"We're on a Floating Rock:" The Rise, Pros and Cons of Optimistic Nihilism
Soul Gum
by Victoria Hutchins
4.9 • 561 Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2023
⏱️ 65 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The floating rock mentality—nihilism with rose-colored glasses—is quickly becoming the zeitgeist of spiritually deconstructed young people. What is it? How did we get here? Cosmologically speaking, are we really just insignificant creatures on an insignificant floating rock? Is life meaningless? What are the pros and cons of believing that it is? Is optimistic nihilism going to turn you into Tyler Durden or Jobu Tupaki? What can we learn from Nietzsche, Albert Camus and Sisyphus? How do we find value in a potentially meaningless universe? Are spirituality and rationality mutually exclusive on this floating rock in space?
JUMP AROUND
I. intro
II. disclaimers (2:37)
III. floating rock mentality (6:48)
a. what is it? (6:48)
b. how did we get here? (9:37)
c. is it true, literally & cosmologically speaking? (11:41)
(ad break)
IV. nietzsche and nihilist philosophy (21:24)
a. sad early life (22:19)
b. sad love life (23:58)
c. nietzsche’s philosophical model (24:47)
V. the pros of purposelessness (29:45)
VI. the cons (35:27)
a. will you turn into tyler durden/jobu tupaki? (36:57)
b. volatile valuation of your own life (40:50)
(ad break)
V. finding value in a (possibly) meaningless universe (43:06)
a. sisyphus (44:13)
b. albert camus on sisyphus (absurdism) (44:47)
VI. how does god fit into all of this? (50:25)
a. pascal’s wager (51:22)
b. choosing between purposelessness & spirituality (58:09)
c. redefining spirituality (1:00:06)
SOURCES & REFERENCES
re: rise in disaffiliation from organized religion among Gen-Z and millennials: https://tinyurl.com/2p9d5474
re: size of the universe, super habitable planets, SETI Luyten B communications: https://tinyurl.com/3kmyy5av; https://tinyurl.com/3hdc8u8m; https://www.seti.org
“Important” by Ian McConnell: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRGqbRHa/
Rhett McLoughlin spiritual deconstruction podcast episode: https://tinyurl.com/yytywu4c
Re: biographical info about Nietzsche: https://tinyurl.com/ye28xbxe; https://tinyurl.com/2za4nsc4
Nietzsche referenced works: Human, All-too-Human (1878), The Gay Science (1882, second expanded edition 1887), On the Genealogy of Morality (1887)
re: Lou Salome, Nietzsche’s love interest: https://tinyurl.com/5bvdymd7; https://tinyurl.com/5598dycu
Fight Club (1999) directed by David Fincher; starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert; starring Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
Pascal’s Wager: https://tinyurl.com/ftrrssth; https://tinyurl.com/7nkhw79b
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome back to Soulgum. I'm so glad you're here. I hope you are well. I am. I am well. |
| 0:13.5 | Today we are going to be talking about the floating rock mentality that has been growing in |
| 0:19.9 | popularity among Gen Zian millennials for the past |
| 0:23.3 | several years. Or to translate for those of you whose screen time is less than like five hours a day, |
| 0:28.7 | we're going to be talking about nihilism. This is going to be a very philosophy-heavy episode, |
| 0:33.3 | and I'm really excited about that because I love philosophy. And we will also be talking about |
| 0:38.9 | media, cosmology, religion, all as lenses to understand this floating rock mentality. Getting a |
| 0:46.8 | little more granular so you know where we're going. We are going to ask, what is the floating |
| 0:53.2 | rock mentality? And why is it on the rise? Speaking cosmologically, |
| 0:59.4 | are we really nothing more than just insignificant creatures on an insignificant floating rock? Just how |
| 1:05.1 | tiny of a dot is Earth in the context of the universe? Are we all that's out there when it comes to intelligent life? |
| 1:12.5 | Are our lives meaningless? What are the pros of thinking life's meaningless? And what are the cons? |
| 1:19.0 | If we accept that maybe our lives are meaningless, can we still live a joyful, fulfilling life? |
| 1:25.0 | And in the context of a potentially meaningless universe, |
| 1:28.3 | how do we develop a value system that will support us in crisis? |
| 1:31.9 | How does belief in God, or whatever word you use for that concept, |
| 1:37.2 | fit into all of this? |
| 1:38.3 | Our spirituality and this floating rock mentality, this acceptance of a potentially purposeless universe, mutually exclusive, |
| 1:48.5 | and if not how. So that's where we're going. These are very ambitious questions, and I obviously |
| 1:53.3 | do not endeavor to resolve them. Shockingly, I am not going to crack the case of the meaning of life |
| 1:59.7 | and whether there are aliens and so on in today's episode. |
| 2:03.3 | I do not know the answers to any of those questions and I have very few answers as a general matter. |
... |
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