“If we believe in nothing, if nothing has any meaning, and if we can affirm no values whatsoever, then everything is possible and nothing has any importance.”
― Albert Camus, The Rebel
Opening social media I doom scroll through the memes and cat videos and send endless amounts of ‘relatable content’ to my friends, the theme that I have started noticing is how nihilistic that shared feeling and general sense of being have become. From sharing niche interests and engaging in discourse, the DM’s now only contain memes of how meaningless everything is and how nothing matters.
Even though it feels like an isolating and lonely experience to go through where we feel like nothing is worthwhile, it also seems to be a collective experience of our generation. Growing up not only learning and being warned about the climate crisis but also seeing the effects of it wreck havoc globally, watching countries go to war with no end in sight and being on the edge of a world war breaking out at any moment, with social media being more accessible we see the true effects of these wars with our morning coffees fills us with a sense of dread and powerlessness, as we get ready and go to work. We are constantly bombarded with news of rape, abuse, and assault as we struggle to meet our deadlines and monthly quotas.
It’s called a mental health crisis where we are constantly burned out, depressed, and anxious but what can we do when the only way out seems to be where we can numb out and not think of anything, ever because everything else feels meaningless? It’s safe to say that we were heading in that direction, but the COVID-19 pandemic fast-tracked us as well.
Although we see nihilism seep into the cultural zeitgeist, it also serves a necessary purpose. While it fills us with a sense that nothing has any value, and what we do, the way we live feels devoid of meaning, we continue to live. And because we continue to live, we continue to assign and attribute meaning to things around us and assign purpose to our existence.
When the way things are brings up meaninglessness, we start replacing the parts that don’t work with parts that fill us with purpose, which align with our values, and those that feel meaningful.
We nurture our relationships with people around us, with the environment around us, and make choices that feel right for us.
“The paradox of nihilism is the choice to continue one’s own life while at the same time stating that it is not worth more than any other life”
Jonna Bornemark
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