Nihilistic Life Coach

Nihilism is an appealing and seemingly brutally true philosophy. So why not sell it?

This video was mainly an excuse to play around with a green screen, and see what I could do editing wise. It’s pretty basic, but I had fun with it.

This is probably a me problem, and I am working on a slightly more serious video on this topic, but whenever I read self-affirming content on the internet or instagram these days I can’t help but hear a voice in the back of my head that goes “YEAH BUT FREE WILL ISN’T REAL”

Obviously there’s nuance to this - in how we define freedom, the ability to meaningfully choose and so on - and I appreciate that for most people this is a bit of an eye-roll topic of “oh god didn’t we cover that in like middle school”.

But it relates to everything.

If you don’t believe people are fundamentally free, you can’t blame them. If we’re just fleshy programmable computers then retribution (in so far as it doesn’t serve rehabilitation) is unjustifiable, whether via the justice system or otherwise.

If you don’t believe people are free you know they’re always doing their best.

It might be easier to live this way, you can’t fully blame yourself for what occurs, or your faults and so on.

But at the same time, you pay the hideous price of giving up the sense that you could change. That people could get better. Your fate is sealed, and if that doesn’t look like a good fate well that’s awful.

But if people are free, then you can blame them. Which some can use as a means to lack compassion - after all, you had a choice, you just chose incorrectly.

And you can alter the course of life. And you have to shoulder that weight when you don’t do so. You are responsible for your faults, but also your accomplishments.

Humble, happy, successful people I know seem to be inconsistent with this. Their faults are their own, however, their positives or successes are down to luck or mentors or parents or all the good they were fortunate to come across. They shoulder the responsibility but take none of the glory. And for others - well, they’re doing their best (which is, if you think about it, subtext for less free as I can’t blame them because they cannot be blamed).

While this seems obviously an empowering philosophy, it also seems deeply patronising, and just outright inconsistent (and that’s even before we think about the science).

Maybe stories are more important than truth.