“The Nihilist Democratic Party (NDP) was founded by a group of philosophy graduates and students who decided to run for public office on a nihilist platform. Fed up with the state of Danish politics, the students constructed an absurd political position, ironically claiming that the nihilism within religion and science had spread into the political sphere: “All Danes are nihilists. We have no values except our flat-screen TVs. Holding other values is considered religious extremism. The Nihilist Democratic Party, therefore, is the answer to the democratic deficit that we have witnessed up until now,” the party’s chairman and candidate for mayor of Copenhagen, Mads Vestergaard, explained in one of the NDP’s videos.
The party ran a full campaign in the 2009 local elections, promising such things as psychedelically painted subway tunnels (why should a subway ride be boring?), tax exemption on drugs and alcohol (the death rate stays at 100% anyway, so we might as well have some fun), and the production of a “cuteness canon” that would list all animals deemed cute enough for state-guaranteed protection and care — a reference to a heated debate about the government’s production of a “national culture canon” and to the fact that the extreme right wing in Denmark is obsessed with the needs of animals while comfortably ignoring those of immigrants.
The NDP’s platform ironically addressed a number of divisive issues. For example, it promoted an aggressive international security policy — not to defend Danish democracy, but to protect the Danes from people with “actual values” (such as Muslims). They were opposed to work per se as it aids the government in hiding “the metaphysical fact that life is pointless and completely void of meaning.” And they strongly opposed any set of cultural policies, considering culture and art an unwarranted escape from a meaningless existence. Only sports should be funded as they accurately represent the meaninglessness of life, one team or player fighting another for the sake of pointless scores.”
Aldus beautifultrouble.org.
