OK, so here goes. I’ve been hearing and reading about Nihilism, in America and other places since like the 1990s. Some might say that it has bubbled up through the cracks left by the end of the Cold War.
Anyway, I’d like to learn more about it, and of course, I invite your thoughts. I put these up the other day as three articles on the topic came up in one day and I found that rather interesting:
This one, I noticed juts now is part 2…sorry:
I haven’t had a chance to really read through them as I got thoroughly caught up in this:
and then this, which is absolutelyharharhar fascinating:
OK, good, we have a little action on the fish finder.
So, in this video:
if you would…go to 25:15. Here they are talking about the pedigree of Nihilism and Skepticism. Listen to what Katherine says:
She thinks that in every generation or so the
question about whether there are absolute moral grounds or grounds for belief in God, or grounds for belief in the Laws of Nature, or those metaphysical things that people turn to to justify the truths they subscribe to.
What if we take those things away? What are we left with? Then, we have to work it out for ourselves. We no longer have authorities telling us what we ought to do and what we ought to think, we have to think it out from the basics … ourselves.
I think that the last bit is where America is today. The falling away from God has left a void. You have to figure it out for yourself, but do people have the intellectual and literary wherewithal to successful attempt this?
in general i would say ‘no’, but on occasion ‘yes’; it helps that in fact we cannot be separated from things like culture and biology (let alone “authorities”), so the idea of individuals thinking it out for themselves is a thought experiment…
Good, I haven’t read any Nietzsche in the last ~15 years and it is safe to say I probably didn’t really get it. I’ve just skimmed the Wikipedia introduction and contents for nihilism as a refresher.
In this conversation, there are no masters and we’ll have to figure it out from basics
I am also open to other interpretations. From the wiki contents I see Buddhism and Postmodernism, both of which I have read more about but only Buddhism appeals to me. You don’t strike me as a Foucault/Derrida/Deleuze/Baudrillard kinda guy, so that’s easy.
My quick interpretation of different ways this question could be answered would be
Nihilism: You have no masters, because the truth is nothing really matters
Buddhism: Your real master is yourself, the truth is that existence is suffering because of desire so don’t want things
Pomo: There are no real masters, only oppressors and power structures. There is no truth. It doesn’t matter that these things can’t both be true, because there is no truth and stop oppressing me
My opinion? Depends on how far we want to stretch the use of the word ‘master’.
One theory as to why any common existential ground is disappearing beneath our feet:
When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from Earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.
Thank you. That sounds like Nietzsche then, correct? Are you saying → One theory as to why any common existsential ground is disappearing beneath our feet, resulting in chaos, strife and war, is that humanity now believes in nothing?
If so, are there others currently bringing this Nietzsche/nihilist theory up in discussing recent US or world affairs?
