I am an Optimistic Nihilist
I have heard of all types of terms to describe human beings. But none ever seemed to describe me. I'm a bit of an anarchist, a bit of a libertarian, a bit of a socialist, a bit of a rationalist, but never quite one term. Today, I happened to watch a wonderful video by Kurzgesagt. This is the first time when I've been able to relate entirely to some such term.
I am irrelevant and my life is completely meaningless. So is yours and every living and non living being to have ever existed or will ever exist. But all that means is I can't take myself or anyone else seriously, at all. All I can do is accept that I'm irrelevant, and enjoy the little time I have here in the only way I know how, and share it with people I care about.
Do watch this wonderful dose of armchair philosophy and share your thoughts if you relate to any of this. I'd like to think I'm not the only optimistic nihilist on Steem :)
It's a very nice watch @liberosist thanks for sharing. When you see people fighting over something, the us vs them, we feel that there's so much time wasted on this. People want to be right, be ahead of the game just to protect their own fragiles egos. We are just a tiny speck in the universe really, and we don't matter in the end, none of these. Time will pass and it will all be forgotten. So we might just as well enjoy our time here on earth, take pleasure in details and share those good moments. That's all there is to life.
I have always found the constant bickering confusing. People seem to get butthurt (I learned this term on Steem!) over the smallest of issues. I understand the root cause - I have the same instincts too, but I simply couldn't be bothered to act on them.
"Butthurt"... O_o
Living and learning...
Hear, hear! :)
Yes, that is true. People constantly seem to love fighting "for the good cause". But fighting wont get you nowhere. When people let go and reject authority, that is when progress is made.
Great read/watch to start the day! I've always fancied myself a stoic, a concept which I think blends nicely with optimistic nihilism. People devote so much time to pondering the imponderable, and not enough time focusing on two heavy little words in this video: "so what?"
-We come from nothing and we will return to nothing. So what?
-Everything is meaningless. So what?
-We're just brains in vats. So what?
For me, the answer to "so what?" is usually "keep going!" (borrowed from Badiou). I might add "leave the place better than you found it" and some form of the Golden Rule/Categorical Imperative.
In other words, even though life is meaningless, I'm still looking forward to reading more of your posts!
For as long as I can remember, I've known that purpose doesn't exist. Things just are. Trying to find meaning in the meaningless is hard for me, because I know it's a mind trick to justify living. All in all, everyone comes up with a reason to justify their existence. Some bet on eternal pleasure, some bet on a greater good. I personally do whatever goes when I wake up. Hopefully something towards a greater good.
I absolutely love this channel on YouTube. It is fantastic and so well researched. Every video they do does a brilliant job of taking complex scientific concepts and making them much easier to understand without dumbing them down. I'm glad they decided to delve into the realm of psychology, and as usual they did an exceptional job with the subject matter.
They are still only my second favorite YouTube channel. @liberosist if you like this type of content you need to check out the School of Life channel. You won't be dissappointed!
I subscribe to The School of Life as well :)
No, you are not the only optimistic nihilist on Steemit, @liberosist. :)
Half of the days, I try to believe that there is life after death and that I will reincarnate again and if I'm lucky even remember my past lives. It gives me a sense of continuity that all this, our daily lives, our family & friends, our struggles, our happy moments, our thoughts, all these are not for nothing.
While the other half of the days, I am an optimistic nihilist too. :) I look at all the other living organisms around me, or maybe not around me, a camel, an aloe vera plant, an ant, an ostrich, a penguin, a dog... all these once gone are presumably gone forever... or stuck forever as fossil fuels, why then would it be any different for us, humans? And I know each day, we should make each moment count as long as we have our thinking and feeling faculties with us, whether we live up to 50 or 150. The past is but a memory and the future is but a dream... The only time to live is the present! It's a short but hopefully sweet life. Let's fill it up with lots of friends, good health, happiness, legacies to our future generations, and golden memories if we live to our old age!
Let's just live life up as best as we can!
Enjoyed the video! Thanks so much for sharing @liberosist! <3
Yeah,
Watched the video, it's amazing.
Our own existence in this infinite universe (or maybe finite, don't know) is mysterious. The origin of life is an unsolved mystery (also wrote an article about it).
Thermodynamics says that the purpose of life is to help the universe to increase the entropy and bring an equilibrium.
But, as said, we are probably, the only free thinkers who can act freely (unlike stars which are bound by the laws of physics) and maybe solve the mystery of the universe and probably one day control the universe to make an utopia out there.
Also a better way to do good to our existence is to help others, maintain peace and let the humanity grow upto that point when we will that much intelligent and capable to know about the universe and settle human civilization in its different parts and probably find other alien creatures out there. :D
I am a subscriber of the youtube channel kurzgesagt. They always bring awesome content. :)
Thanks for sharing this video here @liberosist.
Kurzgesagt videos are really great and this one shows how tiny we are in this vast universe. But we must not forget that God has made us conscious, much more than any other living or non-living being in this Universe and that's what makes us special.
In case you didn't notice, this video totally ignores the possibility of a God, it's that unlikely.
Love me some Kurzgesagt, man. Thank you so much for sharing this as youtube seems to censor everything remotely cool and only shows you clickbait stuff.
Food, books, sunrises, and being together! What a nice opportunity :)
The true mystery of the world is visible, not the invisible.
And all these psychoses about how much time we have left got me tripping got only 10.400 weeks left to get to Whale status... Damn, maybe I should live 300 or 400 years rather?
@berniesanders
:)