Nihilism and the denial of meaning

0:00People like to give meaning to almost everything in their life. And I think it might be some sort of coping mechanism or a survival instinct that has been baked into our DNA where we give oursel meaning that way we have purpose and a reason to continue. And sure, you could look at plenty of animals that continue to survive and as far as we know, they don't have any self-prescribed meaning. And we call that survival instincts. So maybe it's because we're at the level of intelligence or consciousness, whatever you want to call it, where we do question life, where you can have somebody go look in the mirror and ask, "Wait, who am I? Why am I? Why am I here? What's my purpose? What's the meaning to my life?" These type of existential questions that a lot of people at one point or another may have asked themselves. And a nihilist would say, "Bro, there is no meaning.

0:56There is no purpose." And there's different levels of nihilism. Some that question meaning or morals or our existence or even reality itself. And the first level of nihilism that we're going to be looking at is existential nihilism, which is the belief that life has no inherent meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. And Friedrich Nichi said, "He who has a why to live can bear almost anyh how." There is no why out there, but if you can find one, you can bear almost anything. Think about the people that can endure torture of the craziest kinds that you could think of because they don't want to give out any information. And think of anybody that wouldn't give the location of their child if a murderer was asking because they wanted to do something to it.

1:52You know what I mean? What what are you going to what are you going to do to convince that person? They have a why strong enough to overcome anything. And because an existential nihilist believes that there is no meaning, that there is no purpose. This can feel kind of like a black pill of the worst kind where you're just looking out into nothingness. There is no reason to continue if there is no meaning. And some people do believe that. It's a a kind of a pessimistic way to look at all of this. that there's no actual purpose for me being here. Well, then why am I here? And yeah, you could look at that as a freeing thing, but a lot of people, well, they just get, like I said, they get a little bit pessimistic about it. They feel like having meaning is something that was able to help them continue to progress further.

2:49Like I said, maybe this is just us coping with the fact that we're alive and we don't know why. The fact that we don't have any actual meaning and yet we try to find some whether it's our jobs or our family, our political views, our religious views, whatever. People cling to so much. Like I said, we give meaning to almost everything in our life. It could be the the diet you have. You know, I'm a vegan. I I don't eat meat. And I'm sure there's plenty of vegans out there that don't talk like that, but that's what I think of when I think of vegans. Like Like I'm I'm sorry. This is this is my purpose. I don't I don't eat animals. I uh I think it's it's easy to laugh at it, but we all do it.

3:47It's easy to laugh at it when it's somebody else's beliefs, but we all try to prescribe meaning to so many different things. It could be a video game. Oh, I got to beat this level. You know what I mean? Like people people do find meaning and purpose in the most minute things that we do. And there's nothing wrong with that, right? As long as you have a why. Nisha said you can bear almost anyh how. So what's wrong with finding a why? What's wrong with the fact that there is no meaning? As long as you can find a why, it doesn't have to mean anything. As long as it means something to you. And where you land really depends on the type of person you are. Do you land on the side where it's like, well, there is no meaning, there's no purpose. What's the point? You know, I I think that a lot of people, they do they do kind of take on that persona that, well, the world is is just down, everything sucks.

5:00The Squidwards of the world. You know, Squidward was a character in Spongebob for a reason. There are so many people out there that have just felt beaten down by life. And add to the fact where you feel like there might not be any meaning. I guess it's arguable which side is worse. To feel like you've been beaten down by life and think that there's some sort of meaning out there and you're just not getting it. Like I just don't see the signs. You know, they say that there's like a bigger plan out there. Keep waiting on the other shoe to drop and it just keeps getting worse. I keep thinking rock bottom is going to be something you hit and you climb out of this but I just keep digging further. What? I'm waiting on this meaning, but I believe in it. Or you got the other side where it's just like, well, life keeps beating me down. Rock bottom keeps going deeper and deeper and it's because there is no meaning to life. Life sucks. I just both of them both of them don't really sit too well with me personally if you're looking at it if you're looking at it to the point where you're just pessimistic about life because you think that there is no meaning and purpose and anytime anything bad happens it's just like oh well of course that's exactly what happens I I don't know man I I find it almost hard

