Political Nihilism - History of Political Nihilism

History of Political Nihilism

In 1842, many Russian dissidents appear to have espoused nihilistic viewpoints. Here is a relevant quote from Russian Nihilist Dmitri Pisarev:

"Here is the ultimatum of our camp. What can be smashed must be smashed; whatever will stand the blow is sound, what flies into smithereens is rubbish; at any rate, hit out right and left, no harm will or can come of it."

and another one from Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin:

"the negation of what exists ... for the benefit of the future which does not exist."

Read more about this topic:  Political Nihilism

Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, political and/or nihilism:

    Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods. Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of.
    Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)

    What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.
    Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)

    No God and no religion can survive ridicule. No political church, no nobility, no royalty or other fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field, and live.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    Nihilism: any aim is lacking, any answer to the question “why” is lacking. What does nihilism mean?—that the supreme values devaluate themselves.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)