"I used to be a Nihilist but then I realized there's no point"
Droll, but true for me.
All the 'isms' out there drag one into a club eventually and by their limiting and set-apart, corralled views lock one up. They are often intellectually stimulating (the bait in) and can give one a map or template to explore but, much like the zen finger pointing at the moon, can be given power at the expense of what is being pointed out.
At the end of my life I like the adage, "sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits".
Many spiritual traditions have the conclusion of this article at their essence. This article gets to their conclusion by appealing to the mind. Fascinating.
Well, to state the obvious: it doesn’t. I hope my position isn’t nihilistic: rather that it’s realistic, since my ‘understanding’ is that our small corner of ‘our’ solar system has developed, for a minuscule fragment of astronomical time, what is called a ‘Goldilocks zone’, capable of supporting humanoid life in a benign environment that may persist for a few hundred thousand years, until it becomes toxic, either naturally or due to the impact of our species, e.g. through resource depletion, overpopulation, or other causes. It’s just the facts of nature, nothing mystical or mythical involved.
"while we can’t control life’s outcomes, we can control how we respond to them." We can make the best of the situation, doing what is good for ourselves and others -it's our choice.
The ultimate and inevitable result of the nihilism pointed to in this essay is of course the appearance of the Orange Oaf who is a religiously and culturally illiterate nihilistic barbarian, a pathological liar and a life-long professional grifter/con-man.
He is systematically undermining (demolishing) all of the normative conventions upon which a truly civilized human culture depends.
"I used to be a Nihilist but then I realized there's no point"
Droll, but true for me.
All the 'isms' out there drag one into a club eventually and by their limiting and set-apart, corralled views lock one up. They are often intellectually stimulating (the bait in) and can give one a map or template to explore but, much like the zen finger pointing at the moon, can be given power at the expense of what is being pointed out.
At the end of my life I like the adage, "sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits".
Another fine piece by Steven Schwartz. Life as an inherently fragile tragicomedy seems about right.
Many spiritual traditions have the conclusion of this article at their essence. This article gets to their conclusion by appealing to the mind. Fascinating.
Well, to state the obvious: it doesn’t. I hope my position isn’t nihilistic: rather that it’s realistic, since my ‘understanding’ is that our small corner of ‘our’ solar system has developed, for a minuscule fragment of astronomical time, what is called a ‘Goldilocks zone’, capable of supporting humanoid life in a benign environment that may persist for a few hundred thousand years, until it becomes toxic, either naturally or due to the impact of our species, e.g. through resource depletion, overpopulation, or other causes. It’s just the facts of nature, nothing mystical or mythical involved.
"while we can’t control life’s outcomes, we can control how we respond to them." We can make the best of the situation, doing what is good for ourselves and others -it's our choice.
The ultimate and inevitable result of the nihilism pointed to in this essay is of course the appearance of the Orange Oaf who is a religiously and culturally illiterate nihilistic barbarian, a pathological liar and a life-long professional grifter/con-man.
He is systematically undermining (demolishing) all of the normative conventions upon which a truly civilized human culture depends.