Fighting Nihilism

Well, I come from a totally different world view because I believe God created the universe and us humans and has a great purpose for us. It's in fact much more personal than that. God values and loves me and infuses each day with meaning if I'm open to seeing it.

I see life and the unseen world through the eyes of faith.

As a Christ follower, my purpose is to be salt and light in my corner of the globe.
The overriding purpose is relationship... to love God and people.

God is very real and present to me.

Life can be very tough, and much of it is a mystery. I do not have all of the answers,
but I know that at age 59, almost 60, I am content, at peace, mostly happy and fulfilled
and secure in God's arms.

Some of you may think this is all a fairy tale, but that doesn't change the reality of it in my life, nor the tangible results it has produced in me. I would wish the same for everyone who is stumbling around in the dark with no Guide. We were not created to go it alone nor to live with no meaning outside of ourselves, in my humble opinion.

 

You aren't going to budge, that much is obvious. You have your reasons for sticking to your guns, but it is worth noting you took the time to post this, so, deep down, you're nurturing a seed of conflict.

You know that the only way this is going to improve for you, is if you make an effort. And not the effort you are making, which is to shut down and detour around what others say and share. That is a large part of the reason you feel so empty, because it's easier to feed off of others and then crush them, because you don't want to leave the safety of the nihilistic shell.

Your despair is going to come into conflict with your desire, and it isn't going to be pretty. I would highly recommend you sort that out now, while it is easier to do so, because that tension is not something you want to see explode. All this 'emptiness' and 'the void', it sounds cute and brooding, but they too mean nothing until you embrace and give them meaning -- in the same way you could replace these with, say, a passion or a hobby.

If you are fine with admitting the world is superior to you in each and every way, okay, you live like that. Personally, I would be beyond furious if somebody told me the likes of Donald Trump was better than me. I am beyond driven when I remember even Adolf Hitler had a girlfriend, because I will not be less desirable than Hitler -- that hurts my ego. I will not live like that.

Use that despair to fuel yourself. I use my anger like that. Because if you don't use it, it will have no problem continuing to use you.

Quit being a slave, become a master. You're too good to waste away.

 

You fight nihilism by

filling your mind with positive thoughts instead of dwelling on black thoughts

through good relationships in which you love and are loved

going out into nature

opening yourself up to beauty and hope

doing the next right thing/action

and... in my world view... asking God to help you or; if you don't believe in a Higher Power, ask Him to reveal Himself to you if He is there.

If you need medication (your brain chemistry may be off), take it.

Don't give up hope. There is only one of you in this entire world. How unique is that? You are precious. You are valuable. You are needed in this world. Be the best you that you can be, and leave the rest up to God.

"Two men in prison, behind bars. The one saw mud, the other stars."

"Our reach should exceed our grasp, or what's a heaven for."

"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."

 

Then nihilism is useless and worthless, too. It has no meaning. You have given it meaning -- as I have said before, just like you can empower and give anything else meaning.

False. It makes some people sink further into despair. I can tell you now, at least for me, it propels me to do more and better. But then again, I'm not a slave to my emotions nor do I defend a counter productive way of being.

I cannot speak for every single person who has posted here, but as I stated before. You aren't going to budge on this, which is a shame. I have told you what to do, as have a few others, but instead you run and hide behind futility because it removes all responsibility -- why work when we'll die? Why be kind when we'll die? Why do anything, like taking up for this concept?

For a world so meaningless, you sure do put up a hell of a fight to defend it being that way. Almost as if there's a reason to be doing this... If it wasn't proof that there is a passion, a purpose, within you, I'd tell you it was a total waste of time. But, one day, you'll see... until then, praise the master of your universe, in this case nihilism.

 

Well, you may think nihilism is impossible to conquer, but it doesn't exist in my life.
Therefore, it has not conquered me. I'm not deluded; I enjoy my life and live it with purpose and meaning. That's real. It is my almost daily experience. You can't argue with my experience. It is so, no matter what you think or say or what spin you put on it. Your belief in nihilism does not diminish my happiness, though it is seeking to destroy you, no doubt about that. I feel bad that you are trapped by your nihilistic view since it seeks to suck the life out of you.

If you want to keep going around in circles with philosophy, arguments, your bright ideas/cleverness which lead you into dark places, your shunning of other people's attempts to help you, throwing blankets over glimmers of hope, cutting lifelines people throw to you, yes, you will be swallowed up by depression. Perhaps you hate yourself so much that a part of you wants to be swallowed up by depression?

 

My thinking exactly Kaiser. Arcana wants to talk, talk, talk and discredit everybody's advice and experience because he/she is afraid to ACT, to change, to get up out of the mud and muck and mire and actually DO something.

Some people think too much or sit around crying as a way to avoid responsibility for making something good out of their lives.

Maybe you have a chemical imbalance in your brain. Maybe you have a mental illness. Maybe you are just beaten down by others, by life, by yourself.

Whatever your problem, get help. Honest to God, you are very unlikely to get any help or motivation by trying to prove that nihilism can not be conquered. Who gives a sh*t about that?? What we care about is YOU getting off your high horse or whatever it is you're on, and getting some help for yourself.

I probably wouldn't talk to you like this if you were 13 or 16 or even 18, but I see you are 24.

 

That is the core of your entire predicament. You claim you want something, but if anything even comes close to challenging your stance, you dismiss it as being delusion or a distraction.

You say you've pondered long and hard, and I can't dispute that. However, wisdom that remains firm is ignorance. You believe everything is pointless, so it will be. Nothing I say, nothing anybody else says, will change that until you accept and allow it to inspire that change.

There's a tinge of insecurity here, too. You make a post, people provide insight and possible remedies, you shoot them down... then you wait... somebody else comes in and you beat them down. By them conceding or you imposing your perception, you feed your pride, you're able to say "I was right!", which gives you a jolt, a little incentive to engage in life.

You have basically found the ultimate barrier. Nobody can prove anything has value, nor can they prove it doesn't. It is just easier to go with the latter, because when everybody is drug down, we don't have to be remarkably better, only just a little -- which we obtain by 'proving' ourselves as correct.

You say nihilism isn't a master, but you constantly say it can't be conquered. Well, if you really believed that, you wouldn't fight so hard against what we're saying, because it would be true, it wouldn't need justification. That, alone, tells me:

You don't want a solution, you want an audience.

 

When you use the word "wrong", by what standard are you coming to this conclusion?

Consider quality, or the good, these words defy "right" or "wrong", and yet you are able to recognize when something is good, or not. Why is that?

Instead of seeing yourself as wrong/stupid, perhaps you can see yourself as capable of doing some good. Remember, good or quality cannot be defined, but you can recognize it, either because there is some harmony in the thing that you are doing, or experiencing a quality event...there it is: quality is an event, it can be found in the things you do and the things you plan...quality for its own sake, can be a transcendent experience that defies nihilism. What Nietzsche hated most were those philosophies that denied life or postponed life to another place after death (e.g. most monotheistic religions).

Quality is an event, and it can only happen in the present, and the present, this very moment is all you truly have, with Nietzsche's "goallessness as such" being the principle of your faith (should you choose to adopt it).