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Why Not Nihilism? Our Reply to Thrasymachus

“Yes, power rules. But only until it destroys itself. Goodness is the only strategy left for a species that wishes to survive.”

The Old Challenge

Plato’s Republic begins with a provocation from Thrasymachus: justice is nothing but the advantage of the stronger. Strip away the sermons, laws, powdered-wig declarations of “natural rights,” and what remains is brute power. The strong rule. The weak submit.

It’s harsh. It’s not entirely wrong. And it still haunts us.

Why Not Exterminate?

If there is no God, no natural law, no cosmic ledger — why not genocide? Why not let the predator reign? The Nazis asked that question in practice, and answered with death camps, ovens, and mass graves.

But here’s the lesson: extermination is skein suicide.

A society that codes only for domination rots from within. It destroys empathy, corrodes solidarity, devours its own foundations. Nazi Germany, Stalin’s USSR, Pol Pot’s Cambodia — all burned bright for a moment, then collapsed in blood and ruin.

Predation alone is not sustainable.

Goodness Without God

So why be good?

Not because God commands it.
Not because Nature endowed us with rights.
Both of those are horseshit.

We must be good because survival now requires it.

Goodness is not metaphysical — it is practical. It’s a cultural hack that stabilizes the ape. Cooperation, empathy, restraint: these are not divine gifts, but skein-level inventions. They feel good in the body (oxytocin, dopamine), they enable civilization, and they are the only thing standing between us and annihilation.

In the nuclear-biotech-AI age, the whirring-asteroids age, “might makes right” is not strength. It’s suicide.

Our Reply to Thrasymachus

Thrasymachus was right about the short run: power bends justice. But he was blind to the long run: power without skeins collapses.

Goodness is fragile. It is not God-given. It is not eternal. But it is real — and it is necessary.

Our reply to Thrasymachus and the nihilists is simple:
Yes, power rules. But only until it destroys itself. Goodness is the only viable strategy for a species that wishes to survive.

For much more, read The Ass of the Apes