#nihilist

Everyone mocks nihilism, but when you actually think about it, nihilists are the only people who are actually aware of the weakness of humanity’s “moral code”. Morals are fabricated and designed to suit individual people. Some think murder is wrong, others don’t. Ethical beliefs are just personal preferences, not rules set down by the King of the Universe – unless you’re religious, in which case I suppose this post is just for atheists. 

While you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking, “That’s ridiculous. Of course murder is wrong.” but who told you to believe that? Just the society you live in. Animals don’t generally murder others of their own species because it’s counterproductive, not because their “morals” tell them not to.

True, some “morals” help us to create a better world, but who are we to determine what is “right” and what is “wrong”?
Who are you to tell me what I believe is wrong when both your morals and mine are simply personal preferences? You think murder is wrong because society told you, I think the solution to Earth’s problems is the mass extinction of humanity because I can’t see any other way. What makes my views wrong and yours right? Nothing. 

Nihilism is above the petty squabbles of “who’s right and who’s wrong?” because nihilists have acknowledged the fact that morals are simply personal views, while the rest of society insists that their morals are the correct ones to have and that everyone else is wrong. 

For this reason, despite nihilism’s negative connotations, it is actually a more informed view on the world. Most people don’t know that “right” and “wrong” aren’t real things.

I miss you

The great story of our lives

One of the things the ASOUE series does particularly well is that it subverts the narrative that is all too often perpetrated in children’s literature (and adult literature, let’s be honest), that karma is a real operating force in the world and that we all are fated to have good or bad things happen to us depending on how well we act in the world. ASOUE shows that that is not at all true. Sometimes good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people - but it’s all random happenstance, and not some cosmic destiny for good people to be rewarded and bad people to be punished.

At the beginning of the series we get these three lovely, perfect children who as far as we know have done nothing wrong and are incredibly polite and kind even in the face of evil. Even though Snicket warns the audience that nothing good will happen to the orphans, kids know that good people always have happy endings so it’s brushed off as a depressing narrator who is simply describing the trials and tribulations that the Baudelaire orphans will face throughout the book. But when we get to the end and the orphans have solved the mystery, escaped from their captor and have proven themselves worthy of respect and a happy ending, they are defeated again through random happenstance and left more or less where they started. They have done nothing to deserve evil, but evil has been forced on them anyways.

One of the problems with perpetuating the idea that karma is an active force in the world is that if good people are always rewarded and bad people are always punished, then good people who consistently do good thing with no payoff are left feeling like they’re bad people because apparently if they were actually good they would receive some kind of retribution. But the world doesn’t work that way. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people and that’s just the way the world is.

A Series of Unfortunate Events does an incredibly good job of explaining the concept of a random universe - where things just happen and nothing really matters in the long run because everything will just turn out how it turns out regardless. It’s an absurdist (like happier nihilism) take on the world, and I find it interesting that such an obscure and defeatist philosophy is able to be introduced so easily to children as young as I was when I read the series. But then again, one of the things ASOUE does best is not being condescending to children and engaging with them about the real world - recognizing that they are smart, functioning beings capable of understanding the world - and teaching them such a hard lesson about life so early on without making it overly depressing is something that I rarely see talked about in praise of ASOUE, and something that I think is worthy of commendation.

The world says: “You have needs, satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don’t hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more.” This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

The evil in the world comes almost always from ignorance, and goodwill can cause as much damage as ill-will if it is not enlightened. People are more often good than bad, though in fact that is not the question. But they are more or less ignorant and this is what one calls vice or virtue, the most appalling vice being the ignorance that thinks it knows everything and which consequently authorizes itself to kill. The murderer’s soul is blind, and there is no true goodness or fine love without the greatest possible degree of clear-sightedness.

The Plague / Albert Camus

So I was talking to peeps at work about retirement etc and we’re all jaded 20-something year olds, and we were joking about retirement ages. As one does

But I’ve realised since I’ve been POMO I’ve been living like nine of it matters. And I only realised the other day that it’s true

I’m not making it out this alive either way. And if I’m allowed to retire, I’ll be too old to do anything. Or I’ll not have enough pension to live off

But who knows what’ll happen in the next 60 odd years? Humanity might not even be here

I know it’s a very nihilistic view, I’m here for a good time. No matter how well I eat, or how often I exercise, or what I do, I’m still gonna die. Be it from natural or man-made causes, I’m gonna die one day. That’s life

So sometimes people will criticise me, like ‘oh you could save that money’, 'smokings bad for you’, 'that tattoos permanent’.

Babe, none of that matters. My money, habits, tattoos, all of me, will only last as long as I do. Nothings permanent. I could be hit by a bus tomorrow. Nothing in society is real. Its all constructed by us to give ourselves meaning. We’ve created a whole complex society for ourselves to make our own lives harder and, frankly, I don’t care. I’m gonna live my life now and I do not give a single shit about the future

Nothing is guaranteed and nothing is definite. I’m here for a good time and that’s it