Learning Nietzsche in a Riot

A couple weeks ago, Dr. Layne made an offhand comment about protest kids with their faces covered, throwing rocks and reading Nietzsche. Protests around the country and world have always caught my attention, and I've thought a lot about what can be gained in a riot.

I was just starting to think about life outside of my hometown when the WTO riots in Seattle happened. These were followed by FTAA protests in Florida, in which the police chief publicly spoke of "war" between his forces and the protestors, and used violent military tactics that have received lasting criticism in independent media. Later, when the protests in San Francisco happened the day war was declared on Iraq, I got it. I met old Black Panthers and others who were in Los Angeles and the Bay Area when rioting was almost commonplace. I was in a sort of political fugue, throwing all of my angst and teenage restlessness into a political identity against what we called "business as usual."

I've never encountered a nihilist protestor. I'm not sure one exists, and I'm inclined to say that any protestor who claims nihilism is confused about the meaning of the word, interpreting it as its opposite. On the contrary, I think many protests form as the last gasp of a drive against nihilism. Nietzsche described the flaws of nihilism and the conditions of a nihilist world; protestors demand that nihilism be driven out, that passive acceptance and the absence of conviction be unacceptable in the face of power that is being abused. The driving force in a protest is a feeling that things have gotten so bad, so unforgivable, that drastic changes must be made. Without faith in a change, why bother to go out your door and yell with all the others? Without a belief in some foundation upon which a better world can be built, why get beaten, gassed, shoved along, arrested?

Of course, there is adrenaline and a companionship that come naturally from the crisis of a riot. However, these things don't detract from the meaning, and the search for truth and right action, that are all inherent in the act of attempting to halt the culture of power. This thrill and company are in fact the life-affirming things we identify with. We take action against those we see as doing wrong, those who are creating the culture and system that is life-destroying, and we identify entirely with the action, in the moment.

Protest, even destructive protest, is a demonstration of conviction, regardless of debates about its ethics and effectiveness. If anything, protestors may be faulted for convincing themselves that there is a truth beyond illusion, and leaving no middle-ground for the inevitability of becoming a construct in a world of constructs. Then again, I've never been in a successful protest, seen a tyrant dethroned or a city changed. Maybe protestors who win also eventually forget what they were fighting for; then again, maybe some roads still lead toward belief in a truth that is worth demanding.