Hibbs notes that these Last Men are not the courageous rebels of their narcissistic imaginations, but "timid, enervated, self-enclosed, and self-satisfied," conforming with "the dictates of common opinion.'' Fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution, and what has it wrought: New York Times Man, so hidebound and parochial in his views, and yet, like a child, so confident of his superiority!
These Last Men hate to be reminded that there is something higher or deeper, something transcending their own little self-generated meanings. They are all sheep and no shepherd. And they don't believe in wolves at all. They hate the notion that history is incomplete, that there are real enemies, and that there are real heroes--superior men like President Bush who will name and kill the enemy so that the Last Men may sleep soundly in their beds. They believe that there is nothing to be afraid of but the hero!
In a way they are right, for the hero is a painful reminder of their own existential cowardice. The society of the Last Man "is adept at satisfying nearly all desires for pleasure, but it cannot satiate, indeed it positively frustrates, the will to excel, to prove oneself superior to others." They are afflicted with spiritual envy, the Satanic Eucharist of secular fundamentalism. Kill the hero is their motto. The victim is God is their creed.
Gagdad Bob has captured the essence of the soul disease that sickens modern "progressives" and infects the art and literature they produce. The key symptoms are characterized by:
-existential cowardice
-malignant narcissism
-spiritual envy
-paralyzed will
-exaggerated self-esteem
-insatiable sense of entitlement
-glorification of emotion
-deification of victimhood
The overarching theme that brings together all of the above symptoms is the pervasive nihilism that masquerades as art and culture these days and which I discussed in a previous post today.
Read the entire post.
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