Nihilism and the Need for Good Philosophy

Because philosophy is, as most every philosopher has ever described it, including Aristotle, the search for the good life, I don't consider Nihilism to be a philosophy. Rather, I consider Nihilism to be philosophy's antithesis -- I view it as practically cancerous; as did Nietzsche. I know my last post discussed it, but in this post I'd like to really drive home the point of why it's so problematic.

Nihilism is the belief that life is meaningless and that nothing matters as a result

I want you to think about what this means. It means friendship doesn't matter, it means holiday dinners don't matter, it means trying doesn't matter, and it means you don't matter.

Of course if we make a requirement of anything mattering that it must be eternal then, yes, nothing matters because nothing is, ultimately, eternal.

But is that what we're saying? And if it is, should we be saying it?

True, you will die. True, one day, humanity will go extinct (no matter how long it takes). True, someday, our sun will go red giant and engulf the Earth, turning it into a charred ball of rock and then, presumably, some sort of liquid magma. But what has that got to do with whether or not something we do today matters?

Why do we require the absence of death, or expiration, in order to say something matters?

Regardless of why, we do. That's what gives Nihilism its allure. 

We can easily excuse any behavior, any lack of effort, any lack of involvement in our own lives and in our communities with a flippant, "Well, it doesn't matter anyway."

And so many people, young people especially, who are already disenchanted by the fact that they are likely the first generation in history (certainly modern history) for whom life is not less difficult than their parents' (in very many cases), seem particularly vulnerable to this truism offered to us by the Nihilists. 

If I were a 21-year-old college graduate today, I'd be looking at what was available to my parents at my age and wondering why it wasn't available to me. Like reasonably costed home ownership. 

There are a smattering of other less-better things that I don't have the patience to dive into, suffice it say there are compelling reasons to throw one's arms up in the air and say, "Well f*ck this. I'd rather just live in the moment and have the most fun I can have because.... none of this matters anyway."

And, you know what? It's hard to fault them for it. It's hard to fault them for it because they don't really learn much about the value of philosophy in school do they? They learn about the value of employment, and career, and how to keep the lights on and the fridge full -- and the ones who don't go to college tend learn those things even better. When you're poor, and no one has taught you anything other than the idea that your value is derived from your earning potential, or your labor, it's really easy to see how a young kid with no prospects, or a very long difficult road of failure and struggle ahead of them, would check out of the system entirely.

Nihilism is a convenient justification not to look at the open road ahead of them and see that struggle and difficulty and say, "Damn! What a great quest I have just set out upon! What will I learn in these trials? How will I grow? Let's get to work and find out what my life will be!"

Philosophy is a tool of examination and betterment, it's not meant to be a conclusion.

Philosophy is the only tool we have to answer the questions: how can I live a good life? How can I become a good man or good woman? How can I make the world better?

We need young people, and also not-young people, to see philosophy as the thing capable of allowing them to discover their purpose and meaning. 

Religion used to be the answer to this, but when we killed god we needed to create another answer.

Now we're here -- human beings who need life to last forever in order to feel like life is worth living at all -- living in a world that has realized death is a real thing and everything is temporary when given enough time. That's a hell of a situation to find oneself in!

What then do we cling to?

Work is one option, certainly. Chasing the almighty dollar, chasing fame or status, those things are fairly good stand-ins... for a time.

When you get into your 50s (for most people) however, and you start to ask questions of yourself about legacy and wasted time, money and status seem to lose their power. At this point most people have their mid-life crisis and start searching in earnest for their meaning. Sometimes they turn back to religion, sometimes to new-age spirituality, sometimes to vice or a consuming hobby, or sometimes they find nothing and become dusty old curmudgeons that die dissatisfied and feeling cheated.

But with the gap between the almighty dollar and young people just starting out increasing by the day, midlife crisis aren't event given a chance to arrive because the institutions we've shifted the foundations of our meaning and purpose to are now being dashed to bits and scapegoated as the reasons life is so unfair and difficult for most everyone.

That's a bleak place to be when you're 16-years-old, right?

Makes Nihilism pretty damn sensible, doesn't it?

It's easier to believe that none of this matters than it is to look up the shear side of a towering mountain and decide to invest your life into figuring out how to climb it regardless of how impossible it seems. 

This was always the power of philosophy: it taught us to see life as a challenge that needed to be overcome, a raging sea that needed to be navigated, a challenging puzzle that must needs be solved -- Nihilism suggests, instead, we shouldn't bother starting the race, we should drown in that sea, and we should leave that puzzle right where it is.

What utility is there in that?

Other than leaving us in a state of utter hopelessness, what does Nihilism give to us?

Or is that its only purpose? To dump a bleak truism on us and then wish us luck figuring out what to do about it?

Yes it's a fiction, but Stoicism gives you a foundation on which to build a purposeful and meaningful life!

You're going to die, get over it. But do you want to be a useless, miserable, unhappy, and lonely drain on your family, friends, and society as you march towards that death? Or would you rather have friends, solve problems, make people happy during their lives, improve the world for the next generation, and look at yourself in the mirror every night at the end of the day and say,

"I did something that mattered to someone today. I want to do the same thing tomorrow. I want to effort, I want to toil, I want to make the most out of this meaningless life by giving meaning to it!"

Because that's the secret to a happy life: adopting a fiction that means something to you, and that you can invest your life into embodying.

Philosophy can help you find your fiction. So, go get after it.