quotes about "tarantulas," and protest crowds.
- The video contrasts Nietzsche's "Overman" (striving for self-overcoming, illustrated by a figure aiming upwards and "Ubermensch" art) with the "Last Man" (content with mediocrity, depicted by a dense, indistinguishable crowd), highlighting the "pathos of distance" as the natural drive for human excellence (illustrated by a solitary figure overlooking a vast landscape).
- Ultimately, the video argues that an appeal to objective truth and value is crucial to combat totalitarian tendencies and safeguard true freedom and individual expression.
Introduction: The Nightmare of Total Equality [0:00]
- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "Harrison Bergeron" [0:00] [Image 1]
- The short story depicts a dystopian year 2081 where total equality is achieved, as stated: "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal..." [Image 0]
- Equality is enforced by handicapping individuals:
- Beautiful people are forced to wear disfiguring masks.
- Intelligent people wear ear radios emitting loud noises to disrupt their thoughts.
- Strong individuals are forced to wear heavy weights.
- Citizens begin to dumb themselves down or hide their attributes to avoid punishment [Image 2].
- The story illustrates that total equality is achieved at the cost of freedom and individuality, where one's utopia is another's dystopia.
- G.K. Chesterton's view on equality [1:23] [Image 3]
- Chesterton writes, "When all are sexless there will be equality. There will be no women and no men. There will be but a fraternity, free and equal. The only consoling thought is that it will endure but for one generation." [1:25]
Disorientation and Nihilism [1:40]
- The "Unheard Cry for Meaning" (Viktor Frankl) [1:49] [Image 5]
- The increasing promotion of equality to the point of absurdity is explained as a consequence of this unheard cry for meaning that plagues modern society [Image 4].
- The modern age is characterized by a sense of disorientation, not knowing what to do with one's life.
- Nietzsche's Nihilism [2:04]
- Friedrich Nietzsche foresaw the rise of this disorientation and wrote extensively about nihilism [Image 6].
- He considered nihilism as the lack of higher values, brought about by the "Death of God" – the absence of answers to fundamental "why" questions.
- Nietzsche asks, "What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing?" [2:17]
- He proclaims, "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him." [2:36] [Image 7]
- Modernity has replaced God with public opinion, entertainment culture, and the State [Image 9] [Image 10].
- Scientific rationality has advanced humanity but also revealed our smallness in the cosmos, highlighting our accidental birth in the flux of becoming and perishing, leading to skepticism about an afterlife or God [Image 8] [Image 11].
Living a Meaningful Life & The Problem of Relativism [4:10][4:43]
- Living a meaningful life (Bishop Robert Barron) [4:10] [Image 12]
- To have a meaningful life is to be in a purposeful relationship with a value: the good, the true, and the beautiful.
- Religious value involves a purposeful relationship to the "Summum bonum" (supreme good or highest good), which is God [Image 13].
- This implies a hierarchy of values, where one value nests in a higher value, requiring an ultimate, motivating "Summum bonum."
- Relativism as a consequence of lacking objective values [4:43]
- Modern individuals are not guided by traditions and universal values, risking a fall into relativism [Image 14].
- In relativism, there's no absolute right or wrong, only truths believed by an individual or culture.
- This leads to an "ego drama" where every individual sees themselves as the center, causing conflicts of subjective wills [Image 15].
- The most powerful will then establishes itself as authoritarian, creating a perfect storm for totalitarianism.
Totalitarianism and Conformism [5:23]
- George Orwell's "Animal Farm" [5:31] [Image 16]
- Orwell's allegory depicts animals rebelling against humans for an equal, happy, and free society.
- The intelligent pigs, initially leaders, gradually become corrupt and abuse their power [Image 17].
- They control other animals to maintain their position, establishing a dictatorship.
- The founding principle "All animals are equal" is twisted to "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." [6:22]
- This illustrates how the promotion of total equality can paradoxically lead to stark inequality and totalitarian rule.
