On Purpose and Nihilism
When man has no meaning or purpose in his life, yet he is not psychotically depressed, a regressive void is formed. Into the void he falls unconsciously, doing everything he can to get out, unaware that his desperate attempts to escape aggravate the effect like fighting against quicksand.
A unique facet of human nature, other than Piaget’s belief of a tendency towards religiosity, is that humans have a need to overcome obstacles or challenges. We need something greater than ourselves to work on, and this is emblematic of the struggle to define one’s purpose in life. What gives you satisfaction varies from person to person, however, the overarching desire to innovate, work towards goals, and solve problems is characteristic of what it means to be human.
This is the issue I have with living in a decadent society where most of your basic problems are already solved — it creates a surplus of grown adults who have no lasting purpose or problems to address in their lives. If the struggle for meaning is characteristic throughout human history, and we can look at some of humanity’s greatest feats to demonstrate this (i.e. Pyrimids, Eiffel Tower), then it exists in modern society nonetheless today. This facet of human nature has not seemingly disappeared over the last 100 years since the industrial revolution.
If we want to live to our greatest potential, the goal is to pursue what beckons our interest in the foreground. This is what Jung referred to as something calling our essence into being, or a future ideation of ourselves calling us into being.
What I worry about in a decadent society like the United States is that we seek short-term gratification as a way of pacifying our deepest worries — the existential worry that we have nothing to live for, and as a result we surround ourselves with distractions such as social media, pornography, or drugs/alcohol to pacify these worries that we will never live a meaningful life.
I was just thinking yesterday that social media actually isn’t the problem. It might be a symptom of the greater problem, which is that we have no understanding of what drives us, what our motivations are, and what is meaningful in our lives. Social media is an addiction that pacifies the human need to work towards a meaningful goal in our lives. When we are unsatisfied with our lives, we use distractions like these to put our minds at rest like a pacifier for a baby.
Yet the negative feeling that ensues like a bad taste in your mouth after hours of using your phone is a sign of what you are neglecting in your life. Digital distractions are a pseudo-antidote to lack of meaning, because like drugs and alcohol, they may release a dopamine rush that pacifies your anxieties for a short period.
The problem is that social media addiction has long-term consequences. A general feeling of anxiety and hopelessness can ensue when you wake up everyday with nothing exciting to look forward to. Naturally, we look for the narrative that fits our actions most, and when we realize that we have nothing meaningful to contribute, the natural inclination is to develop a nihilistic outlook on life.
Nihilism is the most insidious consequence of a lack of meaning in life, because it not only ruins any hope in the individual of pursuing something that is meaningful, but it encourages the victim to actively sabotage others’ goal-seeking as well. It is a negative karma that should be contained at its source. Sadly, I see nihilism growing in the near future as people become more isolated from each other, not only during this pandemic, but due to the advent of remote working as well.
An antidote to nihilism is to begin somewhere small and start taking care of yourself as if you were taking care of someone you truly cared for. Get yourself a job for example — it doesn’t have to be the perfect career, this is a narrative that is overplayed in society. A job that you don’t find meaningful could be a positive distraction because you begin to actively taking on responsibilities that you didn’t have before. There are no responsibilities when you open Instagram, or Facebook, or SnapChat — absolutely none. That’s what’s so enthralling about social media pacification.
Starting somewhere small will also get you into the so-called “doer” mindset. Many of us thinkers are plagued by over-analysis when we are stuck in a rut in our lives, thinking of all the possible paths forward rather than actually making a decision.
Once you begin somewhere, you will begin to find a source of newfound motivation for yourself, and this will trigger a new sense of meaning somewhere you had previously never considered. Meaning is found in the places we least expect it, and the goal is the search, not the contention that one understands the meaning of life at the beginning of the journey.
Instead of thinking about goals, think about things that are in your control right now that can bring you closer to your goals. Differentiate what you can control from what you cannot. This is an antidote to nihilism.