From Nixon to Trump - Moral Nihilism's Triumph over Good vs. Evil

From Nixon to Trump - Moral Nihilism's Triumph over Good vs. Evil  

By Kai Chen     12/12/2024

                                                         www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com 

On October 1, 2009, I and some of my friends staged a protest in front of the Nixon Presidential Library against a Mao statue in its "World Leaders" exhibit section.  I termed the protest "World Murderer - never a World Leader" to highlight Nixon's moral nihilism in his admiration of Mao - the biggest mass murderer in human history.  LA Times reported the event with the first page article entitled "The Past Haunts Richard Nixon Library".  The moral nihilism of Richard Nixon is unmistakably clear - He is a Mao admirer.  No wonder Nixon's definition of a great man is "one who wills the change in the world".  By that definition, Hitler and Stalin and the murderous dictators throughout history all fit in as "great men".  (Can one truly be great without being GOOD first?) 

Now fast forward to today, Trump has just announced that he is going to invite Xi Jinping to his presidential inaugural ceremony, eager to please and legitimize "the great leader of the Chinese nation/people" in his eyes.  (Too bad Trump could not invite Putin and Kim because of their direct actions in the Ukraine War.)  The nauseating odor of moral nihilism is put on display in a big and unprecedented way in American political and presidential history.  The unspeakably ugly irony is that what defines a legitimate government is "government by the consent of the governed".  With that definition, we have some moral clarity between a democratically elected one and the one "by the muzzle of a gun only".  Yet today in America, we still have a legitimate government by the election and the consent of the governed, except we have elected a convicted criminal into the White House who does not believe there is such thing as Good vs. Evil, right vs. wrong, truth vs. falsehood, justice vs. injustice....  "Are we that innocent?" was Trump's reply to the fact that Putin is a proven murderer of the innocent both domestically and internationally.  In the Donald's eyes, there is no such thing as goodness and moral conduct.  There is only what one can get away with in one's pursuit of money, power and self-interests without any moral constrains.  America now has thus become NOT a force for good in the world, but just another power to make deals with other powers, regardless the source of their legitimacy, to divide the world by spheres of influence.  America is no more exceptional with a divine moral purpose to lead the world from despotism toward freedom.  America is just a mundane dirty nation like all the others in the world, worrying only about its material interests and living space in a ruthless struggle of a zero-sum game.  

Xi Jinping knows very well about such a nihilistic zero-sum game.  He knows very well that the Chinese communist regime is never a legitimate government by the consent of the governed.  He knows very well that his regime is a criminal regime with blood dripping from every pore of its body.  He knows very well that Mao's definition of a normal government is a government by guns and violence against its own people.  He knows very well that his government which has murdered millions upon million in China and in the world can be toppled in a second when his own people wake up to his government's atrocities and decide not to take it anymore....  So Xi's propaganda to brainwash the Chinese population is no longer like Mao's or the Soviet Union's - our communist system is better than the capitalist system in the West.  His propaganda now is the same as the Donald's - No one is innocent and we are all evil.  So choose between our evil and their evil.  There is no such thing as Good vs. Evil.  There is only a zero-sum game of strong vs. weak, powerful vs. powerless, enemy vs. friend, us vs. them, the ones who is clever enough to get away with wrong doing vs. the ones who is stupid enough to get caught....  So Trump, in a hurry, invites another criminal to his inauguration, not only to legitimize Xi, but to poke a finger into the eyes of those who still believe in human decency and morality of right and wrong by shouting on top of his lungs "now come to the new world of, by, for Donald Trump".  The old world of moral and decent America has died.  There is no such thing as a government of, by and for the people.  It is an illusion.  The new world of Donald Trump has dawned on us - a world of money and power and momentary pleasure as he had enjoyed with Jeffery Epstein on his rape island.  

A legitimate government by a fair and just election to have elected a criminal who does not believe in any moral conduct and human decency - this is what we face today in America - a paradox and a dangerous precedent set squarely against the world we used to know - a world with a moral guidance and principles from above and from inside of a person's soul.  Are we all becoming moral nihilists - zombified creatures with no joy, no sense of justice, no soul, no hope toward future but seeking blood and flesh from the person next to ourselves?  With the result of this election, with the new Orange Fuehrer in charge in the White House, we have to dig deep into ourselves to answer this eternal question from the beginning of time.  

