Some Yahoo Posted August 25, 2018 Posted August 25, 2018 (edited) This all applies to me. I'm not judging anyone else. Nihilism (the belief that life is meaningless) is almost like a religious faith. It's not a faith in yourself, or a loving God, or a family of Man that is worth striving for: Nihilism is nothing like that. I had always thought that goths and emos chose nihilism as a belief system to be dark and edgy, but that's not how it works. What happens is that your faith in everything you hold dear is systematically shattered until all you have left is this raw animal need to eat and sleep. Work hard? Why, will it matter that I turned in a 60 hour week? Get good grades? What, so I can go to some college and extend the meaningless of school for four more years? Be kind, caring, trustworthy, loyal? Why, so others can get the drop on me and eff me over before I see it coming? That's nihilism. And gaming is perfect for us. One major thing that gaming provides (even though it's FAKE) is a sense of meaning. You can be sitting in your room, your soul aching at your stupid trapped life, but a game will make you feel needed, wanted, valued. Just like the programmers designed it to. The thing I learned is that Nihilism is that dark, empty place that your soul flails against. Because it's wrong. Because you have meaning and purpose, it was designed in to your soul. Because it's only lies and poison that have led you here. But do you want to hear the GOOD news? It's also a lie that you are trapped. The human spirit cannot be trapped like that. Even slaves have a free spirit. You can walk away from the darkness at any time. And even if you trip and fall when you try it, you cannot be stopped. Put the controller down. Embrace responsibility. Be who you are. Watch this. I found it inspiring. Edited August 25, 2018 by Some Yahoo
Peluconus Posted August 25, 2018 Posted August 25, 2018 Hey @Some Yahoo, I think I've read enough about nihilism to tell you what it actually is about. There's some widespread lies about nihilism and I can understand the reasons, it's a dangerous path and many people can't make it through the first few steps. What you say is just not true. But I don't say you are a liar, I understand that some ideas don't really sink into the people the first time. So let's talk about it. Nihilism's main point is that nothing in the world has inherent value or meaning. What does this mean? Well, it means that religion, social conventions, etc. are not as meaningful as others want to make us believe. But this is only the first step. Many meme pages and misinformed people decide to stop here because it's more useful this way, or just don't follow their own beliefs. The second step is to understand that we are free to give everything the value we think they deserve. It's just pointless to strip away the value and leave the world empty, what would be the reason to live then? Every person has to live according to their own values, not according to some values of thing that we maybe don't want to follow. This is the reason why many people say that nihilism is similar to atheism, because usually nihilist people don't give religion any value at all. But we go even further, because we understand that some people want to give religion their own value and that is as respectable as any other thing, as long as they don't try to force other's values. A person that wants to be nihilist must be very aware of what is going on in his life to choose correctly. Values might need to change over time, because life is dynamic, priorities change. It needs balance and revision. But it's possible to live a good life and be optimistic about things while being nihilist. I hope I've been clear enough, but if you have any doubts, I'll be glad to help.
Some Yahoo Posted August 27, 2018 Author Posted August 27, 2018 The definition I had for it is everything is meaningless and by extension, anytime you think something has meaning, you are fooling yourself. I agree with you about value. Why is gold more valuable than silver? Because everyone kind of agrees that it does. People give these minerals value: by themselves they are neutral. The same holds true for pretty much everything. I spoke of nihilism in the same terms as Dr. Peterson (who knows a thing or two) as the belief that everything is meaningless. If I oversimplified, well that's just because I'm oversimple.
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