Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Nihilism in Today's Society

“Everything we look at is false”. This was said by Eugene Thacker, writer of the novel “The Dust of Our Planet” The main theme of the novel is Nihilism, which he describes as having a pessimistic outlook on life. Nihilism rejects all religion, and all morals. It is the belief that life is completely meaningless. I feel that nihilism is relevant to our society only to a certain extent. The idea is popular among young people who due to their young age aren’t really faced with death yet. I feel that nihilism is more of a trend, and is something young people “believe” to stand out. I think it as used as an alternative to organized religion. As stated in the podcast when people reach a riper age and are actually faced with death they must truly chose whether they really believe that there is nothing left for them, and that everything they’ve done has been for nothing. Most organized religion are based on working towards an afterlife. With nihilism you aren’t working towards anything. I think it is relevant only to the young people of our society since its somewhat rebellious, however I feel that its not something that will change the way people live their lives. 

3 comments:

  1. "All this pop nihilism is not about tearing down power structures or embracing nothingness, its just look at me, look how brave I am." This quote is said by Jad Abumrad. I think that nihilism in our society today is just about helping cope with the inevitable end. It helps people look death or the destruction of the world, as not that big of a deal. Its a way of people embracing mortality and not caring. I agree with Deontee that nihilism is only partially relevant to society. My reason for this is because even though nihilism is a big part of our society their are a lot of people who don't believe in nihilism and don't support it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with this. Nihilism is dark, creepy, and terrifying. It is thought about by pretty much everyone but changed and dealt with by no one. Nihilism is only relevant, like you said, to an extent. It is mostly just a trend. Nihilism is popular due to the fact that , as Simon states in the podcast, " nihilism is the basic credo of cool. " The young people of society who are not really faced with the end yet or experienced with meaning, find nihilism intriguing. Nihilism within the pop culture movies, music, tv shows, books, clothes, etc., give people the security and courage they long for about the future. They can look at these and say that 'I can make it through that' or ' I wouldn't have done that' allowing society to believe that they can stop, prevent, or prepare for something to happen, emphasizing that the future is not a big deal and shouldn't really matter. This, to some, is cool in a matter that you can live in the present and live it to the fullest. However, not everyone believes in Nihilism. That is the extent part of it.

    ReplyDelete