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A footnote:  

Why is Trump so eager to invite Xi to attend his own inauguration?  Maybe he already has a plan to achieve his "peace of our time by deal making".  He wants to end the Ukraine War by making deals with Putin as he promised in his campaign.  But he cannot do this without the help from Xi, for China bankrolls Putin in his criminal war against Ukraine and the world.  He will use Taiwan as his trump card to bargain with Xi.  He will sell Taiwan, as he had sold Hong Kong, and as he had sided with the communist regime during the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, in exchange for Xi's support to end the Ukraine War.  Thus he cleverly, in this process of "art of the deal/steal", will also save his buddy Putin in his losing war.  One stone kills many birds indeed.  He will sell this deal to American public in the name of saving lives.  Yet we all know for a draft dodger, Trump has never believed there is anything holy or sacred in life to be worth sacrificing our lives for.  We are all some kind of maggots fighting in pile of human wastes anyway.  Therefore, we are all color Orange, just like him, remember?  

 

 

 

America is about Truth, Justice, Freedom and Hope

America is about Truth, Justice, Freedom and Hope

- Fighting Tyrannies around the World is a Divine American Mission -

By Kai Chen   11/18/2024

www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com  

I have long stated that in despotism, there is no such thing as left and right.  There is only a mortal struggle between tyranny and freedom.  Only in freedom, we can have a two legs - left and right, moving forward toward future and hope.  America is the only country in the world, founded with a providential beginning, to lead the world out of despotic cycles toward future and hope.  

In the world of despotic tyrannies, there are two insidious branches coming from the same premise - a human being has no free will with his life determined by either his genes or his environment.  Marxism/communism believes that it is the environment that determines human behavior/existence.  Fascism/Nazism believes that it is the Birth/Genes that determines human behavior/existence.  Both are based on ultimate nihilism asserting human beings are without any moral purpose.  Both worships only one fleeting illusion - Power.  Both deny human free will to choose for the individual himself/herself.  For thousands of years of human history, we were revolved around the axis of despotic tyrannies, mired in a never ending cycles of man-eating-man without a moral direction, without future and hope.  It is with the founding of America, we as human beings started to see that history has a direction by the Almighty - from despotism toward freedom, from despair toward hope.  This direction exists in our souls - the yearning to be free, to live a dignified life with our individual pursuit of happiness respected and cherished.  It is so powerful that no matter how dark the world has become, that light is forever there to guide us toward a meaningful existence with the belief that future will be better because of ME.  

America's Independence War was about the freedom of our nation based on the fundamental moral premise that a human being should be respected with his free will to determine his life to pursue happiness.  America's Civil War was about the Soul of our nation, the purpose this great nation was established in the first place - Justice and Human Dignity.  We are never just a geographical tribe with borders fighting for safety and living space.  We are the "Shining City on the Hill" to call upon all free souls in the world to fight tyrannies and make a better future for mankind.  Americans believe there is something in the world so valuable that is worth even sacrificing our lives to fight for.  Give me liberty or give me death.  

Even in a free world like America, the dark impulse in our human nature will manifest itself through the sometimes violent lunges toward extreme right and extreme left.  Communism and Fascism both have had great appeal to many here in America.  But because of our divine founding based on God's eternal principles of Truth, Justice, Liberty and Human Dignity, we have rejected both Communism based on environmental determinism and Fascism based on genetic determinism.  We defeated Hitler and Stalin.  We won both World Wars and the Cold War.  We indeed are leading the world out of that man-eating-man vicious cycle toward hope and future.  Some say that one has to use Hitler to fight Stalin and vice versa.  But America time again proves to the world we can rely firmly on God's eternal moral principles of Truth, Justice, Liberty and Human Dignity to defeat both despotic tyrannies with their origins in the dark recesses of human nature - the urge for absolute power without any regard of human lives, freedom and dignity.  

