Written by: Dhiraj Chapagain - 2022007, Grade X
Posted on: 17 November, 2020
We are all going to die, no one knows what to do and those who know are the ones who are trying to sell something and nothing we do will be significant in the future days to come. Nihilism is the philosophical theory that believes that life has no meaning or value. It suggests that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant to change the totality of existence. According to this theory, each individual is barred from knowing ‘why’.
According to Edward R Murrow, “Anyone who isn’t confused, really doesn’t understand the situation.”
We are living in a strange time, we are more connected than ever with access to the world’s wealth of information and knowledge. Rising literacy rates, declining poverty rates year by year, we can possibly be in by far the best time in human history to be alive. Yet at the same time, we have a lot of similar and new problems to tackle. From automation replacing jobs, higher retirement ages, pandemic, and complete lack of trust in the people leading our society and or even the country across the globe. Now if we add these all together then what we get is an entire generation coming into adulthood tackling with financial, mental, and social values working against them. Although the past generations faced a lot of difficulties (industrial crisis, world wars), we need to consider that this is the information age. The way of living life is still the same for these young adults which were practiced by their parents. Going to school, getting a job, having a family, and saving for retirement. This is only the tip of the iceberg. The housings now are nowhere cheap as they were 10 years ago. If we check the inclement of the inflation rate from 10 years ago it counts nowhere in the raise of daily wages. The technological changes made 10 years ago changes so fast that barely anyone can keep up with it. This can be the reason why Nihilism is getting more and more popular these days. Now from the surface, the idea of valuing nothing can seem very terrifying but tearing down the old house will not necessarily lead to homelessness, but can provide the opportunity to build a new better house. “Meaning” is an abstract concept. “Abstraction” and “conception” are both human ideas and we decide what has meaning.
