Extremism - religion of nihilism

The article presents the experience of social-philosophical understanding of nihilism as a social phenomenon of modern Russian society. In the first part of the article the authors describe the methodological basis for the study of nihilism, revealing its components, characteristics, main types, sources and causes. The authors of the article note from the point of view of nihilological discourse that nihilism emerges in crisis epochs of social-historical development, young people are most exposed to it, and it prevails to a greater extent in the state, political and legal spheres. The key indicators of nihilistic behavior are a negative attitude towards power, alienation of the system of political values, knowledge and traditions that has developed in society, denial of the social and personal value of law and recognition of it as the least perfect way to regulate social relations. The second part presents an analysis of nihilism from the point of view of worldview principles. The authors focus on the religion of nihilism, which is characterized by the belief in the exclusiveness of a community and the cult of its personalities; the belief in its own exclusiveness and the cult of its own personality; the belief in improvement through suicide and the cult of death; the belief in the good of social passivity and the cult of loneliness. The third part of the article outlines the main findings of the study. The authors conclude that nihilism is a religion that has the faith of well-being from extremism and the cult of radical marginalization.