6:22To put into how just much of a that type of vibe gives me because there's there's nothing that you're helping with that. You're not helping yourself. And I'm not saying that on some like high horse podium type where I've never been there. I I've been there a few times, but the thing that pulls me out is is usually me talking to myself like look at yourself like you like shit's already happened. What's the What's the point in just rolling around in that It's like, oh, look how bad this is. Like, bro, dust yourself off. Get up. Clean the off. Make sure you don't step in that type of pile of again, cuz there's more types of out there. It's just life. It's okay. It's okay. But you thinking, well, what's the point? There's there's nothing, man. That's I don't know. It's one of those things that if you thought that that was the extent of nihilism, it'd be like, "Oh, I'm definitely not a nihilist.

7:24That's definitely not me." But like I said, there's multiple levels and even if you were on the other side where you're not a nihilist, as in I do believe that there is meaning out there. Life is beating me up and I'm just waiting for a sign. That gives me a type of ick vibe too because it's like just waiting for your imaginary daddy in the sky to just what give you your wish. You wished upon a star and one day because you you believe so. You think you can. You think you can. The engine still has to run, bro. You still got to get up and do that So, I guess the extremes on either side, they it's not really something that I would be personally drawn to. And the next type of nihilism that we'll look at is cosmic nihilism, which I didn't even realize. This was one of those things before I even knew it what it was.

8:20It's it's something that I have constantly reminded myself about in order to make myself feel better. But cosmic nihilism is the belief that the universe is indifferent to human life and unconcerned with human meaning. And I'll let that sink in for a minute because some people that might that might not be sitting right with you. That might be one of those things where it's like what what are you talking about? The stars are aligned. Do you not do you not know what's your sign? You must be a Libra. Yeah, ex. Woo! The universe is on our side, bro. I don't know what to tell you. Some people that might make you feel a little shifty. What do you mean? The universe is indifferent to human life and unconcerned with human meaning. Okay.

9:17What what what do you actually mean by that? And Bertrren Russell said, "All the labors of the ages are destined to extinction and the vast death of the solar system." Meaning everything that you do, all the work that you've done on the planet, not just you, us as a collective, every single species, everything that happens, everything, all the plants that have grown to hundreds of feet tall, you know what I mean? Like everything that has ever happened, you give it enough time, the universe does not care. You give it enough time. And I I like to remind myself on a smaller scale where I I I say something like, "Your great great grandchildren will not even know your name. They won't know who I am. They probably won't even know I existed other than the fact that they have a great great grandfather." You know what I mean? I think um even on a smaller scale like that, that realization it's just like ah that's that's true.

10:17Like on a level, you know, looking at the whole existential nihilism part, it's like uh it feels it gives me pessimistic vibes like there's no meaning. Um and this there's no intrinsic meaning and that means like there's not like a like some sort of destiny or fate or you know you guys were meant to be your soulmates. There's there's none of that. It's just happen stance. It's just circumstances that happen to come together. you know, you just you just kind of roll the dice and you see what you get. It's all math. Now, that's different than this. This is one of those things that I feel like a lot of people can rationally get on board with. Of course, you might have some people that's like, "No, man. The universe, we are connected. We are one." Don't you know? Like, we're made of atoms, which is made of stardust. We are the universe. And yes, I I I get it. I get it.

11:16Let's just um I got I'm open to a lot of woo woo but let's just put that aside just for a second. Um rationally, give it enough time. The sun is going to explode. Like we are going to die. And it might it might not be us. It's probably not going to be in our lifetime, right? But it's going to happen. It's going to happen eventually. And maybe humans won't even get to that point. Maybe an asteroid will take us out just like the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Who knows? Maybe it'll be a flood. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe aliens will come and they'll just exterminate all of us. I don't know. But thinking about all of the deadly out there just in the universe alone, all of the flying planets basically that come towards us all the time.

