My view of nihilism,
Hm, to 'me, nihilism is an intellectual conclusion that all these moralities and ethics that get bandied about by communities, societies, groups of people, are objectively empty.
Why is that. . .
I suppose it's because they look interchangeable upon humans to me, despite making claims to the contrary, despite claiming that 'their view is the right one.
I don't think that the killing of babies is wrong as a moral truth,
Merely a subjective one.
I don't think that being greedy is wrong as a moral truth,
Merely a subjective one.
I don't think that helping other people is good as a moral truth,
Merely a subjective one.
I don't think that loving your fellow man is good as a moral truth,
Merely a subjective one.
That 'doesn't mean I'm going to go around killing babies, robbing other people, stop helping people, or stop trying to have good will towards others.
I'm a human after all.
More specifically I'm a certain 'type of human.
I was born with all the biological necessities for empathy, intelligence, understanding, love, patience.
I was raised and habituated in an environment that 'encouraged my current moral code. Same way a course of water runs over the land and cuts a trench into it, my moral code is fixed the same way. It's difficult for me to go a different path, than the one I'm set upon.
There's human born with their brains wired up a different way,
Humans raised in different environments, that give rise to perceptions and actions, secularly recognized as negative.
And there's humans sometimes who suffer brain damage, such as Phineas Gage, and whose perceptions and actions change.
I suppose I might 'still encounter some experience in my life that changes me physically or mentally.
But until then, I don't have the requirements to not act morally, as it's currently recognized.
Returning to the point though,
. . .
Nihilism is an intellectual rejection of concrete meaning/morality as they are commonly recognized.
Which is not very healthy, 'only in itself I'd say.
I think humans live on meaning,
Which is why nihilism is an uncommon label for one to put upon oneself.
It really doesn't say much for what values a person chooses to live by.
What subjective goals and aspirations they possess.
Instead people pick up monikers such as Stoic, Existentialist, Absurdist, these different labels, and 'many others, speak of how a person chooses to respond to that intellectual conclusion of nihilism.
Myself, I'm a bit bitter about it all, and call myself a nihilist out of irritation, a bit of wallowing in my grief for what I view as lost.
But even those labels such as Stoic, Existentialist, Absurdist.
'Still leave a lot to be explained of what that person is, or how they act.
So they pick up others such as,
Democrat, Republican.
Christian, Atheist.
Environmentalist.
Egoist, Altruist.
American, German.
The list goes on, though there's usually context into which when speaks of such labels.
I'm rambling a fair bit.
To my idea of nihilism, there's no intrinsic meaning to be found in existence.
No way that things 'must be morally speaking.
We're all humans sitting at a game of Life, or chess, Candyland, or Risk.
There's nothing really that says we 'have to play, or 'must follow 'these or 'those rules.
The games were invented by past humans and ourselves,
Anything sacred in the rules only exists my those wills,
And they can bend, or break, or be abandoned.
And all that will matter is the moment, those individual meanings that people give to it.
"Illusions, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose."
Which is why God is such a comfort at times to some people I imagine, for human's artificial actions and meanings are still not grounded.
Still not sufficient.
But we are human, and we endure, or not.
Hm, too much incoherent babbling for my liking, especially at the end.
As I've said, my understanding of nihilism is a self taught and primitive homebrew.
I'm willing enough to discuss it with other people,
Helps me understand my stance, sometimes change it.
But my understanding of it is still yet shallow and tangled.
