The seemingly endless examples of corruption, inequality and injustice that followed 2020 brought questions of ‘why are we here?’ and ‘what’s the point?’ to the fore. As a deadly virus spread across the globe, the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer sparked urgent Black Lives Matter protests in the US and UK.
The dread that Connor felt became collective during Covid-19, with psychologists stating it “revealed core existential fears and altered… lives in profound ways”. “Eventually, in 2020, I got into philosophy and stumbled upon the term nihilism.” Now, Connor had an answer to his existential questions – albeit an unsatisfying one.
“I felt alone in the universe… I drank a lot and smoked weed, trying mushrooms and other drugs to alter my mental state as a way to feel something that wasn’t universal doom and gloom,” he explains. He stuck it out at college, but only so he could continue searching for the meaning of life. These thoughts became more frequent over the next six years. As he puts it: “We are all just little grains of sand on a seemingly infinite beach.” His parents divorced when he was 20, leaving him with an overwhelming sense of meaningless. If nothing you do matters, why bother doing anything? Why get out of bed in the morning, bother with school work, work, or have goals at all?Ĭonnor Eaton, a 26-year-old from Canada, knows this feeling all too well. Different interpretations of nihilism are discussed on the sub but for many, the sentiment is bleak. It makes sense, then, that the subreddit r/nihilism grew from 31,000 members pre-pandemic in January 2019 to 115,000 in April 2022. Nihilism becomes a way to cope with reality. While suffocating under the daily drudgery of capitalism, visions of a brighter future can feel like a utopian fantasy. I think the state of the world will drastically affect the way young people perceive human existence. “I don’t have much hope for the race’s future,” Luke says, “not when you see what’s going on today, for example, with Russia and Ukraine, Islamic persecution in China, technology promising connection but making us feel more disconnected, and animal extinction. The barrage of bad news can push young people like Luke into pessimism. (Know Your Meme/Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher) All of this felt in the shadow of a global pandemic which, according to a recent study by the Prince’s Trust, one-fourth of 16-25-year-olds in Britain feel they will “never recover” from emotionally. They live in fear of a climate crisis that threatens their very future. Young people are growing up in a world of rising costs, stratospheric rents and stagnant wages, with inequality only deepening. It’s understandable that people want to turn away from the harshness of reality. “With how our world’s governments are run, I find it hard to give a shit. If someone bumps into me in the hallway – so what? If I’m trying to cross a road and there’s a bunch of cars so it takes a while longer – so what? If I lose some money – so what?”įor Luke, this indifference extends to politics. “It resonated with me, particularly because I don’t like school much, so it proved I didn’t have to give much of a shit about it as all of us amount to the same nothing – no matter how successful or how hard we try,” he explains. Luke recognises that misanthropy – the general hatred for humanity – is a bleak concept but, he argues, it’s hard not to be “when you see how morally corrupt we all are, and the damage we are doing to the planet”.ĭespite this, Luke maintains that “the nihilistic mentality is incredibly freeing”. “The concept that nothing matters can be very depressing,” he says.
“We are thrust into this universe for no apparent reason.”Īdopting nihilistic beliefs made Luke feel alienated and suicidal. “I think nihilism is necessary for a true life,” the 15-year-old student tells Huck. He soon began to subscribe to the belief central to nihilism, which is that life is meaningless. But can believing nothing matters also be a catalyst for positive action?Ībout a year ago, while the UK was in lockdown, Luke* discovered nihilism through a philosophy channel on YouTube. Amid rising inequality and the climate crisis, the belief that life is meaningless is gaining traction.Īmid rising inequality and the climate crisis, the view that life is meaningless is gaining traction.
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