12:15I don't know, man. You give it enough time. Can you really say that any of this matters? Can you really say that you working your 9 to5 down at the office and making sure you punch in at the exact time every single morning? Do you really think that matters? Do you really think the fact that I make music even matters once the sun explodes? Does Does anybody care? That's why I tell myself as well, like, does any of the matter? your little podcast, your music. Just the fact that you try to be a good dad, the fact that you try to be a good person, the fact that you, you know, what whatever fill in the blank with the that you do, despite you trying to be a devout Christian or a Muslim or what, whatever religion you decide to follow, despite the fact that you try to follow a certain set of principles throughout your entire life, does it really matter once the sun explodes?

13:16Once the Milky Way has ceased to exist, I don't even know what happens after you give it enough time. I'm talking about give it a billion years. It's like a billion years, bro. What you talking about? I can't even like think about a billion years. It's like how many gallons of water are there in the ocean? These are numbers too big that it's not even really registering in my brain. What are you talking about? A billion years. If you can try to use your imagination, your imagination, just try to visualize billions, millions, whatever, just a whole bunch of time, whole bunch of years, how much that actually happens, how many lives. I don't know if you've ever like just like you're just driving and have you ever been whether you're at a red light or you just kind of like look over and you just see other people that are driving and it sounds stupid but you just like have a realization like they they have their whole entire lives that I know nothing about.

14:21Like I'm talking about billions of years. You you give me a distance between your lane and my lane. I could look over at your life and it means nothing to me. It means nothing to me. We could live in the same city. We, as far as I know, that could have been a neighbor or some that just lives like a quarter mile down the street. I don't I don't know. I don't know. I just look over at you and you have a whole life. I have a whole life. We all have our own life. And it's like, yeah, just tell me about it, bro. Like, everybody knows that. My point is, if that's how we feel about each other and we are right here, what what would the universe how if it could feel, how would it feel about our life? Rationally, I don't think anybody can deny cosmic nihilism. We We don't mean anything. We're just here for such a blip, man. Like such a blip.

15:20If you think about just the earth alone, how how old that is, how old the earth is, we are nothing. We are nothing there. There's probably other planets out there that have come and gone with intelligent life just like us. What do we think about them? At most, people question or ponder, could have could they have been? Are they out there? And we call them aliens, but we're just going to be what? Boogeymen to future intelligent species. Not even boogeyman, like it's some scary thing, but like just camp stories by the by the fire. Like a billion years ago, there were these things called humans and they constantly argued about every idea and belief that they had because I don't know, they're just They they really thought they mattered.

16:33They They thought they had meaning and like that. We'll get right back to nihilism after a quick break for the sponsor of this episode. Did you know that on Saturn and Jupiter it literally rains diamonds during intense lightning storms? So naturally that's why this video was brought to you by Carry On by XO Xuded streaming everywhere people listen to music. I'll carry on lonely. Yeah, so I'mma carry on. Life could be a but we bonded. I know she just here to keep me honest. Testing me with hardship. Seeing if I crack under the pressure. I stand by every L. They don't stand for lack of effort. Close my eyes and I seems and my kids don't want for nothing. I've been dreaming of the day when I ain't stressing over money. But until that time comes, I ain't never slowing down. Heavy is the head with the crown. This that keep me up at night.

17:30Every day is wearing me down. Heavy is a head with the crown. The story of my life, I guess. But I'mma carry on. I'mma carry on. I got to keep myself together, under control, under the surface. I'm going to explode. I can't really explain it and so I don't. I guess that explains why I feel alone. Low lonely. I'll carry on. I'll carry on. Lonely. Yeah. The next level of nihilism that we'll look at is moral nihilism, which is the belief that there are no objective moral truths and that right and wrong are human constructions. And I have said this many times in different episodes. What's what's bad? What's good? Well, what are you talking about? Oh, the weather is so bad today. Oh, I hate it. What you mean it's raining?

