Dark Shadows

I don't usually post literary essays, even when they impact directly on politics or culture, but Rob Henderson's discussion of Dostoevsky's The Possessed (also known as Demons or The Devils was intriguing enough to go forward. 

When these children of affluent liberals come of age, they do not follow their parents into comfortable moderation. Instead, their kids, now in their twenties and early thirties, become enamored with socialism, atheism, and nihilism.

What had been building beneath the surface of Devils erupts in Part 3. Over the course of a few days, everything falls apart. Fires spread across the town. People are beaten, robbed, and executed. Others are coerced into false confessions. The tone shifts from satire to something closer to horror.

At the center of it all is Pyotr, the organizer of the local radical cell who has been pulling the strings from the beginning. As the chaos peaks, he flees the consequences, leaving behind a broken group and a town in ruins.

Decades ago, a very liberal psychologist said to me "We have a generation that proclaims nihilism" - he meant Boomers - "but were mostly raised in churches, even said the lord's Prayer every day in school. This new generation was raised with nihilism. They really mean it."  Neither generalisation was quite true, but it's a good first pass.