New theory: All Nihilists should kill themselves.

I thought Slant's post was a good & amusing way to point out a rather large and gaping logical flaw in a philosophy like this:

The last Nihilist that I knew complained to me about human beings polluting the earth; he told me that he thought that humans should die because we hurt the environment and do nothing particularly good for the world, all the while, he believed that life had no meaning anyway.
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Sad, but if one truly believes that all humans should die, why on earth would you exclude yourself from this idea?

The person who said that was probably already feeling somewhat suicidal, though, and Nihilism aside, I think he may have needed help.
 
Saying deductively that life is meaningless with 100% certainty seems like a cop-out to me.
 
Janet said:
I thought Slant's post was a good & amusing way to point out a rather large and gaping logical flaw in a philosophy like this:



Sad, but if one truly believes that all humans should die, why on earth would you exclude yourself from this idea?

The person who said that was probably already feeling somewhat suicidal, though, and Nihilism aside, I think he may have needed help.
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Nah; he's fine. In fact I don't talk to him anymore for several reasons, one of them being that he turned happy and started playing on children playgrounds and taking smiley pictures and whatnot.

-sigh-

Oh do I miss the days where he had mohawks and 'just didn't give a fuck'.
 
slant said:
Nah; he's fine. In fact I don't talk to him anymore for several reasons, one of them being that he turned happy and started playing on children playgrounds and taking smiley pictures and whatnot.

-sigh-

Oh do I miss the days where he had mohawks and 'just didn't give a fuck'.
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Heh, really? That's funny. The goth kid suddenly got all bubbly. *snicker* Probably even dated a cheerleader.

10-to-1 he either outgrew his angst or (more likely) got a girlfriend? Right? hehehe. Yeah, having a girlfriend probably has a direct inverse relationship to Nihilism, in the 18 - 25 year old male demographic, anyway. Someone should make a chart, with Nihilism as the Y axis and Frequency of Having A Girlfriend as the X axis.

Still, sorry you miss him. )-: And I still think your OP made a good point.
 
Janet said:
Heh, really? That's funny. The goth kid suddenly got all bubbly. *snicker* Probably even dated a cheerleader.

10-to-1 he either outgrew his angst or (more likely) got a girlfriend? Right? hehehe. Yeah, having a girlfriend probably has a direct inverse relationship to Nihilism, in the 18 - 25 year old male demographic, anyway. Someone should make a chart, with Nihilism as the Y axis and Frequency of Having A Girlfriend as the X axis.

Still, sorry you miss him. )-: And I still think your OP made a good point.
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No. He didn't get a girlfriend; he doesn't date. I think his mom probably stopped drinking off her arse every night, and maybe not, I don't know.
 
Oh, that still is awful. I'm really sorry about that. Trust me, I wouldn't wish that particular problem on anyone, it has affected my own life as well. And maybe I was being a little smart-alecky about the dating a cheerleader thing. He probably wouldn't have called himself a Nihilist or had that general attitude about killing people, or been somewhat suicidal himself, if his situation hadn't been difficult and he needed help.

(removes foot from mouth.)
 
Answer: Suicide is for people who cannot cope. Rejection is a defensive mechanism for coping and nihilism is a form of rejection....

Slant, they do not want to die. For many people they are not simply nihilist, rather it is a symptom of their existential crisis which leaves them conflicted about whether or not they should deal with whatever negative feelings of shame, guilt, feeling of being judged, failure and move on with life, or should they ease their own conscience and become defensive by rejecting everything. Sort of a "if you cannot join them, beat or ignore them" type of situation. To be more specific I'll give you a scenario....

Person A is living a sinful life as described by their religion of choice, growing older and feeling self conscious, Person A has decided that life really has no meaning so why be so upset? Or Does it? Maybe just in case I should have some "insurance" and help that old lady cross the street and anything else that gives me a good reputation. Hypothetically if you believed that your life had no meaning then why would you care about having a good reputation which relates to the way people think about you? That's where the conflict lies. You actually do feel your life has meaning but you protect yourself against feelings of failure and incompetence by convincing yourself you are in total control of everything that has to do with you.

The scenario you described was good as well....the person is a nihilist but is extremely concerned about the environment? Even from what sounds like a moralistic standpoint? You see confliction
 
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slant said:
The reason not to kill yourself if you are a nihilist.

"If there's no purpose behind anything, there'd be no point to make such an effort."

But then...why would you even do anything? Wouldn't you just want to sit around and do nothing? Isn't that going with the path of least resistance? And eventually, if you did nothing, didn't eat...let's suppose you just decided to stop breathing, wouldn't that also be considered suicide? Maybe when you commit suicide you don't go out of your way to die...maybe you just, sit there, and decompose.
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Oddly enough, that's sort of what I did in 9th grade - shut down almost completely. But as athenian200 said, humans have a strong survival instinct. I may have convinced my rationality that existence was worthless, but there is more to one's identity besides rationality.
 
There is some serious nihlist hate in here. which is uncomfortable.

nihlism is pretty solid. if life is accidental. how can it have objective meaning?

So.. after someone has looked at all the evidence, and made what i belive to be a very logical conclusion that there is no meaning to life. there is deffinately a "what now" moment.

sometimes it is a very long moment.

Enter Absurdim. which i consider to be a healthy next step. Absurdism finds it's roots in an essay by Albert Camus ,The Myth of Sisyphus, which was actually answering the question that started all this. "if life has no meaning should i kill myself?"

well, he was actually a little more vague.. "if life has no meaning, or it's meaning is unknowable" .

but still. he concludes no. suicide would be ridiculous, and talks alot about living for beauty and yadda yadda. What i like to take away from his thoughts most is the idea of accepting a subjective meaning, and living for it, but still remembering that life is essentially absurd.

so the path goes.

Becoming aware of the truth, that life has no objective meaning (nihlism) -> living as though there is meaning, while accepting there is none. (absurdism + whatever fuck crazy shit you feel like living for)



long story short, it is aggravating when someone suggests i should kill myself. It is aggravating to be told i am "copping out" also.

I am a nihlist. but nihlism isn't a philosophy, it's not a religion, it's not a code to live by.

Also, anyone who doesn't consider themself a nihlist, i would be keen on hearing the meaning of life as it applies to everyone. the reason EVERYONE is alive. if you know it, shouldn't everyone? and if you dont, how do you live by it?
 
I agree with sumtin and the classic Sisyphus and Albert Camus' argument. Sisyphus was condemned to push a heavy boulder up a steep hill only to watch it roll down at the end of each day. Camus argued that the mere task of rolling the boulder up the hill every day was "absurd." Our lives are just as absurd. But Camus says "The struggle itself...is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." I welcome the challenge of life as reason enough to do anything.
 
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