08 January 2021
Some Men Want To Watch The World Burn (Episode #136 - Nihilism) - S1E270
Why does a loss of meaning lead to despair and destructiveness? In this themed episode Juan and I discuss the topic of 'Nihilism'. As usual we start off with our MMM's and a definition before talking a little bit about the history of the word. The Russians of course have the market cornered on all things despair related so it's no surprise that they made the word popular with Ivan Turgenev's book 'Fathers & Sons'.
The rest of our discussion revolves around how nihilism plays out in real life. Is it possible to be a logical nihilistic and use the concept positively? Does nihilism always lead to despair? What's the difference between existentialism and nihilism? There are also 4 types of nihilism (or more depending on how many you want to count) which are used in a philosophical way to explore some deep topics. As it is a bit of a depressing topic we wanted to finish on a lighter note, so listed out some characters from popular culture that exhibit signs of nihilism (some in a funny way).
As always, we hope you enjoy, Mere Mortals out!
Timeline:
0:00 - Intro & Mere Mortal Moments
3:47 - Definition
5:51 - History of the word: Ivan Turgenev & Friedrich Nietzsche
10:46 - The subjective feeling of being nihilistic
16:42 - An existentialist vs a nihilist
21:42 - Jordan Peterson & nihilism
23:11 - Sunny nihilism and its positive potential
30:46 - The 4 types of nihilism
38:24 - Overwhelming despair
41:48 - Nihilism in pop culture: Fight Club/Life of Brian/Joker/Eeyore/One Punch Man
44:16 - Finding meaning in life: The Mere Mortals got your back
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Striving for excellence through life's lessons. Daily uploads @ 5pm AEST. 4M's, Book Reviews, Musings, Bonus, Themed Podcast, Conversations & Meanderings.
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