War of Nihilism

Abstract

Unlike other destructive wars, War of nihilism is characterised by the fact that it destroys the very essence of man. This nihilisation of the essence of man and the horizon of the world enables limitless disposal of human and other “resources†and accelerates the totalisation of bare power. In this respect, in principle, every moral condemnation of seizing power in order to struggle for world domination proves insufficient. The second part of the paper is related to Heidegger’s being-historical understanding of the “conditions of warâ€, which were written between 1939 and 1945; they offer a series of relevant bases for defining War of nihilism. Additional support for this, particularly regarding the technology of “cold†and “hot†warfare from the end of the Second World War onwards, could found in Paul Virilio’s studies. The War of nihilism is not a threat of a great destructive war, as we speak of the threat of World War III, but is epochally at work in new and new (uni)forms of war violence.