- Conformism [7:01]
- Conformism is another result of societal disorientation, promoting totalitarianism [Image 19].
- People may advocate ideas merely to appear favorable to others, rather than holding genuine belief.
- Those who do not conform to these publicly supported, but not truly believed, causes are punished or ostracized.
- Stephen Fry highlights this paradox: "It's a strange paradox, that the liberals are illiberal in their demand for liberality. They are exclusive in their demand for inclusivity. They are homogenous in their demand for heterogeneity. They are somehow un-diverse in their call for diversity - you can be diverse, but not diverse in your opinions and in your language and in your behaviour. And that's a terrible pity." [7:20] [Image 20]
Preachers of Equality (Nietzsche) [7:45]
- Nietzsche's critique of "preachers of equality" in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" [8:01] [Image 21]
- Nietzsche calls these individuals "preachers of equality" and compares them to tarantulas [Image 22].
- They are driven by revenge and seek to insult all those whose equals they are not.
- He describes their revenge: "wherever you bite, there black scabs grow; your poison makes the soul whirl with revenge! So I speak to you in parables, you who cause the souls to whirl, you preachers of equality! Tarantulas you are to me and hidden avengers! But I want to expose your hiding places to the light; therefore I laugh into your face my laughter of the heights. Therefore I tear at your web, so that your rage might lure you from your lie-hole lair, and your revenge might spring forth from behind your word 'justice'." [8:30]
- Their cry for "equality" stems from "the tyrant's madness of impotence and vanity," masked by words of virtue [Image 23]. [9:53]
- They promote a "will to equality," despising anything that expresses power or excellence.
- Nietzsche advises: "Mistrust in all whom the drive to punish is strong! ... Mistrust all who speak much of their justice!" [10:14]
Pathos of Distance: The Overman and The Last Man (Nietzsche) [11:20]
- Zarathustra's rejection of vengeance [10:21]
- Zarathustra refuses to succumb to the tarantulas' revenge.
- He prefers to be a "stylite" (one who stands apart) rather than be consumed by a "whirlwind of revenge." [10:41] [Image 26]
- He sees mankind's redemption from revenge as the path to "the highest hope and a rainbow after long thunderstorms." [9:02]
- The Overman (Übermensch) [11:20] [Image 28]
- Nietzsche's Übermensch or Overman is the ultimate form of human existence and the meaning of the Earth [Image 27].
- The Overman is in constant becoming and self-overcoming, seeking power over himself, not over others.
- The Last Man [12:04]
- The "Last Man" represents a dystopian mediocrity and conformity [Image 30].
- This individual is perfectly happy to be the same as everyone else, missing the subtle complexities of human identity.
- This concept of "leveling" is putting everyone at the same level, and it is criticized for seeking to eliminate all traces of the extraordinary, the strong, the aristocratic, and the noble out of spite.
- "Pathos of distance" [11:46] [Image 29]
- Nietzsche calls the inherent chasm between the ordinary and the extraordinary a "pathos of distance."
- It is natural for individuals to seek to develop their health, wealth, strength, and status, as these are expressions of the "will to power."
- This natural drive for self-development should not be suppressed by a desire to bring everyone down to the same level.
Orwell's Warning: 1984 [12:25]
- Depiction of a perfect totalitarian society [12:25] [Image 31]
- George Orwell's "1984" masterfully portrays a society defined by:
- Psychological manipulation.
- Mass surveillance.
- Control of mind and body.
- Control of information and history.
- Control of language.
- Eradication of individuality.
- George Orwell's "1984" masterfully portrays a society defined by:
- Orwell's chilling prophecy [12:50]
- "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever." [12:50]
- Importance of freedom and individuality [12:57]
- Freedom and individuality are key, and societies must not be "carried away by the siren songs" of total equality.
- As George Orwell stated, "If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." [13:02]