"people are educated to be preoccupied with their safety, and to regard being fearful as a sensible and responsible orientation towards the worldPolicy makers, opinion formers, and advertisers act on the basis that people are risk averse and feel powerless, and their messages normalize the perception that people are vulnerable." If The Science alerts us to a threat, or if politicians invoke The Science to justify heavy-handed measures, then those who refuse to blindly follow The Science are treated as the modern equivalent of a heretic. They live in fear of a climate crisis that threatens their very future. There was a quote about nihilism saying that actually taking no action is preferable to doing something; because nothing is certain, nothing is important, nothing has a point, so why bother. However, in some of the most flourishing civilizations of the past, fear was counterbalanced by hope and by an optimistic belief in the human potential. Why do we need to believe in something, why do we care where we came from/what made us? .We seem to be obsessed with every conceivable danger. Why get out of bed in the morning, bother with school work, work, or have goals at all? Unlike science, the term The Science serves a moralistic and political project. He went to therapy in January 2021 believing he was suffering from existential depression. For safety rules and restrictions communicate signals about potential dangers and threats, and so the more a society is inundated with them the more people assume that the environment is inherently unsafe. Officials and organizations seem to believe that the mere mention of these words is enoughno further justification is neededSafety rules are often assumed to be doing something good just because they exist. Its one big philosophically-mandated shrug. As I understand it nihilism is the belief that nothing has any intrinsic value, there is no such thing as objective morality, and that objective knowledge is impossible to obtain. However, it is not an abstruse philosophical irrelevance, because everyone falls into nihilism at least occasionally. Eventually, in 2020, I got into philosophy and stumbled upon the term nihilism. Now, Connor had an answer to his existential questions albeit an unsatisfying one. He believed the Enlightenment had killed the idea of God as the source of all morality, value, or order in the universe. But if we can become more aware of how it operates, influences us, and shapes society, and if we can cultivate a more optimistic vision of the human condition and a courageous attitude toward the future, then it is possible to free ourselves from its crippling influence. 433AS7XtB9u6awpxwWNqua5TrLzvDZK1iM59Du3pECNiJesFBiMq5U7av8Gc3ozMavcppNU8jXwV1Lpc4ZAVPafh6FsfSBu, Frank Furedi, How Fear Works: Culture of Fear in the Twenty-First Century, Tracey Brown and Michael Hanlon, Playing by the Rules: How Our Obsession with Safety Is Putting Us All at Risk, https://media.blubrry.com/academyofideas/content.blubrry.com/academyofideas/Fear_Psychosis_and_the_Cult_of_Safety-Why_are_People_so_Afraid.mp3. Im pretty religious and believe strongly in an afterlife, and Im also a staunch nihilist. .Fear has become a basic characteristic of our entire culture.. The darker side of nihilism is basically Nietsche's "ubermench" or superman. It doesnt matter to me that it will all return to nothingness eventually. He now picks up any litter he finds and doesnt kill insects. It has more in common with a pre-modern revealed truth than with the spirit of experimentation that emerged with modernity. It's the fact they do something about it that makes it rational, else they'd just let themselves be hunted down. We are insecure, ego driven, primitive despite our brain, cowards who dwell on gossip and fear. We are thrust into this universe for no apparent reason.. People who hate it are mostly religious. He now picks up any litter he finds and doesnt kill insects. Jarpa, who learnt about nihilism in a philosophy class, believes that whatever you do with your life wont matter in the big scheme of things, so why worry? The barrage of bad news can push young people like Luke into pessimism. Eco-anxiety (the chronic fear of environmental doom) is, The Sunny Nihilist: How a Meaningless Life Can Make You Truly Happy. The quest for safety has become the raison detre of the West, and the rules and restrictions erected at the altar of safety have ballooned to absurd proportions and intruded on evermore areas of life. Fear Psychosis and the Cult of Safety Why are People so Afraid? She continues: If you have been forced to recognise that the things you thought were going to promise you a good life arent available anymore, you look beyond yourself to protect something bigger. For Wendy, this led her to climate action. In viewing the world through a perspective of fear, people see risks in things, behaviors, and activities which in generations past were not considered risky. People don't want to accept that, so they reject Nihilism, out of hand. But can believing nothing matters also be a catalyst for positive action? Fear of nihilism is a main reason people commit to other stances, such as eternalism and existentialism, that are also harmful and mistaken. This apathy is both bleak and dangerous. Instead of being celebrated, today the risk-taker is often castigated as foolish, selfish, and a danger to both himself and others. Virtually every white person I know, including white people fighting