18:26Like that's the that's the fact behind it is it's raining. It's bad to you. You don't you don't like the rain or something? Oh, well, I mean, I don't mind it. It's just What are you talking about? You've just been programmed to say that this is bad weather. Oh, we're just having horrible weather. What's happening? Well, it's just, you know, thunderstorms and stuff. It's like, okay, I guess. I mean, technically people get struck by lightning. So maybe there's like some reason way down the line that we first started calling this bad weather, but we are the ones that say what's good, what's bad, what's right, what's wrong. Who's to say that murder is wrong? I mean, we say as um as most societies, you know, that that's against the law. That's one of the worst things that you could do. Most religions have that. I'm pretty sure. I don't know most religions. probably shouldn't have said that, but I would imagine that most religions have something in it like um the Judeo-Christian religion where, you know, you shouldn't you shouldn't kill anybody.

19:30And yet, who's to say that that's true? Who's to say that that is even right, that that's wrong? And by no means am I advocating that people go out there and murder anybody, of course, but the fact that we call it bad. Moral nihilism says that it's not actually bad. We just call it bad. And that's okay. It can still, as far as we're concerned, as far as our reality goes, it's still bad. Like the way we treat bad things, it's still bad. It's not one of those like he's saying murderers go free. Like, no. Shut shut up. Shut the up. It's okay. It's okay. It's all right. Moral nihilism is just saying that we are agreeing with the fact that this is bad. It's like having a game and having the rules to the game. You know, I'm sorry. We decided in checkers until you become a king, you can't go backwards.

20:26It's just how it is now. Is is that who's to say that's the right rule? Well, we decided that when we made up this game, and that's more or less what society is. It is a group of rules that you can call a game, a construct, whatever. It's something that we put together in order to remain as civilized as possible to have as little disagreements as possible hopefully. And you know, disagreements, I'm not talking about an argument, I mean physical disagreements. So, we say, "Hey, not only don't murder, don't don't don't hurt anybody." You know, that's that's u what battery or something. I don't know what the actual actual term is, but you can't go around hitting people either. You know, they could press charges on you as well. You can't you can't just go out and hurt people. These different rules that we have, we call them bad for a reason.

21:26But moral nihilism is just accepting the fact that that is something that we call them. And it's another one kind of like cosmic nihilism where I mean rationally can you can you really argue against that? It's again it's not any idea you have on what's right and what's wrong. That's I'm not asking you to change it but can't you at least agree with the fact that whatever you consider right and wrong and what other people think is right and wrong it's what we've decided. And this is why certain subjects like abortion, the death penalty, things like this. That's why some people they they argue that they're at odds because wait a minute, I believe that this is right. Well, I believe that this is right. And you you end up trying to duke it out. And some of these subjects like that, it's it's one of those that maybe there is no resolution. It will never be where there's a entire consensus where everybody believes that you know you either should or shouldn't have abortion or should or shouldn't have some sort of u capital punishment like the death penalty.

22:31So these are things that we have to accept. It doesn't have a resolution. But everything else that we just consider at as just like life law like don't murder. Well, we're we're not fighting over that. There's no no people with picket fence or picket signs or whatever. You know what I'm trying to say that nobody's protesting over this. No, we should be allowed to murder. No, nobody's nobody's saying that Why? Well, because the consensus says there's there's some psychos out there that's like, I wish. But they know that they're the 0001%. And that most people are like, "Yeah, bro. I don't think we should murder." Just throwing it out there. I got kids. I got a family. I I like life. So, how about this? I won't kill you. You don't kill me. And if anybody does kill somebody, we send them to prison or we kill them.

23:31It's we go on that where it's capital punishment. What do you believe is right and wrong? It doesn't have to challenge the you believe. It just has to moral nihilism just has to challenge the foundation in which this belief comes from. And it's okay to ask why. and all of these where it's like like you know this this is supposed to be wrong. They say you shouldn't do this but why? And there's a lot of there's like a lot of social things that we consider right and wrong that aren't necessarily illegal. Like it's generally considered wrong to steal your friend's girlfriend or wife or boyfriend or husband, whatever. It's generally considered wrong to do that. like it's against guy code or girl code or whatever you want to call it.

