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English 220
Jennifer Gammage
Expository Conceptual Analysis
2/17/14
Nihilism
Nihilism. What is nihilism? It is the sense of meaninglessness and emptiness; no purpose
in life. The belief of there is no God and nothing beyond after death in this world. There is no
definite right or wrong (good vs. evil). Also there is no certainty or no Truth. Nihilism is based
on having no guidelines or higher power to follow. There is meaninglessness because there is no
certainty, no Truth and everything in this life is temporary. Much like in modern society some
people have that sense of feeling in life and they just live in the moment. You only live once
(YOLO) is another mindset some people have in todays society.
The word nihilism is new to me and most people do not know what nihilism means and I
for one have not yet grasped it that well, but I know enough to explain the concept. Every day we
wake up and we get to see life and we look forward to another day, but for some people they say
that each day is not promised and that once you are gone that is it. There is no afterlife, so they
say to live like it is your last day on this earth. That is a form of nihilism, you only live once
(YOLO) would best fit this scenario.
YOLO first was made famous by a rapper named Drake. He released a song titled The
Motto. In that song he says that YOLO is his motto and that he is about his money every day and
that he doesnt care what anybody says because he phases out people (Drake). YOLO in todays
culture has taken on a new meaning, I know from firsthand experience, almost all of my close
friends scream out YOLO when they are about to do something crazy and dramatic or a little
thing such as asking a girl/boy out on a date. What does YOLO have to deal with asking a person
on a date? Are you going to die if the person says no? This term has taken on a new meaning and
it is incorporated in just about anything people do.
Another form of nihilism is believing that there is no God and no life after death.
According to Nietzsche, The Gay Science. God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed
him! (Section 125). Hear Nietzsche is informing us that there is no God anymore and that there
is no belief. We have no higher power to look up to and to guide us throughout our lives. There
is no absolute way of living now that God is dead. Without such guidelines and beliefs in place
we go about living in the now and not worrying about anything. In order to gain back some
control, do we as a society develop new guidelines to follow?
Christianity plays a big role in instilling us with the beliefs that there is a God and
someday we will come before him to be judge. Nietzsche says otherwise as in the previous
paragraph, Christianity is no more. In Christianity our ultimate goal is to reach heaven and avoid
hell. From the nihilistic point of view there is no heaven or hell once we reach death. In other
words our body just decomposes six feet underground. If there is no heaven or hell or an ultimate
goal, then what is the point of living? Are we just here to take up space on this planet with no
purpose? Once we see the truth and realize that these endeavors are relativistic, we are
disappointed (Will to Power). Having no purpose to live and just be waiting for your last day on
this planet will change how you view things in this world.
We would wonder if living in this world is all a big dream. Being that nihilistic people
have a sense of having no purpose in life. That we are just going along with the ride. What if
what we call reality is not really reality no matter how we try to live, in the end it would not
matter because it would have been all a big dream. Everything is just temporary, eventually all
of humanity will be gone and that will be the end of life.
Another point that Nietzsche makes is, Is not the magnitude of this deed too great for
us? Shall we not ourselves have to become Gods, merely to seem worthy of it? (section 125).
Again going back to the sense of having no deity or higher power of leadership to turn to, we just
have ourselves now. We just focus on ourselves, the Me and I. We could care less about
what are surroundings are because we are in charge of our own way of living. That might lead to
a sense of confusion because we can get ahead of ourselves with no rules to follow. The only
way to have some control is to have an ultimate goal or purpose in life but with no religion or
beliefs it cannot be done.
Another factor of nihilism is that there is no definite right or wrong or good vs. evil.
There is a sense of confusion because we think we know what is right and what is wrong. It is
very complicated to understand because it is not written down for us saying this is whats right
and whats wrong. We just go by the stigma of assuming something is bad for you and therefore
we say that is wrong and that you should do the exact opposite which then would make it right.
Not knowing good vs. evil leaves you with a sense of emptiness and worthlessness.
The belief in truth undermined itself by driving for truth in science, political, history and
art. This drove for truth from the enlightenment that eventually failed. Science can explain
everything but there is such a thing where you cannot know everything or understand it all (Will
to Power). From a cultural nihilistic point of view Native Americans could interpret nihilism
such as when we believe that this world would be destroyed as it was in the past when the first
Europeans came to the Americas. Also with the rejection of western culture would be cultural
nihilism as in worth of being westernized because it is already been corrupted. From an artist
point of view, we feel that the creation of creation of Genesis is no more that the elements of the
cosmos have failed because there is no purpose in God and man. Which gave way to Darwins
Theory of Evolution, Darwin explains that throughout evolution species have evolved and
learned to adapt to their surroundings. That is what we accepted in todays society, going back to
Nietzsche saying we become Gods ourselves we have been individualized and have become bias
in everything we do (Will to Power).
Not having beliefs, no ultimate goal or purpose in life; have emptiness and
meaninglessness; no definite right or wrong; no certainty and no Truth is the definition of
nihilism. You can choose to live the nihilistic way or some other way but be sure and ready to
accept the decision.
Works Cited
Drake. The Motto. Rec, 29 Nov 2011. YOLO, Drake, 2001. CD.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, section 125
http://nietzsche.holtof.com/Nietzsche_the_gay_science/the_gay_science.htm
Soll, Ivan. Nietzsches Will to Power As A Psychological Thesis: Reactions to Bernard
Reginster. Journal of Nietzsche Studies 43.1 (2012) 118-129, MLA International Bibliography.
Web. 14 Feb 2014.