Great Nihilist Responses to the Question of Suicide

The question is "Why should I remain alive?"


Great Nihilist Responses (from Camus meme stash):

• Because your death is meaningless too. Might as well drink a cup of coffee.

• "Man is mortal. That may be; but let us die resisting; and if our lot is complete annihilation, let us not behave in such a way that it seems justice!"

• "What's your hurry?"

• There’s no reason to remain alive. But there’s also no reason not to. It makes literally zero difference. Life is futile, but deciding to end your life because of its futility assumes there is some kind of value (although negative value) attached to that futility.

• Intuitively you should kill yourself. And that’s why you shouldn’t. Because it’s absurd not to!

• And finally my (lamer) response:

life's meaning comes IN the rebellion against suicide in the face of futility and meaninglessness. its almost more meaningful that way, if you think about it. choosing to rebel against suicide in the face of transcendent meaning is almost boring. our story is the cool one.

conversations

when sum1 makes a judgment, i always have the CHOICE to see the truth in what they say or find fault with it. it's not an honest clash of our 'intrinsic beliefs,' it's not a verification of his truth or denial of his falsehood, it's just a choice that I make at that moment. always.

it's different/difficult to think this way, I believe many of us are entrenched in the idea that we have clearheaded, explicit stances (think politics etc) and when someone makes a judgment they are either saying something true or false and we will bring that to light with our reaction/response. but it's not like that. it's always just a choice that you make. a 'yes' or a 'no' almost at your whim, depending on what path you feel like going down at that moment. every. single. time.

so i think a fun exercise to do given this inherent illusion we have in discourse is the following: try to catch yourself. whenever you are about to disagree with what someone says (maybe out of habit of hearing this kind of thing or otherwise), immediately stop and say "yeah," and find SOME inkling of truth in their judgment to bring to light. or on the other side, when you are about to agree with someone because this string of words is one that you have subscribed to (or for whatever other reason), just stop and find something wrong, something to pick at, something to argue against in what was said. you'll find that you can make this swap almost every time (and eventually, with ease), and may be awakened to the malleability of dialectic. agreement is susceptible to whim. choice is beneath reason. it's actually a very grounded, practical way to make that classic 19th century realization that there is no truth.

void 2012.

Brief Conversation with David Foster Wallace

Or rather, with my interpretation of one of his quotes:

re: Sklaroff wall post

good job, but there's still something troubling about it

like, why does one throw one's entire self

rather than like, most of it

it's a suicide of a different type in that sense

if you give all of yourself to something

there's nothing left

hella selfless, I suppose

me

yeah

Zak

perhaps virtuous

in that sense

me

i mean i'm willing to go far as to say the self isn't really anything but a conglomeration of ones interactions with society or w/e

all existence is external

looking into the self one will not find much

that's why people get much happier helping other people (peace corps or w.e) than by helping themselves

....

______________

but ye in response to your response to my sklar comment

i guess what i mean is

there is no throwing 'most of ones self' into something

as long as you are not committing suicide

you are throwing your whole self into all of existence

whether thats just religion or like 5 things

doesn't change that fact

existence is all one anyways

human categories distinguish it

but once you say 'yes' to this moment,

you are saying yes to all of existence

does that make sense?

3:09 PM

Zak

i think i follow but maybe not that last "saying yes to the moment = yes to existence" bit

me

its the same thing as saying as long as you are not committing suicide
you are throwing your whole self into all of existence

Zak

and i kind of agree with the

you are what you do

you are what other people experience

me

and "existence is all one anyways"

there is only one binary

truth and nihilism

nihilism is a saying 'no' to the moment