Nihilism

[Angrboda]

I said I was going to provide a substantive reply. I lied.

I've decided to just shut up and play guitar until I can get these ideas out of my head in a usable form and decide what to do with them.

In the meantime, a few quick observations. I think those who consider nihilism sad or depressing are clueless. Emotions are reactions to facts of the world. Sadness, specifically to the experience of loss. What exactly is it that the nihilist has lost for her to feel sad about? Nothing. You can no more be legitimately sad about a meaning which does not exist than you can hate a god who isn't there. That being said, transitions can be messy. If you are dragging behind you the remnants of a world you are leaving, then sure, we're funny that way. I've spoken with a few ex-theists who experience profound loss and sadness at the change in their world. I fully empathize; I'm sure many of us can. Like the rawness that accompanies the end of a relationship, as animals, we weren't built to go from 0 to 60, and then stop on a dime.

Now, I want to draw your attention to the fact that I am a Taoist, and that it is a cornerstone of Taoism to accept the world for what it is. While Taoism does posit that their is, well, a way of the world which is only ignored at your peril, the Taoist attitude is hardly a stone's throw away from nihilism. The most elegant explanation of this is phrased in a famous Taoist painting known as which that Wikipedia article explains reasonably well in relatively few words.

Now, for what it's worth, I bury my bodies out back before the maggots get to them. They only find their way into my wheaties under exigent circumstances.

More than this, I probably won't say. As a Taoist, sometime anti-realist and newly minted Platonic realist, translations can be arduous, and my philosophies have sharp teeth and a disagreeable attitude.

Ta.