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?
