The Reality of Nihilism and Mass Shootings

Why this despair haunts our society

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

In what she promises to be her last article on mass shootings,

Katherine Dee

, has written a beautiful, painful, and insightful article on the Minnesota shooting that (I think) puts it in its most accurate perspective: as an act of memetic, internet-driven, fame-craved nihilism. While I understand the temptation to look at the shooter’s “gender” or wild political statements and shape them into a politically coherent message, a holistic view at what we know about him shows something much darker than an evil idealist: an evil nihilist. One who has utterly given up on life, who sees life as worthless, all others as worthless, and who sees the transgression of boundaries (particularly by destroying all forms of innocence) as the proper, liberating work of nihilism. Thus, targeting children praying at Mass makes perfect sense. Another layer of the tragedy is that by promoting the shooters name (for a time, the media and social media seemed to agree not to share shooters’ names. That time has gone, apparently.) and arguing over his identity and agenda, plastering his face all over the Internet, we’ve succeeded in giving him what he wanted, the fleeting fame of nihilism, of evil. Of moloch. For there is something deeply demonic about this entire dark movement of internet fans of mass shooters and transgressors of innocence (see more here). And when we try to force the demonic into some clear, ideology which we can publicly condemn and oppose, I don’t think we understand the forces we are working with. It is important for us to understand that we are haunted by nihilism as a society, given over to despair in a million tiny ways. And some of those ways lead to violence. We must face the despair in our own hearts and work to share the hope within us.