Now the time of that mortal struggle against evil despotism has come again.  The world now is engulfed in a resurgence of despotic tyrannies.  In Russia after the downfall of the USSR, the Neo-fascism led by Putin starts to advance in the form of expansionism.  In China, a mutated communism represented by the Xi regime - a Confucian Communism, like the Covid-19 virus, starts to spread around the world.  Both are challenging the very notion of human free will.  They want to demolish a world with a moral direction led by America toward future and hope.  They want to establish a Neo-Fascist world of chaos toward Nothingness and never ending cycle of man-eating-man again.  They want to go back with that old evil purpose branded with only new names indeed.  What is alarming now in America?  There is a strong echo represented by the Orange Fuehrer and his MAGA movement toward a Neo-Fascism that ranks human beings by their genetic/birth origins.  "America for Americans only", "my beautiful white skin", "human garbage and enemies of people" have now become somehow acceptable expressions in American political culture.  We are in a dangerous moment indeed.  Our canoe now is in white water indeed.  

Yet I believe in America, in America's founding principles, in God's divine purpose to have created such a great nation.  We are blessed with a strong moral political culture of seeking truth, justice, freedom and human dignity, with an unshakable faith in our individual free will to govern ourselves without a self-claimed savior.  We indeed believe deeply in that Good will always vanquish Evil, for Good has only one enemy - Evil while Evil has two enemies - Good and Evil itself.  Let's fight for America and what she represents - Truth, Justice, Freedom and Human Dignity, just like our Founding Fathers did.  Let's fight against this nihilistic evil wriggling its ugly head in our souls.  Let's start now.  

A Free World is Never a "Clean World" - What do you come to America for?

A Free World is Never a "Clean World"

What do you come to America for?   

By Kai Chen   11/11/24

To the Chinese Trump voters:  

What do you come to America for?  Do you expect clean appearances everywhere on the street, grandiose public buildings, people with uniformed looks, clothes, and behaviors, safety to walk alone in the dark, clean and unified thoughts and expressions....?  You come to the wrong place.  China, North Korea and Russia should be your destinations.  The collective world, not the Free World, is your final destination.  

Alas, what the Donald yearns and wants is just the world of Putin, Xi and Kim, just like his Trump towers, gilded with the color gold, superficial as his own painted face, all facade without any substance.  Like Trump voters, you can ignore his foul language and vulgarity with cruel intent toward the women and people of different origins.  You can ignore his despicable/obscene gestures and demeanor on the public stage.  You can ignore his loose diaper containing human feces.  You can ignore his pretentious posture mimicking that of Mussolini and Hitler, with his eyes looking down on you and his chin toward the sky.  But you, in your rare clear-minded moment with a momentary vision of clarity, you just cannot ignore that something is missing in the Trump world, something fundamental, something essential, something spiritual, something that defines us as human beings, something supremely American.  That something is very simple and straight forward - Freedom, Joy and Human Dignity.  

I came to America in 1981, at the peak of my professional career as a basketball player in China.  I had all the privileges most Chinese didn't have.  Yet something essential was missing in my life and without it I was in constant distress/torture in my mind and soul.  I was dying inside.  I could not function as a full human being even though I devoted all the energy into my profession - basketball.  I could only function as a tool and slave for the others and the state to survive an excruciating misery.  Somethings were intrinsically in conflict in my inner world that threatened to cripple me when I intended to make any individual decisions.  I didn't full realize what that essential element was until I came to America. I didn't fully appreciate what I had given up in China and what I expected in America.  But the urge to look for that something compelled me to take action and leave the place of my birth.  I worked and studied.  I thought hard and debated inside constantly.  Nothing could stop that urge.  It is innate and divine.  It is both from out above and deep inside me.  I finally found out:  It is Freedom with Human Dignity.  

Freedom with Human Dignity is invisible around us but it exists nonetheless.  It does not guaranty anyone anything.  It does not grant the world a perfect society.  Sometimes it may result the ugly exposure of human defects and flaws.  Frustration comes often with certain disappointments.  But without it, law and order is meaningless.  Peace is only an empty promise.  Creativity and innovation are stifled.  Progress with a moral direction becomes impossible.  Nihilistic dynastic cycles becomes norm with endless man-eating-man.  Stagnation and darkness will envelope and dominate the entire universe. 

