I watched a Youtube video by The Living Philosophy titled Nihilism vs Existentialism vs Absurdism – Explained and Compared. I found it interesting since it explained so much. I knew Nihilism had taken a strong hold on our postmodern society, but this made me realize just how much of those other two philosophies also infected today’s Western thinking.

Now this was only a fourteen-minute video so it could only give a very low-level view of these philosophies, and I know that those who have studied the works Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus will accuse me of oversimplifying and ignoring many major points of these philosophers, and that is true. I am doing that, but so do most common people, even those well-educated. However their views are seeping into our culture in the most superficial way, and I feel my limited knowledge can explain why the world is going the direction it is.

Friedrich Nietzsche is viewed as the for most thinker in the realm of Nihilism. He introduced it when he made the statement “God is Dead.” By this he meant that concept of God had no sway on modern man. It is said that Nietzsche mourned this result because he foresaw what was to come. For without God, man’s morality would be “do what you will,” and the Twentieth Century had that come about in spades, with the Holocaust, the Soviet Purges, and Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Nietzsche also understood that without God, western man would find no meaning in life, thus Nihilism. Nietzsche’s antidote to Nihilism was the “Will to Power,” and ushering in the “Uberman,” or superman. This seemed to work for a while until the hubris of the Eugenics movement culminated in the Holocaust. Once that happened the ideas of the “will to power,” and the superman were dropped.

With the loss of Nietzsche’s prescription, there was still a need for a response to Nihilism. Thus, came Existentialism and Absurdism. Not surprisingly, both of these were born in the 1960s, some fifteen or twenty years after the end of World War II.

Jean-Paul Sartre was the foremost leader of the Existentialist school. He coined many of existentialisms terms and I believe was the first to call himself an existentialist. Sartre said that existence was first and then followed essence. He was referring to the metaphysical term that came down from the ancient Greek philosophers. And what he said was counter to Aristotle who said essence defined existence. For example, Aristotle would say that the essence of a cup is to hold liquid and the essence of knife is to cut. If a cup failed to hold water, then failed to exist as a cup. Hence essence precedes existence. Sartre said that you (or anything) exist first and then determines its essence. For people this is done by free will and by choosing your judgements and actions. In short, essence is a choice, and by making that choice you find meaning and overcome nihilism.

Albert Camus had a different take. Like Nietzsche and Sartre, he accepted that due to nihilism, existence had no meaning no matter what choices you made and was therefore absurd. He said we should embrace this absurdity and by doing so we are left with only three options. The first was suicide, which he rejected since dying is just the end. The second was what he called philosophical suicide, which is where you choose to believe a lie to give your life meaning. Being a nihilist means being an atheist and so Camus saw accepting any religion as philosophical suicide. The final choice, and the one he chose, is to rebel. Go against all conventions and do what you will. This is why his personal hero was the Sisyphus from Greek mythology. Recall that Sisyphus was a libertine in life who after his death tricked his way out of Hades to continue his libertine ways. In the end Sisyphus was condemned to roll a rock up a hill only to have it slide down and have him roll up again. Camus saw Sisyphus as happy even in the meaninglessness of his eternal task.

Looking at these philosophies I realized I was looking at our post-modern world and why it is such a mess. For even after the horrors of the Twentieth Century today’s world is still atheist and therefore nihilist.

Now I’m not calling Nietzsche a Nazi or even a proto-Nazi, but as Herman Wouk said, “Nietzsche has blood on his grave.” However, his ideas when pushed to their logical end point resulted in a Hitler and the Holocaust. So, ushering in the Superman by the will to power is rejected. That leaves Existentialism and Absurdism.

It seems that significant and highly vocal part of society have chosen Existentialism as seen in the Trans Movement. These, like Sartre, see their existence first and try to choose their essence by changing their gender, race, generation, or even species, and then demand the rest of the world endorse their insane choice.

However, an even higher number have accepted Camus Absurdist call to rebellion. They reject all traditions, conventions, and wisdom of the past. They often see themselves as intellectually and morally superior with their luxury beliefs (as coined by Robert Henderson) that they themselves do not follow. They don’t see, or don’t care, that these views they push are not adding to human freedom but are increasing misery and social disintegration. Which can be easily seen and backed up by statistics on out of wedlock pregnancies, crime rates, and homelessness.

The strange thing is that while many take Camus’s advice on the third response to Absurdism, even more are taking his second option of philosophical suicide. In rejecting this second option, Camus was thinking in terms of the classical Judeo-Christian religions, but he failed to recognize that other religions such as Marxism, Wokeism, radical third wave feminism, and New Age mysticism are out there, and are flourishing under Nihilism. True they do not espouse a god, but as Buddhism shows, a god or gods are not necessary for a religion. And all of those isms I listed have their dogma, scripture, prophets, and saints. Listen to any who adhere to them, and you find them as close-minded as any inquisitor from the Middle Ages. They have committed philosophical suicide.

What is tragic is that in the Twenty-first Century while the individual has rejected Camus’s first option, society has taken it up. Just look at the demographics of depopulation happening worldwide. And in the West, many of the youth are not getting married. We see young women holding out for men with the three sixes (six foot or taller, six figure income, and six pack abs) failing to realize that’s less than one percent of the men. While MGTOW (men going their own way) and Incel (involuntary celibate) are becoming larger and larger with young men.

Our only conclusion is that Nihilism and its secular antidotes of Existentialism and Absurdism are destroying the world.

#Nihilism, #Existentialism, #Absurdism, # Nietzsche, # Sartre, # Camus