On Nihilism, the Press, and President Trump

The very hirelings of the press, whose trade it is to buoy up the spirits of the people. have uttered falsehoods so long, they have played off so many tricks, that their budget seems, at last, to be quite empty.  
                                                                                                    William Cobbett, 
                                                            English Journalist and Member of Parliament 1763-1835

The white horse is a prehistoric creation in Uffington.

At the last Chesterton book club meeting we were discussing The Ballad of the White Horse, G.K.'s epic poem about King Alfred the Great, a champion of Christendom who fought bravely to establish Christianity in England and built a bulwark against the nihilistic paganism of the Danish invaders.

After an interesting digression on nihilism and other Catholic writers who address it, like Flannery O'Connor, I came home with a bee in my bonnet to learn a little more about nihilism. There is no doubt in my mind that it is very much alive and apparently growing in the U.S. today, especially among the young, which is sad.