Do you want a "clean world" with the gilded facade - unified thoughts and beliefs, un-offending outlooks on the streets, safe public venues with countless surveillance cameras above your head, absolute loyalty to the state and the leaders.... - the Trump's ideal world that has already existed in China, Russia and North Korea?  Or do you want a Free World in which nothing is perfect - homeless people on the streets, partisan rancor in politics, angry protests to vent mass frustration, free press to criticize almost everything.....?  In the countries of Nihilistic Despotism, everything looks in order with almost perfect appearances.  Yet there is no clean air, no safe water, no safe food, no safe buildings....  The state can come to your home and tear it down any time it wants.  Your children are brainwashed and groomed to be a zombified existence only to serve the authorities.  In a Free World, we as individuals are respected to make our own decisions and shape our own destinies.  We are perfecting an imperfect world with our own words and actions.  We are making our own futures with hope and optimism, for we are never hopelessly crippled robots in the hands of our rulers.  We as individuals with meaning and spiritual existence will always ask ourselves:  Is this world better because of my existence?  

America is never perfect but America is Free.  America is never "clean" but America is Free.  America is never without human ugliness but America is Free.  In America, human beings can only be unified under that supreme, God-given value - Freedom.  If you come to America for something else, not Freedom, you indeed come to the wrong place.  You may be better off staying in your ancestral land where you find certainty in the form of a zombie looking for human flesh.  Trump, who wants to make America a zombie land like China, Russia and North Korea, may deport you soon anyhow, for you are unclean in his eyes.  Pity.  

Trump is the Neville Chamberlain of Our Time - The War Danger Increases with Nihilistic Despotism

 

Trump is the Neville Chamberlain of Our Time 

- The War Danger Increases with Nihilistic Despotism

By Kai Chen    11/10/24

www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com  

In a nihilistic despot's mind, there is nothing worth fighting with our lives in the world, nothing at all, but POWER.  Power for power alone.  Power for nothingness, power for a momentary, illusory glory of vanity, power to get eye balled in public for an infantile urge to attract attention..., Trump fits this profile perfectly.  Nothing but the image of Neville Chamberlain before WWII can mirror today's Trump and his delusional vision for the world better.  We are indeed approaching WWIII, because of the ascending Nihilistic Despotism in America and in the world, represented by Putin, Xi, Kim, and our very own Orange Fuehrer in the White House.  

Reagan's moral leadership of America during the Cold War contributed mightily for the defeat of the USSR.  Good vs. Evil, freedom vs. communist tyranny, human dignity vs. misery/cruelty under dictators were the central themes of the Cold War.  We won the Cold War by God's eternal values and grace, indeed.  The underlining ethos of this victory is that there are true values in a meaningful life for us to fight for and fight on.  There is something worth our sacrifices, even our lives to uphold and maintain for a meaningful peace and existence.  We are spiritual beings ultimately, not just a woeful existence of physical appearances with only needs and wants like an insect or animal.  Yet in Trump's world, we are nothing but insects and animals.  The US is nothing but a "walled in tribe" fighting for limited space and resources in the world in a zero-sum game.  Sounds familiar?  1930's Europe and the rise of Hitler - the prominent manifestation of the Nihilistic Despotism at the time will give you a hint.  

"Peace through Strength" with Good vs. Evil as the moral theme was the most effective weapon to have defeated the evil communism of USSR - a giant but weak pervert out of Marxist illusions.  "We win, they lose", Reagan stated with determination.  The light indeed shone through the darkness and we have had decades of peace and prosperity since the Cold War victory because of the Reagan doctrine.  We relied on hope, yearning for happiness and the eternal optimism to have achieved such victory.  We relied on God's eternal values in his creation of human beings.  

"Peace though Deal-Making with the Devil" was the scheme Neville Chamberlain adopted when he went to Munich to meet Hitler.  Then he came back to England with a piece of paper declaring that he had achieved the "peace of our time".  The result?  Evil despotism advanced and freedom and human dignity retreated.  Human carnage and immeasurable misery/suffering began.  We are facing the same situation today in the world as the history starts to repeat right in front of our eyes.  Nihilistic Despotism is ascending today to challenge a world order with moral principles established and lead by American strength.  Freedom is retreating in many parts of the world such as Russia and China.  Even America today there is an insidious uprising against what America is by God's providential creation - to lead the world with moral values toward hope and freedom.  In Trump's world, everything is physical, material, superficial and temporary, nothing substantial, eternal and spiritual.  The only thing that matters is power.  The only measure is money and interests.  Nothing worth fighting with our lives, besides some material gains and living space.  Worrying about the needs of our physical cavities becomes our ultimate priorities.  Trump intends to warp American political culture into a vulgar, cruel and meaningless soup in which only temporary vanity shines as his towers.  We are indeed losing the God's mission bestowed upon us from the very beginning of this great nation. 

