Lately I have been struck with an unshakable feeling of nihilism, a nagging awareness of the meaningless of life. It began at the end of a meal, sitting across someone I believed I was in love with, looking at that person who was looking back at me with enchanted eyes, and realizing it was empty: my desire and where the relationship would lead even if it developed into a loving, long-term, committed partnership. If what I believed and cherished to be love is now empty, what does that mean about the rest of life? It seemed I had accessed the ethos of the modern age, what Nietzsche asserted as a widespread phenomenon of Western culture, that still persists today. "According to Nietzsche, it is only when nihilism is overcome that a culture can have a true foundation upon which to thrive" ("Nihilism," Wikipedia). But it seems nihilism today is only growing with the realization of misguided assumptions of progress and the very real threat of extinction through climate change and depleting resources. Join me and impromptu guest, John Tain, as we sift through contemporary nihilism in relation to past notions of nihilism in order to forge a way out. To quote John, "It's impossible to be a nihilist on a larger social policy level...on an individual level, they can be nihilistic and are nihilistic." Fuck the individual. I'm over nihilism. Aren't you? Robert's nihilism playlist.
AW Episode 31: Something Out of Nothing
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