Is there positive nihilism? This might be it.
First off. I’m not interested in where you place your faith. That’s between your two ears only as far as I’m concerned and you’ll lose me the moment you start proselytizing. I am happy for you whether you have something or nothing.
But.
What I do need you do understand is that regardless of all of that—no matter how many beautiful moments it holds, life is indifferent. The universe simply does not care. Wanton death and chaos seemingly reign supreme far too often. No amount of screaming into any one direction will grant you your wishes.
[I can without a doubt say the children of this so called universe who seem to rely on astrological charts are also not reaping any nepotism benefits and usually seem like the most insufferable to be around. So, if there was a conundrum there…we’ve solved that quite quick.]
Everything you want is yours for the taking but it must be you who decides to do the work to take it. And then after the fact, you must very well figure out how to make that happen with most of the cards usually stacked against you-some more than others. It’s very much an every man (or woman) for him(or her)self type setup even if you do have a tribe behind you. Survival of the fittest per se.
But should it always be that way?
Should we be leaning into that? Should we be hardening our hearts to better handle these stresses? The pursuit of a stronger, better, more physically defined body might go well with an at minimum stoic person in charge of it, right? Sure? Maybe? The famous stoics had a lot of good stuff to say and I think they offer an incredible library of readable, thinkable, and actionable ideas that can improve the way we handle stress but I think they regularly fail to fully acknowledge that is it not a bad thing we are intrinsically tied to other human beings emotionally. Caring about what others care about it is important for the greater good of your tribe.
Entropy is a concept in physics that posits that energy is always flowing towards a more chaotic state. Think more a slow burn of heat dissipating from a warm spoon you set on the counter than a bomb going off. Technically the heat moving into the surrounding air is more chaotic than it being confined to the spoon itself. Since we are, at our most basic, just energy wrapped into atoms, wrapped in molecules, wrapped in cells, wrapped in tissues, wrapped in organs, wrapped in skin and held up by bones, it would make sense that we too are being hurled rapidly through the universe just as fast towards chaos. Now, whether this process feels like it’s happening rapidly (you just got into a car crash after losing your job earlier that day AFTER dropping your morning toast…butter side down) or slowly (your favorite pickles were out at the grocery store so you had to settle for second best [out of literally one hundred options]) it’s still happening. Bad things seemingly happen to good people just as often as they happen to bad people and it makes me scratch my head often.
If it’s all suffering and chaos in the end does it actually matter if we are good or bad throughout the process? [this argument only considers our earthly time and I’m not exploring what I think happens after, please don’t read too far into that]. If the universe doesn’t care, why should I? The eventual decay to chaos beyond what our forms are capable (death) is inevitable. It’s a cold reality of the universe which we’ve already established is not concerned with how we feel and as the previous paragraphs suggest, the universe might even try to accelerate that process on occasion. But these truths do not mean that we ourselves need to match that chaos and coldness.
Imagine the trolley problem. But in this scenario, you are both pulling the lever and somehow stuck on both sets of tracks. It doesn’t really matter which track the trolley ends up on, you die either way. So you might as well be nice to people because the end result is the same and it costs nothing to do.
We are all going to die. We are all going to suffer somehow. Would you rather spend your time here making other’s suffering worse? Or would you rather lighten their load in hopes the eternal transfer of energy and conservation of it someday blesses you with less yourself? This shouldn’t happen out of fear of eternal damnation either. This should simply happen because we should take care of each other.
Your thoughts, words, and actions have consequences beyond your understanding. The butterfly effect of simply being nice extends further than you’ll ever know. I made a post years ago and it said “If you’re aren’t actively trying to improve the lives of those around you on a daily basis you are living wrong.” I still believe that but want to extend it.
If you aren’t actively trying to improve the lives of everyone, whether you know them or not, you are living wrong.
It costs nothing to say please, thank you, hello, and so on. The price you’ll pay for being lonely later on because you intentionally pushed people away is however very high.
The universe might not care.
But you should.
Life might be unfair.
But you should not be.
The world is calloused and cold.
You don’t have to be.
Live with compassion.
Think with empathy.
Act with care.
Be mindful of others.
And get strong as fuck while doing so.
Buy aBOLISH shirtS here!
Thank you for reading this entire article, I truly appreciate your support.
Here is a 40% off your entire order for all remaining stock at conjugatestrong.bigcartel.com
Use code: THANKS26
Expires: 10/31 @ Midnight
This code does not work on the Abolish shirts.