Trump succeeded in achieving power by "divide and conquer" scheme in America, as all nihilistic despots do.  Peace with law and order is their biggest enemy.  Chaos through fear, hatred and distrust is their biggest friend.  Conflict/war is their main tool to maintain power.  Yet laughingly and ironically, Trump wants to achieve some "international peace" by deal-making with evil dictators and despots.  Repeatedly Trump mocks our soldiers and veterans for their sacrifices overseas to fight for a better and freer world - He calls them "suckers and losers".  By peace through deal-making, Trump implies that America is nothing special and providential, nothing moral at all.  We are all here to divide the world by interests and physical gains in a game of winners and losers.  When someone told him Putin was a killer, he answered "Aren't we any better and more innocent".  We are just like them indeed in his eyes.  If not, Trump will make America become just like them.  Now we indeed have reached that point by Trump's return to the White House.  

Are we just like them?  Should we just become like them?  If America, in Trump's vision, has become just another Nihilistic Despotic existence in the world, will "the peace of our time" be achieved?  If America gives up her moral leadership in the world, will the earth become freer and more prosperous?  If there is no such thing as "Goodness", will Evil be ever vanquished?  Can one ever be "Great" without being righteous and Good in the first place?  Can a bad, morally corrupt person with psychotic criminal intent ever "make America great again"?  A moral and spiritual person with common sense should easily answer these questions.  What we can do to defeat the ascending, prevalent Nihilistic Despotism is all up to us.  May God guide and bless us in this mortal struggle coming soon in our lives.  

A Crazed Society - The Parallels between Mao's Cultural Revolution and Trump's Vision of a Nihilistic Despotism

A Crazed Society 

The Parallels  between Mao's Cultural Revolution and Trump's Vision of a Nihilistic Despotism

 The Dark Winter ahead of US

 

Kai Chen   11/6/24

 

I cannot overstate the gravity of the last night's event.  The Devil - nihilistic despotism which as a specter roaming around the world for the last decades since the Cold War, has finally found a crack in American soul, due to our lack of vigilance, to have corrupted and eroded American institutions and life in general.  Along with the Axis of Evil - Putin, Xi, Kim and Iranian regimes, the man-eating specter has finally found a perfect surrogate in the form of the Orange Fuehrer to have effectively altered the direction of history from Freedom toward Nihilistic Despotism.  

 

The reality of a "walled in tribe" with only borders, obsession of living space and safety has dawned on us, replacing the lofty vision/divine ideal of "the Shining City on the Hill" to lead the world toward hope and freedom.  Physical existence and comfort has replaced the soulful search for life's meaning to have become the priority in life.  Zombification which dominated history in most of the old cultures now has seeped into America, sucking out the souls of those who have forgotten and given up the original meaning of this providential nation.  We as Americans failed our mission by God, indeed.  

 

By sending a psychopathic criminal into the White House, what signal and message do we send to our children through generations?  There is no such thing as Good or Evil, right or wrong, justice or injustice, truth or falsehood.... There is only winner or loser, strong or weak, enemy or friend, with me or against me, power or powerless....  The Chinese obsession of "winner is the king and loser is the bandit" has finally conquered America's "Give me Liberty or Give me Death".  The founding fathers of this divine land are turning in their graves, with excruciating torture indeed.  

 

We are facing a dark winter ahead of us.  We have lost the battle for our souls this round.  Do we have the tenacity and fortitude to fight on and regain our souls and meaning for our existence?  "A Republic, if we can keep it."  The answer is still out there. 

 

For me, I will fight on, with every ounce of my energy and every fiber of my being.  Give me Liberty or Give me Death!  May God save and bless this beloved land for all free souls in the world!  Keep faith in Goodness and Justice.  Darkness cannot last long.  Light will eventually break through again.  But for now, my heart is bleeding for you - America. 

Congratulations to Lai Qingde, the newly elected President of Taiwan.

 

Congratulations to Lai Qingde, the newly elected President of Taiwan, whom I met during my 2008 Beijing Olympic Freedom Run in Taipei.  Give me liberty or give me death.