NIHILISM

"The belief in nothing"

Describing Nihilism as "The belief in nothing" is as inaccurate as decribing Christianity as "The belief in a Christian god", nothing more, nothing less. Nihilism is a very complex matter and, in my experience, there are many different interpretations and views. For different views than mine please visit the LINKS page. In the meantime, here's my point of view on Nihilism.

Base point of view

Nihilism is the "belief" that there is nothing to believe in. Nothing is certain, there is no objective truth, there is no objective reality. Everything that we believe is there (i.e.: morality, philosophy, social pressure, religion,...), is just something we've created, named and believed for various reasons, but in fact isn't real or meaningful, safe for the reality and meaning we've given it; there is only a limited amount of facts that we àre certain of.

One of the few certainties we won't be able to doubt untill science proves otherwise: the fact that we are animals of the human species. We belong to a certain group of animals that we've chosen to call "mammals" for biological reasons. We are born, we try to survive, then we die.
Just like any other animal.

That's it?

That's it! There is nothing more to it! We are just like any other animal that tries not to die by the hand of a predator or of starvation. The reason for this? Simple, every species that does NOT want to survive, hasn't, and is already extinct accordingly.

Everything else we think there is to it can not rationally be proven, and so is not real. 

Truth

There is no objective truth. Everything we see and experience is subjective, and thus cannot be discussed or identified, since our personal interpretation will always define the exact way we see this "truth". This also includes SocioNihil.com, as already stated, it is only an interpretation, a view on life, death and humanity. Our subjective view on it can be shown to others as an "opinion", but it will always be subjective, so there can't be any form of value or truth given to it.
We keep trying to think in terms of "truth" and "correctness", though, in order to place things in perspective, in order to understand them. But if there is no such thing as (objective) truth, aren't we wasting our time doing this?

The only things we càn call truthful are things that can actually be proven. Like, "The sun shines", or "I have 10 fingers." [Then again, history has proven human theories to be wrong many times before, so even facts like those can be discussed, or could be disproven sometime. Therefor I don't define any of this (including all these theories) as definitive, absolute, truthful, scientific or facts. They are merely temporary points of view on a static nothingness we continuously try to define.]


Destiny and purpose:                                                                                                                       top

We often succeed in creating special purposes for humanity, greater goals, benificial futures we think we are owed, it's our right! We see ourselves as the chosen species, superior to every other species, and so there is a greater destiny meant for us than for other creatures. Simple example: there's animals and people, we don't see ourselves as animals anymore.

Why? Because we have managed to develop means of communication slightly more complicated than that of other animals? Because we are convinced we have been able to manipulate the natural resources for our own technological advancement? Because we have created invisible social structures to categorize human existence's every single element, creating social groups and even more subcategories within them, so we can show other people what we are worth and what worth they lack?

I can't deny that those are "achievements" that no other species has accomplished. But that doesn't make humanity any better, more meaningful or more worthy than any other species, it changes nothing to the simplicity of our existence and lack of purpose here.

So no, our "achievements" are no reason for a greater destiny for humanity; in fact, our means of communication (or the abuse of it) have often been causes for war, and thus mutilation, mass death and horror; we haven't controlled nature just yet, natural disasters, diseases and epidemics and everything else we have failed to understand still controls us instead, every day; our social partitioning has been the cause of thousands of revolutions, murders, conflicts and just plain human misery.
If there ever was a reason for any animal race to be granted some higher purpose, I sincerely doubt our accomplishments would be nominated.

A dolphin is claimed to be one of the smartest animals on the planet. Do you think that, in the time between it's birth and death, it will ever contemplate what it is meant to do in this world? What future has been planned for it? What goals it should have obtained before death? What good and bad is? What it can do to become "better" or more "succesful" than other dolphins?
No. It tries to survive, eat what it likes to eat, not die, and have sex and make some offspring while he's at it. Pure survivalist behaviour, not absurdist or escapist behaviour.

If one of the smarter animals clearly doesn't care to waste time on intangible meaningless philosophies, I very much doubt that any of the lesser intelligent species would; of the immeasurable amount of species in this world, we are the only ones arrogant enough to think we are "special", special enough to think there's something more than the physical world out there; special enough to discover the quintessence of wisdom, the meaning of life!
If the other animals could speak, they'd talk about the human race like the lunatic bum walking the street, proclaiming insane prophecies of armageddons, invisible creatures and mental structures coming to life, valuable only to those insane enough to think they see them too.

We're just animals, we are born, we run up bills, we try to reproduce, survive and feel nourished and sexually satisified, then we die. You really want to know what your destiny is? This is it.
If you're lucky, that is.


Religion:                                                                                                                                              top
This is a tricky one, since it's quite a hot topic and a sensitive one as well. But you have been warned.

There is no God. Why the hell would some supreme being spend all it's time creating followers out of the stupid animal that spends its days trying to be better than its own species, killing its own kind for materials, mutilating his own kin for his own pleasure?