for racial justice and including myself, carries some level of racism in our . How does "No intrinsic values exist" lead to "nothing matters in life, except personal enjoyment"? There is no evidence to the contrary. Classical musician, passionate meditator, and co-host of the podcast and blog Exploring Kodawari. Furthermore, in placing limitations on the freedom to explore, experiment, and make ones own choices, rules and restrictions implicitly communicate to people that they are incapable of making their own risk assessments and assuming responsibility for their own life. Safety and security have become their own arguments. In the last few decades safety has, in the words of Furedi, taken on a quasi-religious quality. We can decide in our own lives what has value to us and how we should run our own lives, and that could very well lead to a selfless life caring for others. 99.9% of the people on this planet are low IQ servants who simply follow the . I think the state of the world will drastically affect the way young people perceive human existence. Nihilism has often also been considered liberating, since proponents of the idea think it untethers people from their everyday desires and commitments, when faced with what nihilists think to be . It seems as if one threat begets another, only to be contradicted by yet another newly discovered target of fear.. . Different interpretations of nihilism are discussed on the sub but for many, the sentiment is bleak. Nihilism is basically a kind of atheism and it rejects their god and religious absolutism. People have various reactions to that claim, ranging from an instinctive flinch away to a full-on agreement. people are educated to be preoccupied with their safety, and to regard being fearful as a sensible and responsible orientation towards the worldPolicy makers, opinion formers, and advertisers act on the basis that people are risk averse and feel powerless, and their messages normalize the perception that people are vulnerable.. An ever-expanding obsession with risk is one of the most striking features of the culture of fear In its most irrational version, some people demand zero risk a project that would require abolishing uncertainty completely.. The fear that is infecting society is socially conditioned into us from a young age, and it is fuelled by a pessimistic conception of what it means to be human that is deeply entrenched in our society. I find it hard to give a shit. Why do we fear death? Looking in the mirror is a constant reminder that you're aging fast. But both ignoring nihilism and succumbing to it are bad solutions. Why is nihilism wrong? Cause then religious types use it as weak argument against nontheism. Doing what he wants, when he wants to do it, and never thinking "how will my actions affect other people", because it doesn't matter. People dont know what nihilism is and assume that it is antigovernment and antihuman. Political Nihilism, as noted, is associated with the belief that the destruction of all existing political, social, and religious order is a prerequisite for any future improvement. It makes sense, then, that the subreddit r/nihilism grew from 31,000 members pre-pandemic in January 2019 to 115,000 in April 2022. With how our worlds governments are run, I find it hard to give a shit. trash in their core. It doesnt matter to me that it will all return to nothingness eventually. In recent years the precautionary principle has entrenched itself in public policy in the form of the inverted quarantine. . The reality is, the world is total chaos, and everything you think you know is a construct that someone created, and can be dismantled., This has helped Wendy break out of productivity culture. And the main reason for this is that theres a lot of power and money available to individuals and organizations who can perpetuate these fears.. An attempt to bring heart-touching and thought-provoking writing under one roof to make an impact. Hardly anyone questions, however, whether we should be so fearful. Yet I often hear people talk about nihilism as if it's negative or pointless, similar to how people react to solipsism. Academy of Ideas participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising It resonated with me, particularly because I dont like school much, so it proved I didnt have to give much of a shit about it as all of us amount to the same nothing no matter how successful or how hard we try, he explains. The following is a transcript of this video. So I dont, he says. In Ancient Greece and Rome, courage was held in high regard and so individuals were proactive in the face of risks and daring in the presence of the unknown. This, he thought, would cause Europeans to spiral into a catatonic nihilism. The seemingly endless examples of corruption, inequality and injustice that followed 2020 brought questions of why are we here? and whats the point? to the fore. I don't see anything about nihilism, at least on these three core assertions, that would lead people to treat the position with such disdain, apart from a purely emotional reaction someone might have because of the perceivably cold nature of said claims. Foolish, selfish, and a danger to both himself and others it will return! Religious types use it as weak argument against nontheism their God and absolutism. Driven, primitive despite our brain, cowards who dwell on gossip and fear low IQ servants who follow. 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