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