The other day I read an interesting post on Ben Goertzel's blog that eventually talks about nihilism and how it's been misunderstood. Apparently nihilism has more sensible tenets than it would appear on the surface. I'll admit the only example of a nihilist in my mind until recently was the wannabe kidnappers from the movie The Big Lebowski. To quote one of them - “We believe in nothing, Lebowski. Nothing.”. This statement epitomizes the unrefined, fiction founded nihilism. What Ben poses as “Creative Nihilism” describes a more iteratively constructive theme of nothing being sacred and everything being a candidate for re-assessment and revision.
Coincidentally, today I find myself passing the Easter holiday thinking about why those people whom it doesn't hold a specific religious significance for, care about it. For those of us who are not celebrating the one instance in history where some rational people believe someone came back from the dead, it's just an Easter bunny, an egg hunt, and/or a sugar rush. Whenever these empty holidays come by, my creative nihilism kicks in and I feel a strong urge to reject them. It feels like a manifestation of our laziness where we perpetuate something because it's automatic, and commercialized, and easy. What's the point? Can't we think of something better to celebrate? Maybe even something in recent reliably documented history.
Our ability to form habits is a useful trait. It lets us automate thought processes to free up our minds to focus on less monotonous things and higher challenges. But at the same time this general ability tends to get applied to behaviors that are harmful or pointless. We generally acknowledge the need to keep harmful habits in check, but we less frequently take stock of what we do that is not really necessary or sensible. A streamlined life is more open to new opportunities, and periodically throwing a “Why?” at the things we do automatically can be just what is needed to open those opportunities up.
Coincidentally, today I find myself passing the Easter holiday thinking about why those people whom it doesn't hold a specific religious significance for, care about it. For those of us who are not celebrating the one instance in history where some rational people believe someone came back from the dead, it's just an Easter bunny, an egg hunt, and/or a sugar rush. Whenever these empty holidays come by, my creative nihilism kicks in and I feel a strong urge to reject them. It feels like a manifestation of our laziness where we perpetuate something because it's automatic, and commercialized, and easy. What's the point? Can't we think of something better to celebrate? Maybe even something in recent reliably documented history.
Our ability to form habits is a useful trait. It lets us automate thought processes to free up our minds to focus on less monotonous things and higher challenges. But at the same time this general ability tends to get applied to behaviors that are harmful or pointless. We generally acknowledge the need to keep harmful habits in check, but we less frequently take stock of what we do that is not really necessary or sensible. A streamlined life is more open to new opportunities, and periodically throwing a “Why?” at the things we do automatically can be just what is needed to open those opportunities up.
Dude did you see the "The Jesus" shirt below? I think you've found my next birthday present.
ReplyDeleteThat is so awesome, in mid ball lick no less.
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