I first learnt of nihilism watching the Big Lebowski, that did not clarify my understanding but highly associated it with Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and poorly planed extortion. I since took some philosophy classes and further confused myself and sparked some ramblings…as you get to see here!
As we still trudge through and attempt to live/recover from the collective trauma that is the pandemic a lot of the media I enjoy consuming has been crying to have us fight against the call to nihilism. Everything, Everywhere, All At Once repeats the phase Nothing Matters like we are all easily going to agree that to admit that is to fall into a pit of despair or give up. However I find hope in the phase “nothing matters” for reasons that could sound contradictory. I find hope in nothing mattering so everything does, so we can destroy what is failing and choose what we build or keep and that caring a little less can be a welcome relief.
Nothing matters so everything does. If we take away the seeking sewed into other ways of approaching how we question life, then we find nihilism. There is no grand point, no true source of right and wrong, yet we are still living it in and thus in some lines of thought, left to decide our own fate and meanings. If nothing truly matters then we are left with our own point of view giving us ALL the meaning, our authentic values, beliefs and perspective become the center. I believe there is a lot of hope in acting kindly because we deem it valuable, that’s just beautiful and more easily elevates smaller acts.
Nothing matters so we can destroy what is failing and choose our values outside of what was prescribed to us. Much like Joy does in the movie, nothing matters so we can destroy and we see how that empowers, invigorates and entertains then gives meaning.
Truly, not everything can matter. Giving into nihilistic beliefs can be a welcome break from an information filled world screaming at us constantly to look at the next tragic horrible event we can do little to help. We don’t have to care about each thing, we can care about the things that matter to us.
Sources:
Coen, J., & Coen, E. (1998). The Big Lebowski. Gramercy Pictures (I).
Meghie, S. (2017). Everything, Everything. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Nolen Gertz (2020) Nihilism The risk of nihilism is that it alienates us from anything good or true. Yet believing in nothing has positive potential, Aeon.co retrieved from https://aeon.co/essays/if-you-believe-in-nihilism-do-you-believe-in-anything