24:27So what about these things? These things that it's okay to ask why. Obviously if you're asking well why why do we why why can't we just do a little murder little you know what I mean? Like you got a little problem. It's very effective. I uh you know these type of questions it's like okay those are those are raising some red flags. But if you're asking questions like I'm say I I personally agree with the whole you don't do that to a friend. But how about another one where why why should I have to continue hanging out with friends if I'm socially burnt out? If it's been a couple hours, why should I feel obligated? Well, it'd be rude if you left the party. That's wrong. That's bad. Don't do that. That's that's a bad thing to do. Don't do it. Well, what if what if I want to? Why? Why can't I do that? Who's to say that's bad?

25:22Moral nihilists would question all of these different things. And I guess it's one of those before I even knew the technical term. Turns out that I am a bit of a moral nihilist. Well, I guess completely um um moral nihilist. And Friedick Nietze said morality is just a herd instinct in the individual. We feel like it's something that we have come up with that we truly feel and there are so many different things where like I almost have to I have to batter myself with questions trying to figure out is this something you truly believe. An example you might feel obligated to go to family because it's the holidays and why would you not do that? It's the holidays.

26:17You have to do that. And you you can't not go home to see your family. Well, why why why is that bad? Why can't I take a year? Why can't I say, you know what? We're going to get together at another point in time, but the holidays are a little bit stressful for me. But we we put all of these rules and barriers and like lines that we can't cross on ourselves because it's something that other people have decided. You know, how how long ago was it considered rude to leave a party early? You know, like how how long ago was that like one of those things where people were like, you know, you know how Susan just kind of steps off after a couple hours into the party when we still have a couple hours to go? I I kind of don't like that What do you guys think? I mean, yeah. Honestly, I'm glad she said something because Susan, frankly, has been sort of a And that is the reason why I'm pissed at her, too.

27:13Cuz I threw a party last week, and you know what that did? She left early. What does that What does that mean? What What does that mean? You think you can You think you're better than me? You think you can just leave the that I spent all this time and energy? Are you even a friend? Who decided how long ago was it when somebody said, "You know what? If you don't go home and see your family on on the holidays, you are a bad son. You are a bad brother or what you know, whatever your relation is to the family that you have to go and see. You're a bad family member if you don't go and do that. I'm sorry. You know, you're not a hugger. Think about people that aren't huggers. It's like ah, but you're you're the weird one. Like people like you're the one where it's like h you you can't even you can't even hug. Can't even just give a quick come on. Come on. Like, come here. Yes. Let me let me do something that I don't want to do in order to comfort what you consider as the right thing to do.

28:12Who's to say? When did it start? So, you have all these things that you're a kid and it gets baked into you. It's like, "Oh, don't say that. Don't call that woman fat at the supermarket." Well, why not? Well, it's rude. Why can't you be rude? Well, would you want somebody to be rude to you? I I don't know. And if I didn't, why? Why? Why does that bother me? Why is that something that I would even think about? And you can continue to why? Why? Why? And it's that question that we tell kids to stop asking. We uh we tell kids that continuously asking why is annoying. And I have fallen victim to that. And I try to catch myself. But god damn, these they ask a lot of wise. They ask why about the dumbest And sometimes that's what you got to do. Like why do I feel this way? That's kind of a dumb question if you think think about it, you know, like why why do I feel guilty for leaving this party early?

29:13H well that's Does that really matter? Go back to cosmic nihilism. Let's give me a billion years. Does it really matter? The sun just blew the up. Does it matter about your dinner party now, Susan? I don't know. I don't know. And Nichze also said there are no moral facts. There are no actual objective truths when it comes to any moral statement. You can't you can't say that it's something that you can back by science or by math or you can double check or anything like that. And yeah, sure you can go ask your neighbor, hey, do you think murder is wrong? Yeah, but how how how can you do that? How do you how how can you say that murder is wrong? How can you actually justify that? And we we know that that that rabbit hole leads to nowhere.

30:12Which is why I said it's one of those things where I don't I don't see how you can rationally say that well moral nihilism is stupid. It's not something that should even be considered. I think just based off of its definition alone, I have to agree with I guess I am not only a cosmic nihilist, I am a moral nihilist. And the whole existential nihilist part I I kind of I took it as a pessimistic viewpoint, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that type of viewpoint. But I guess on a certain level actually completely I I don't think that there's any prescribed meaning whether it's uh the universe or fate or destiny whatever you know how they say you can have a what are they called like a prophecy I I forget what type of movies it's usually like um like where it's like a like Zeus and and like that the Olympic gods or or whatever they're called.

