Optimistic Nihilism
Source: Louis Laves-Webb
Nihilism
What is Optimistic Nihilism? To really understand it, we need to go back to the meaning of Nihilism by itself. Nihilists believe that there is no intrinsic meaning to life. You may think how in the world this depressing philosophy can be helpful in going through life.
Optimism
Well, that’s where Optimistic Nihilism comes in. But isn’t just being optimistic is enough to get through life? By being just optimistic means you’re resisting the bad things that realistically happens in life and cause us to overestimate the risks of experiencing negative outcome. It’s a well-known fallacy of thinking which is called ‘Optimism Bias’.
Optimistic Nihilism
Optimistic Nihilism is a belief that there is no underlying meaning to life from a perspective of hope. By having to live in a meaningless universe doesn’t mean that we’re doomed to live in it–but rather we are free to create life’s meaning for ourselves and create our own opportunities from it.
By embracing optimistic nihilism, can change our negative experience of life towards more positive one. We’re free to discover what makes us happy and free to create our own meaning of life.
Embracing the Absurd
“The Absurd” is an existential concept where we humans naturally seek meaning but living a world that don’t have one. Compared with this vast universe we live in, we’re just tiny specks that one day will be forgotten. So, it doesn’t matter what we did in the past, or how we’ll be remembered. The only thing that matters is right now.
Optimistic Nihilism aims to solve this by having us to accept it and embrace the feeling of surrender. We can’t control everything in life: the sun’s rotation, that car crash that causes you to be stuck in traffic, etc. This means that optimistic nihilists have less things to worry about.
Giving Up Control
You identify with something more if you believe you have influence over it. When you believe you can choose whether or not to be depressed, you begin to define yourself by it. This might easily turn into you being swallowed completely by your depression.
Giving up control over depression is not the same as surrendering to it. It implies that you accept the fact that it will constantly exist in your life. Surprisingly, the less you try to control your despair, the more power over your life you get.
Conclusion
Optimistic nihilism does not work as a treatment for depression. It’s a way of approaching difficult topics like death with a more welcoming mindset. You have no control over whether or whether you become depressed, but you do have control over how you deal with it.
The fact that you don’t have complete control can be scary, but it also sets you free. It allows you to focus on what matters, and what matters can be whatever you want it to be.