this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2024
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chapotraphouse
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No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
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existential nihilism doesn't require that there is no meaning, just that there is no inherent meaning. Meaning can still be created and received through recognition of others.
Those who stop at the breakdown of old morality and wallow in filth are nothinglords who missed the point of breaking down the old social constructs, that is, to build new better ones and even later break those down again and so on... That is what history is, that is what the dialectic is - the eternal process of change and exchange.
There is objectively no meaning in the universe, but IMO nihilism is cringe. Absurdism is the way to go.
Yeah I definitely am more sympathetic to Hegelian ideas of meaning, in that I believe the connections and dialectical relation between people is where meaning is created and received. Meaning originates in the area between you and I, we both create it and then get it back - that is between two equal comrades.
There’s all types of unequal relations such as master-slave or tenant-landlord or employee-employer or two parties at total war. These create distorted and off balanced meaning that has to be enforced with violence and are filled with contradiction. At some point they will necessarily end.
This is pretty much where I'm at personally, and you worded the ideas very well.
I certainly find De Bouviourvian goals in life and such, but ultimately looking for a “meaning of life” is a foolish task, because it is just our culture that told us it is out there. Ultimately we will leave this absurd world and find ourselves worm food.
I mean “the meaning of life” is a myth. You can find it meaningful but there isn’t some answer out there.
Think of it like free will. When most people think of it they think “a specific person could make any decision physically possible” and imply they might make a different one if you went back in time. Instead we do make decisions freely, but those decisions are completely determined by the way our mind works and the influences we have encountered.
The point I’m trying to make is that it can exist, but it’s different from how people colloquially imagine it (say, someone asking an omniscient being “what is the meaning of life?”).