# Can you fight Nihilism? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 16, 2020, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561 "2020-03-16T03:27:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/1 "2020-03-16T03:27:04Z")
Because when it comes to Nihilism one can’t really deny that it is right. All those “no’s” are the truth of our existence and the problem is being able to cope with that or not. Camus says that suicide is the affirmation that life isn’t worth living, which is a decent argument. I don’t have an answer for why life is worth it because there is no meaning to anything I do in it. Most answers I see on the internet don’t seem to address that main problem and just dodge or dance around nihilism. Asserting that something is meaningful doesn’t make it so, it’s just pretending. What we deem to be meaningful is a lie that we tell ourselves enough until we believe it. You can’t make meaning because the very act itself is void of meaning, or to coin a popular phrase “you can’t get something from nothing”. > **[Ray Brassier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Brassier)** > > Raymond Brassier (born December 22, 1965) is a British philosopher. He is member of the philosophy faculty at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, known for his work in philosophical realism. He was formerly Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University, London, England. > Brassier is the author of Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction and the translator of Alain Badiou's Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism and Theoretical W... > [@](#): > > According to Brassier, “the disenchantment of the world understood as a consequence of the process whereby the Enlightenment shattered the ‘great chain of being’ and defaced the ‘book of the world’ is a necessary consequence of the coruscating potency of reason, and hence an invigorating vector of intellectual discovery, rather than a calamitous diminishment”.[5] “Philosophy”, exhorts Brassier, “would do well to desist from issuing any further injunctions about the need to re-establish the meaningfulness of existence, the purposefulness of life, or mend the shattered concord between man and nature. It should strive to be more than a sop to the pathetic twinge of human self-esteem. Nihilism is not an existential quandary but a speculative opportunity.” To me the idea of making meaning is like trying to build a sand castle in the desert. It would have been better if I never read any of this stuff and gone on blissfully ignorant of all of it. Before I never really questioned why I was doing things but at least I felt purpose and meaning to what I was doing. But to realize that there is no real true purpose or point to the things I do I am left in a void. Nothing matters anymore, and it just feels like I’m doing what I did before out of some habit. I can’t pretend anymore, there just isn’t any logic or reason to it. Pretending something matters or has meaning is just dodging Nihilism. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/2 "2020-03-16T03:29:33Z")
Get a kitten. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/3 "2020-03-16T03:41:08Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > Get a kitten. Or proper medication. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/4 "2020-03-16T04:02:45Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Or proper medication. Yeah, do both, but seriously, when you understand that that kitten’s quality of life and lifespan depend on you, you will have dispelled nihilism. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/5 "2020-03-16T04:05:55Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > To me the idea of making meaning is like trying to build a sand castle in the desert. You can do it? > [@](#): > > It would have been better if I never read any of this stuff and gone on blissfully ignorant of all of it. In what way? Is there some sense in which you’re comparing one state of affairs to the other, and evaluating them according to a standard that matters to you? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/6 "2020-03-16T04:18:31Z")
Another plea for medication. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/7 "2020-03-16T04:28:17Z")
> [@](#): > > You can do it? You would have to bring your own water. Sand needs to be moist to stick. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/8 "2020-03-16T04:39:53Z")
You sound depressed. Please see a counselor. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/9 "2020-03-16T06:48:14Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Another plea for medication. No, it’s dealing with the reality of our existence. Like the link and the quoted parts mention about philosophy not being some kind of band-aid for our self esteem and trying to fight against meaninglessness by attempting to impose meaning on the world. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/10 "2020-03-16T09:02:36Z")
Seconding the suggestion to get a kitten. Kitties have no concept of life’s meaning…they eat, shit, play, and sometimes kill small critters. Then they sleep without a conscience. I really want to come back as a cat. Fucken moral-freeloaders. 🤣🤣 ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/11 "2020-03-16T09:16:31Z")
Prove that nihilism exist. Can’t prove a negative. Oddly. all 8 replies between midnight and 5 am USA time. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/12 "2020-03-16T09:34:07Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Oddly. all 8 replies between midnight and 5 am USA time. Oddly, there are people who post to this board who aren’t American. How weird is that? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/13 "2020-03-16T10:14:16Z")
I remember you talking about this a long time ago OP. So if life has no purpose or meaning then what? I mean I agree with that to a point, but so what must follow from this understanding? I assume you still get out of bed and eat and keep yourself alive right? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/14 "2020-03-16T10:20:49Z")
maybe the OP should take up a nice religion. I’d recommend Buddhism… ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/15 "2020-03-16T10:51:26Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > Asserting that something is meaningful doesn’t make it so, it’s just pretending. No, that’s exactly what gives things meaning. Meaning is a\* human\* concept \*imposed by \*humans. A world without humans or a human-equivalent species would have no meaning. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/16 "2020-03-16T11:48:48Z")
You could try, but they wouldn’t care. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/17 "2020-03-16T11:58:39Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > Can you fight Nihilism? What do you mean by “you”? ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/18 "2020-03-16T12:22:43Z")
Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it’s an ethos… ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/19 "2020-03-16T12:28:44Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Oddly, there are people who post to this board who aren’t American. How weird is that? 😃 The coronavirus breaking news thread, with 1,000 replies, got only 4 replies in the same time span. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561/20 "2020-03-16T12:39:24Z")
Go seek some pleasure; make a child smile, get laid, preferably two completely separate incidents. Seriously, life is good and its meaning is the pleasures it gives along the way. Those pleasures mean more because of the hardships inbetween. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-fight-nihilism/849561.md?page=2)