The Nullity That Is I

In his book on the public, Alastair Hannay, sums up the modern predicament. Discussing Ground Zero 911, he says:

We need occasionally to step aside. Or meet in some public space where we are put in mind of how little of what we do or achieve counts, seeing things directly and without the interfering spins and refractions of the media or of their influence on our current perceptions. One such place is Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers once stood; these are to be replaced not only by a new tower, this time of Freedom, but also by something less rhetorical, a grove named 'reflecting absence'. It is only a fitting symbol of the position from which reflection over the nature and setting for human fulfillment can take place; sight of the levelled terrain and memory of the terrible events that caused it can free the mind for a moment from its normally healthy addiction to the world, an addiction that easily creates enmity and division. It is a prospect that can produce a sense of human levelling. Kierkegaard said that coming to the point where all you can say positively of yourself is that you are a human being reveals the fundamental nullity of selfhood, the ultimate anonymity, a ground zero in which you stay put but at the same time move on, letting it educate your everyday. He predicted we would end up there and that it would be a good thing if we did." (p. 122)...

nullity: the state of nonexistence [syn: nothingness, void]

It is this state which Hannay alludes to. It is, perhaps, akin to the Buddhist concept of no mind or no self. But Hannay, following the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, is also talking about the state of nothingness that the current spirit of Americanism propagates as it makes its way around the world destroying cultural identity, religious systems and world views, political systems, and traditional notions of self associated with these cultures and traditions.

In a world wherein all certainties provided by traditional beliefs and cultural norms disappear, the traditionally psychological definition of "self" and personality simply lose any meaning. The bane of the times is the amount of self fragmentation and alienation that occurs within "modern," secularized societies. How many people require some type of medication to simply get through a day in America? The alienation of self that is characteristic of American culture grows--it does not diminish.

It might seem that putting a stop to this spread of nihilism is called for, perhaps via religious fundamentalism (Xtian or Islamic or Jewish or Hindu). Maybe a new political regime will fix the world. Hannay's argument will not abide by such programmatic answers. Why? Because they do not begin at the beginning. Here the beginning is the self--the individual, I who must realize something about myself, otherwise I will simply repeat and contribute to the growing alienation--for myself and for others.

Therefore, Hannay makes a somewhat surprising proposal. Do not oppose the leveling that nihilism and modern consumerist culture brings in its wake. How can allowing this type of culture to continue its world advance be a good thing? One answer might be that such a culture returns the human to his/her basic facticity of being human. Behind this statement is the notion that what has been lost in the modern world is exactly this fact--we have forgotten how to be human.

With all the fantasy notions promoted by science fiction, entertainment, various religious and political doctrines--all destroy or have lost their ability to provide a real picture of who I am as a real human. And until I learn what that means, I simply cannot hope to belong to or create a community of other human beings. All dogmas, ideologies, socio-cultural constructs simply fade away into a world where all values are equal and none means anything.

This is the nullity that Hannay talks about. Its goodness is obviously a two-edged sword. It poses the possibility that I will engage with my own nothingness and die as a self. I'll be seduced by the many false selves that the nihilism of the age holds out as possibilities. These often simply involve losing myself in a mass anonymity wherein I abrogate all responsibility for being an individual and let the group determine who and what I am. One such possibility is the characteristic of our age: passive bourgeois self-satisfaction where one lives like a cow. Another is destructive nihilism where I believe that through acts of destruction I will reach some rock-solid base of authentic and real existence.

But doesn’t Hannay talk about anonymity? Yes, but it’s an anonymity that ultimately does not fade into social and mass forgetfulness. It is instead an anonymity that strips away all pretensions to that “healthy addiction” to the world and the happiness and sense of fulfillment I find there. It is a sober realization that much that we cherish and would die for are perhaps not that important after all. As Hannay notes, it is to accept one's humanity and try to work from there--recognizing one's nothingness while at the same time discovering what exactly that nothingness means in terms of living a human life.