31:15You have a prophecy something where you know you actually have to fulfill and whether you like it or not you have to it'll end up happening. You can try to run away from your prophecy but that actually will end up being the reason why it comes true. You just never knew. It's like you set it all up thinking that you could outsmart your prophecy. I don't believe in that. So all of these so far on a certain level, these last two completely have been checking the boxes. They make sense. Like I I don't see the argument against it. I guess the the only argument that one would have when it comes down to meaning and purpose is yeah, you you were very religious. And I'm not saying that is a bad thing obviously. It's just not my viewpoint where um yeah, I wouldn't I just I don't see how somebody can be so devout have so much faith in a religion that they know that they don't have any substantial proof for that they can have so much faith in it that they can actually say that this is where my meaning comes from.

32:29Like where you can truthfully say objective truth where it's like if you break it down it it comes down to the faith like I said where you you feel that way and I guess these are all feelings like in my from my perspective this this all seems rational but yeah somebody saying well there's there's no moral truth that's that's funny have you not heard of the Ten Commandments I'm sorry was that confusing to you do do Do you not speak the language? We have some translations. I'd be happy to break down the Ten Commandments for you. It's It's set in stone, bro. It's set in stone. So, I could see how Yeah. somebody whose religion they would they would push back, be like, you know what? I see I see what you're saying as far as like you give it enough time, but God put us here for a reason. We do have a purpose. And even if we don't know what it is, it would go down that route.

33:28And maybe I just need somebody to present a clear enough argument, but I I believe if you were to play out any sort of debate or argument between somebody who's religious or somebody who's a nihilist, it would it would have to end in faith. I just have faith that this is what it is. And it would just have to be like an agree to disagree moment where it's like, okay. And I I don't and that's all right. That's okay. We are. It doesn't matter. We're just little little dots on a rock like flying around through space. And who knows how far out that goes? Like we we think we know because we got these little telescopes. Who knows how far out the universe goes and where we are in it and what we mean? And I'm talking about a billion years. What if a billion years is like a second? A second to us is like a billion years to the universe.

34:28We don't know. We don't know. The next level of nihilism and probably the the most radical of them all is epistemological nihilism, which is the view that true knowledge or certainty is impossible. And at first I was like this this doesn't really this doesn't really make sense because if no true knowledge is is possible and you can't be certain of anything well then how can you be an epistemological ni? How do you know that that's true? Do you know that there's no meaning that there's no way to uh have true knowledge? How do you how do you know this? Well, I don't because there's no true knowledge. just one of those things where it's a snake eating its own tail where you kind of you kind of present the argument against yourself. So, at first I kind of just brushed off this type of nihilism because it felt too radical.

35:30It felt too nonsensical. But the more I thought about it, the more I was like, okay, well, I guess in a way, again, before I even heard of this term, in a way, I do have some epistemological nihilist views. So, let's think about it. I've I've played around with the idea of simulation theory. What if this is all just a simulation? Have you ever thought that? Have you ever thought that maybe possibly simulation theory is correct? Well, turns out that that is on some level epistemological nihilism because you're saying that yes, I know that I'm in reality and I feel like I'm in life. And when I say no, I don't actually mean like I know. I mean I feel that's how I should have said it. I feel like I'm in reality. I feel like I'm living my life. And everything I touch, I can I can have these senses that I believe to be real.

36:29But what if it's kind of like the Matrix and we're in some little pod and this is all being simulated. I just took the wrong pill. Maybe maybe we're just a brain in a vat somewhere and you know we don't even have a body. We just we've just made all of this up. Maybe we are just like a Sims character and actually there is nothing physical about us at all. We just feel that way and we're just in some sort of a video game. Maybe. Maybe. How can you know? How do you know that you're not? Well, I don't know. It's kind of like the same thing where it's like, how do you know that God isn't real? Try to do try to do the opposite. That's why I don't see how people could be atheists. It's like, God is not real. I know it's not true. It's like for certain. That's that's a religion right there. You're certain. Okay. How can you be certain? How how can you be sure?

