![]() It has over 17 million subscribers, and each one of its videos averages millions of views. If philosophy and history have taught us anything, it’s that this is nothing to be optimistic about.The YouTube channel Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell advertises itself as a science-based educational platform. ![]() But if it’s ultimately about nothing, then the universe stares blankly back at our own freedom to go beyond good and evil. Optimistic Nihilism acknowledges that the story of the world ultimately isn’t about us – which is true. Just as our chaotic weather events reflect the gradual warming of the globe, our chaotic social realities seem to reflect just such a gradual narrowing of the heart. But if the only moral rule we have is “do the things that make you feel good,” there’s no good reason to think humanity should find happiness, much less avoid disaster. But can’t we still “transvaluate” all values? Can we still find hope and happiness in our own constructions? The intellectual quagmires of relativism – Can’t one person’s happiness easily be another’s misery? Who can value certain behaviors as deserving “bonus points” if there are no values to begin with? – are well-known. ![]() He didn’t see nihilism as a positive development. And Nietzsche’s dictum “God is dead” isn’t uttered by a heroic secularist, but by a prophetic madman running through a marketplace with a lantern. When Shakespeare’s Macbeth sees the nothing that life signifies, he simultaneously sees the noise and idiocy of it all. ![]() If the world has no inherent purpose, and if everything ends in oblivion with no God to gather it up, then hope becomes naiveté. In its entry on nihilism, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes almost immediately that nihilism is “often associated with extreme pessimism.” This isn’t the result of lazy thinking or an accident of history, but of dealing honestly with nihilistic premises. The appeal is more a medicine show than a philosophy, and the elixir of “optimistic nihilism” so much snake oil. It appeals to our modern sensibilities (of independence, creativity, and love of science) and to some our most basic desires (for meaning, connection, and joy). This might seem like a charming idea to some. Casey decision: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life …” We make our own joy.” A recent New York Times article about “poetic naturalism” and finding meaning in the mundane argues: “Meaning begins and ends with how we talk about our own lives, such as our myths and stories.” Then there is Justice Anthony Kennedy’s famous line from the Planned Parenthood v. You get to decide whatever this means for you.Ī Big Think video on “Hope & Optimism,” theoretical physicist and atheist Lawrence Krauss argues that the secret to living in an accidental universe headed for a “miserable future” is this: “We make our own purpose. More bonus points if you help build a galactic human empire. Bonus points if you made the life of other people better. If this is our one shot at life, there is no reason not to have fun and live as happy as possible. We get to experience food, books, sunrises, and being with each other … Humans will most certainly cease to exist at some point, but before we do, we get to explore ourselves and the world around us. If the universe has no purpose, then we get to dictate what its purpose is. If the universe has no principles, the only principles relevant are the ones we decide on. If our life is all we get to experience, then it’s the only thing that matters. Every mistake you made will not matter in the end. If the universe ends in heat death, every humiliation you suffer in your life will be forgotten. Knowing just how crushing a realization this is, Kurzgesagt wants to change the way we think about it, countering “existential dread” with “optimistic nihilism”: You only get one shot at life, which is scary, but it also sets you free. In short, we come face to face with an inconceivably enormous universe that is from nothing, for nothing, and amounts to nothing, culminating finally in its own heat death. What is surprising is Kurzgesagt’s conclusion about what this all means in the end. The condescension toward believers and the assumed conflict between faith and reason is not surprising. As we got “older,” science showed us how backwards these ideas were. You’ve heard the story before: In its infancy, humanity believed in God, purpose, and the centrality of human life to cope with the scariness of earth.
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