/grim/ - Death's Waiting Room

In Venezuela, it can't be avoided.

I do think it's hard not to be a nihilist. The pseudo-Existentialist imperative that we ought to "make our own meaning" is just complete nonsense that can't be made sense of under rigorous scrutiny. From whence does this "meaning" come?

Obviously "meaning" doesn't come ex nihilo out of your mind (unless you're some sort of solipsist and believe the mind just makes shit up out of a vacuum). It must to some degree come from the external world - whether we have some level of control over this or are completely determined. If we do have some level of control over it, then we're left to explain what makes it possible for us to synthesize our experiences consciously into some sort of "meaning", and if we are completely determined, then how can one be anything other than a nihilist?

This also leaves out the question of what "meaning" even is to begin with. If you're a hardcore naturalist like Quine, something like "meaning" is nonsensical. You could take "meaning" to be a feature of language, but meaning in language (as far as I know; I'm not a linguist, though) is something that we all happen to just agree on as what a certain sound denotes. You could not individually decide to make up a meaning by inventing some word, because you'd be forced to explain to someone in a language people understand what that word means, or you'd not be engaging in meaningful exchange at all.

But then again, being a nihilist is also contradictory in a sense. I don't see how one can conceive of believing in nothing, since "nothing" can't have anything predicated of it. It seems to me that anyone who actively is a philosophical nihilist, rather than someone who is just a broken or empty individual that doesn't care to try to fabricate belief anymore, is only fooling themselves. But I do know that Ray Brassier considers his philosophy to be a nihilism of sorts.

Also why do I feel like I've seen that rabbit image before.

>>63

I certainly have stopped searching for a belief of any kind. Im probably just empty.

>>64

I feel like a lot of people are like that without being conscious of it.

Certainly in countries like the US, a lot of people have no genuine belief in anything; they might claim to be religious or engage with one political affiliation or the other, but politics in the US is nothing but talk. The real people in charge aren't affected by any bickering between a bunch of white trash Republicans and faggot Democrats. And most people only officially believe in religion, because they're supposed to for the sake of having the approval of their parents and peers.

Really, most people in these sorts of situations who don't believe in anything are ruled by their desires. Some of the smarter ones might try to argue that the only thing worth living for is pleasure, but there are a couple things wrong with this. As the great Schopenhauer once said, chasing after pleasure is a thoroughly useless endeavor because part of the human experience is to be continually discontented with one's lot; it becomes more pleasurable to not get the things you want, because at least then you want something. To not want anything is true misery, because we cannot help but want to want for something.

And then on the other hand, people who say we ought to live for pleasure forget that they're merely abusing the faculties provided to us by nature to get shit done. Pain and pleasure are motivational means to an end, not ends in themselves.

>>61

Why in Venezuela in particular?

>>65

I think the underlying reason for this lack of real interest in meaning these days is due to the fact that one's meaning in life is economically irrelevant. Your boss doesn't care about your metaphysical stances and your stomach isn't going to stop rumbling because you're having an existential crisis. When you spend most of every day participating in a system where value can only be found in consumer demand, it's pretty easy for you to neglect to think about anything else.

>>63

I think many people have to make shit up to justify their lives and actions, and so they don't have to face how utterly meaningless everything we do really is.

Nihilism is for the stupid. emotions are a choice, and although I do see the appeal in constant misery, I would much rather feel all emotions.

>>80

I don't think you quite understand nihilism. Nihilism isn't being an edgy goth who shops at hot topic and cuts themselves for attention, nihilism is just knowing and acknowledging the meaninglessness of yourself, your actions, and everything around us. Some people take nihilism into the land of misery, but it isn't inherently miserable. A person can experience an array of emotions, while still being nihilistic.

>>66

Necause they're fucked.

>>54

It isn't really a philosophy, it is just a claim, or an opinion. It may, or may not be true. Though, as humans we can not be nihilist, things matter in some way no matter what.

>>146

pretty much this.

>>54

Yeah.

The world sucks.

The meaning of life is to find ways of making it suck less, but for everyone around you.