37:27Who's to say? So, I think it's it's that same level of uncertainty where you can't really say you have the answer to any of this. A simulation. What? That's stupid. That's That's dumb. You must be like one of those flat earthers or some like that. You're uh you're not really all there, are you? A simulation. I'm certain that this is real life. We're going to get you some help cuz this is not a simulation. I could say that with certainty, okay? But how can you know that you're not in a simulation? How can you know that you are? How can you know that God is real or isn't real? How can you know anything? How can you be certain about anything? This is what an epistemological nihilist would say. And David Hume said, "A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence." Meaning, if I have the evidence here, I have to just assume that it's real.

38:26And if I don't see any evidence, I have to assume that it's not. And I guess assuming that it's not isn't 100% true. I just have to be aware of the fact that this isn't objective reality. This isn't something that is provable. This is something that it needs to be proved to be determined. I'm open. I'm open to the possibility of this being correct, but until I get some evidence, well, I must proportion my beliefs based off of the evidence that I have. And the last level of nihilism that we'll look at is optimistic nihilism, which is the view that although life has no inherent meaning, that absence creates freedom to construct personal meaning. And as Nietze would say, become who you are. You have this blank canvas that we call life. You can literally become whoever you want.

39:23You can do whatever you want. Do you want to throw yourself into, I don't know, a marriage, a family, a career, a passion? What do you want to do? What do you want to call meaningful? What do you want to have as your purpose? Because you have the autonomy to do whatever you want to do. And this is probably the answer to all of the issues I had with existential nihilism because I do agree with the fact that there's no intrinsic meaning or purpose that we have when we're brought into this world. There's that's just how I feel. That's my belief. But I don't I don't look at that as a bad thing. I don't look at that as one of those like, oh man, now there's just nothing to do. There's no point. Succeed for what? Fail. Of course, that's just life. It means nothing. No, man. Like that's who wants to live like that? If we are here for such a short period of time, which we are, if we are just a small speck on a dot in a sea of other dots, which we are, then we might as well just live it up while we here, right?

40:24But that's just that's kind of just my type of personality. So an optimistic nihilist view of life fits me perfectly because yeah there's there is no meaning. You zoom out the cosmos do not care about us. We don't have any morals. We don't have any actual right and wrong. We decide that there's no actual knowledge that we can really be certain of. We just feel like we're certain of it. You know this is something that we believe. Every color we see is just the way that our eyes like interact with light and how our brain sees it. You know, we see upside down and our brain flips it upside down for right side up for us. And that's a real thing like this. Like we we believe that we see actuality, reality, whatever reality is. Maybe it is just a simulation.

41:20We can't be certain. But one thing I do know is that I I'm aware of myself. I'm aware that I'm here and because of that I I got to be grateful because I could not be here. Who knows what's after this? Maybe it is some religious ending. Maybe it is just black nothing. Maybe we're just in a simulation and the the game starts over. I don't I don't know. But while I'm here, I'm going to enjoy it. I'm going to be optimistic while I can give myself meaning, while I do have the ability to give myself any purpose that I want. And I don't I don't see anything wrong with that. Again, rationally, I don't see how you can look at this form of nihilism and say this is just stupid. I just obviously we we don't know anything is certain, but that's one of the things that you can be certain about.

42:16Hey, the one thing I know is that I don't know Like, I don't I don't I think I know the things that I know. And even then, I'm very open to the idea that I'm wrong about everything. And that's okay. Out of all of the different levels of nihilism without the optimistic part, it can it could feel a little bit like why bother? So I think I think being optimistic no matter what type of nihilism you lean towards or if it's a little bit of all of them like me, it's important to just accept the fact that there's no meaning, but that's not a bad thing. We we don't have any right and wrong, good or bad, but can we just if we're if we're going to just agree on what's good and what's bad, can we agree that this isn't bad? the fact that there's no meaning that that that's almost like freedom.

43:12We don't have to have a prophecy that we follow or else it'll follow you. I can do whatever. You can do whatever. And that's that's pretty cool.