There is no higher being, there is no special destiny, there is only the "now", the physical world.
If your God is so good for you, why are there so many conditions for you to be worthy of his promises?
If the next world is such a great one, why would your own creator put you in it's counterpart first then: this world of horror in which you must continuously prove yourself? It's a bit sadistic of your benevolent deity, now, isn't it?
If we can believe in some God, why can't other animals as well? I don't see squirrels building altars, elephants praying to the sky or ostriches holding holy crusades, slaughtering the aardvarks because they are heretics believing in some other God.



Religion also has its benifits, but more on all this on the RELIGION page (when finished).


Good and bad:
Morality. Oy.

For millenia we have told ourselves and each other what we should or shouldn't do. We shouldn't swear, we can't pick our noses, we must wear black on a funeral, we must eat with cutlery, we must respect our family, we must have a partner and children, we must try not to be interested in things that have been categorized as "deviant", and so on and so forth.
All these unwritten rules have a practical survivalist history, one we've long forgotten and that's evolved into the absurd. We've managed to create an entire network of conditions under which we must live, categorizing the quality of our lives. Once we excell at following these conditions, we fall into a higher and worthier category; once we fail to follow them, we fall into another, less qualitative one.

We've become so obsessed with this, with trying to prove our worth to each other, that we've forgotten what it's all about. Why do we live?
Because we want to survive and not feel too miserable untill we die.

Then why all these restrictions? Why do we bother trying to uphold an illusional world of goals and values that mean nothing, that restrict us from following our personal goals, satisfying our own needs, our own survival?

I won't deny that many of these rules can have benefits, but we have forgotten why they are there and where they came from, blindly following them and judging everyone else who doesn't.

Morality is meaningless. Not pointless, but meaningless. However, we still use it to judge ourselves and others, a fallacious factor to define the quality of our lives.

A far better alternative is "choice and consequence". There is no good or bad, there is only choice and consequence.
Morality is another illusion to divide people in groups and create useless meaning and worth among them. If you would make a choice, without considering whether it's "good" or "bad", but realize what the consequences will be, and are able and prepared to deal with that, aren't you then defining your own worth and still taking responsibility for your actions?
You'd defy any predefined categorization, moral and meaning, you'd be free in your every single action and decision, you'd no longer be judged for your decision, since everyone else also takes decisions based on choice and consequence.

There'd be no guilt, no regret, no mockery.

At least, that's the theory. More on all this on the MORALITY page.



"In order to create, we must destroy"                                                                                              top

Nihilism has a very bad name and is often frowned upon. It is very very misunderstood, since only the destruction is seen, the annihilation of everything we know. It's amazing how people fail to realize why it is that nihilism seeks destruction so badly. The destruction is not the goal to be achieved, the destruction is the means, the tool to create the consciousness of the raw, harsh reality of what we are, and especially, of what we aren’t.


The point is that you can only create something new once you've created the spàce to create something new. It's actually the tabula rasa principle, but with a constructive positive goal! To make things better, to recreate the way we view and treat each other and ourselves, to get rid of all those prejudices and useless unwritten rules that have been ruling us for far too long.

No pain, no gain, right?

A very beautiful analogy is the Norse myth Ragnarok, in my opinion.

A very common way of renouncing nihilism and its thoughts and points of view, is attacking the nihilist, not the thoughts he brings. If  a non-nihilist is insulted by nihilism or refuses to even consider to try and see things the nihilist way, it's far easier to fall back to the circular reasoning he knows than to get into a rational discussion with the nihilist.
The nihilist would be called crazy, depressed, a misanthrope, a degenerate, a blinded fool, a freak, an extremist, etcetera. These are all subjective ways to categorize a person, to define their worth in our society, which is something the nihilist defies. By putting the nihilist on the bottom of the "human worthiness scale", his thoughts and vision are consequently also devoid of all value and truth. Problem solved!! He's talking crazy, don't mind him!!

Firstly, this is again a subjective point of view on nihilism and the nihilist (which human can be 100% objective and rational enough to be able to call someone a freak or deviant?), and thus completely worthless.
Second, by attacking the nihilist alone, his ideas will still stand. His vision remains unrenounced, but in the eyes of the ones who still think in terms of "truth" and "value", it will have become as meaningless as the messenger who brought it.
 


Conclusion

As I've mentioned before already, I'm a crappy writer. It's hard to put a view on life in words that feels so natural and logical, so bear with me, and give feedback.

To summarize:
Nihilism is the rejection of beliefs, morality, religion, faith, truth, destiny and every other aspect we link to our lives that have no correlation at all to what we really are: just animals, nothing more, perhaps less.
Nihilism is not a philosophy, nor a religion or a belief, since it states that those are completely meaningless and often (but not always) pointless.
The nihilist is not someone who "doesn't care about anything"; if so, the nihilist wouldn't be trying to create something new and spending energy on a new harmony.
Nihilism is not misanthropy, fatalism or hedonism; the socionihilist seeks to redefine those boundaries, and looks for the most rational and constructive balance between these 3 elements.


I know I've forgotten a load of stuff, and thus this description is very incomplete, although it should sketch a broad image of what it's all about. I'll add stuff to this page occasionally, in order to perfect and optimalize the description, but many other aspects will be noted in detail on the different pages of the Vision page.


Surt                                                                                                                                                  top