Optimistic Nihilism

nihilism

the rejection of all religious and moral

principles in the belief that life is

meaningless

does that sound like a pretty defeating

prospect to you let me paint another

picture

you’re three years old your parents

enroll you in kindergarten like their

parents before them

their grandparents before them and as

many generations back as they can

remember

you get the picture you blink a couple

of times

and you’re at a suffocating high school

desk you hear the words powerhouse of

the cell thrown around

and suddenly you’re in your fourth year

of university

and does you stand under that graduation

gap the one you’ve dreamed about since

as far back as you can remember

the cap you told yourself would mean

you’re done you’ve made it

you realize you’re nowhere close to the

finish line

following this almost sixty percent of

people end up in nine to five jobs

convincing themselves that when they

make just a little more money

they’ll start enjoying life we know how

that story ends

it doesn’t look at the person in the

zoom window next to yours

they’re a miracle look at your own video

you’re a miracle

for example let’s talk math a

calculation done by dr

ali benazir revealed that the

probability of your parents simply

meeting

was one in twenty thousand the

probability of your mom and dad

actually doing the dirty is one in two

thousand

the chances of that particular sperm

needing that particular egg

one in four hundred quadrillion

we are somehow living creatures made up

of millions of dead things ranging from

cell organs to gray matter

the earth has been around for about 4.5

billion years

and we’ve only been here for about 200

000 of those

the world survived just fine without us

and will likely do so in the future

our ancestors were as self-obsessed as

we are today

they believed that the trees grew to

feed us the sun shown simply for our own

tanning needs

and the seasons changed just so that we

could revamp our own wardrobes

this was however until science made it

apparent that this wasn’t for us

it just was so let’s look at our get

over yourself checklist

your life plans look just like everyone

else’s

you’re essentially made up of a bunch of

dead stuff you’re a tiny tiny blip in

history

our solar system doesn’t revolve around

us and nature

doesn’t live to serve you we have an

abundance of freedom

if you me and the world simply just

exist

we don’t owe anyone anything purpose

authority and subordination are simply

just social constructs

any authority we turn to our parents

teachers the government your shrink

are simply just people who exist with no

more knowledge or purpose than the next

person

humans can’t handle this much freedom so

we create societies

enact rules and mandate 12 years of

standardized schooling

when in essence these law enforcers are

no different from the rest of us

we live in a solar system amongst other

solar systems

in a galaxy amongst other galaxies that

make up a supercluster

our supercluster being one in thousands

of others

there’s going to come a day when you’ll

cease to exist

all the dead particles you were once

made up of will be useless

you will be useless so useless that

you’ll eventually just wither away

it’ll be like you never existed and yet

for the billionth time the trees will

produce food for someone else

the sun will come out for another to tan

under and the seasons will change for a

less fashionable person

to steal your winter wardrobe the world

will go on

so let’s jump back into our get over

yourself checklist we create rules

because the amount of freedom each

individual truly has is incomprehensible

among a thousand super clusters you’re

about as insignificant as a single

strand of hair on your head

and finally something you should remind

yourself more often

you are going to die but you are alive

today and right now

so to come to the existential crisis

that the last few minutes probably

brought you

we introduced optimistic nihilism

optimistic nihilism

is the idea that the universe has no

purpose or principle

so if it has no values make your own if

societal norms are just an abstract

concept

wear your pyjamas to work and eat

breakfast for dinner

laugh till your stomach aches stare at

the stars till your eyes start seeing

double

and get that degree in cannabis

cultivation

rather than allowing the pressures of

life to weigh you down rather than

letting a field exam mean your life as

you know it as oppo

remind yourself that in the grand scheme

of things you don’t matter

because tomorrow you won’t be remembered

thank you