On Purpose - Positive Nihilism
By Silver of The Dragonheart Collective (7/25/2021)
So I identify as a nihilist.
Let me back up, because you probably got the wrong idea just now.
Nihilism is the belief that there is no inherent meaning for many things that society considers to have meaning. There are many schools of thought that apply this differently, and many disparate conclusions to make regarding those schools of thought.
Existential Nihilism holds life has no meaning, value, or purpose. Moral nihilism is the rejection of the concept of morals being objective or meaningful. Political Nihilism rejects all social constructs and politics. Epistemological Nihilism does the same for knowledge, and there are plenty more flavors.
When people talk about Nihilism, they often don’t actually know what nihilism means. Many people mistake it for misanthropy- the word for hating humanity, or assume that all nihilists are so because they want a philosophy excuse to just be an asshole indiscriminately without caring about harming others.
This however, is not the case. The base belief is nothing more than the above. The way people take the belief varies greatly. There are positive and nonharmful views of all of those branches, and to claim that nihilism is inherently harmful or unhealthy is patently incorrect.
I personally identify primarily as an existential nihilist. I believe that there is no inherent cosmic purpose for anything in this world to exist. There is no grand destiny planned out for each and every one of us, and IF there was, there is no need to follow it if you don't want to. Why does any entity have the right to dictate your life but you? They shouldn’t.
There is nothing we can be sure of and its dubious that reality even exists to begin with.
Life is meaningless, and that is what makes it wonderful.
You forge your own meaning for what you want in life.
There is something great and wondrous in the freedom to do whatever you wish, no secret rules to follow or you garner the wrath of some higher entity. No forced set path.
How does this relate to my nonhumanity?
Well. Thats complicated.
I understand my noemata and experiences to be that of a Silver Dragon from D&D in a past life. Its what feels right, to view these experiences in that way. To believe this and have it ring true in my eyes. The thing is- The thing is that in this other life, destiny and purpose were in effect.
Gods and magic were overt, provable, and active. If a god specifically created you for a purpose(a rare sort of thing), than it did, however, you could defy that purpose if you so wished. It was nothing more than an overbearing and authoritarian parent dictating hopes and wishes to you. The entity might throw a fit, any geas you were under might tear you asunder if you deviated, but if you did not like the purpose, you didn’t have to follow it. You could make your own destiny, it was not set in stone. True prophesies were a bit of a misnomer, and usually only attributed as such in hindsight. They are simply a prediction that takes into account the actions of others when they hear of said prophesy and manage to accurately predict what steps may be taken to thwart or enact it. A broken clock is right twice a day, after all. Hundreds of magic-fueled predictions may be made, eventually one will be right. It is not a commandment, but rather a prediction- it did not make it so, it just predicted that was what you would do.
The only true inevitable destiny sort of thing is contained time loops. A rare thing, time travel is, and true time travel, rather than timeline/dimension hopping or a mental vision of a future, is rarer still. True physical time travel creates a loop, wherein a thing must happen and does happen because it already happened. Not doing so has a variety of (usually catastrophic) consequences. Usually only those who got themselves into a time loop ever need to care about this.
This Earth, it does not have overt magic, and no feasible scientific way to time travel, so there is nothing that can cause that which creates True Time Travel. The average Joe needs to worry even less about such things. The possibility of getting stuck in such situations is slim to none, so therefore effectively, there is no cosmic destiny.
I did not have one in the Before, I chose my own purpose and calling, as most folks do. I followed it and chose to service a god for a time. Again, my choice, no god could decide that even in that reality.
I do not know how I came to be here. Long ago I thought perhaps I reincarnated for a purpose. A purpose I Chose to follow. Now, I am not so sure. I do not recall my death or my trip between, I only know that I came to reside within this body somehow. Wether I had a purpose or not, it doesn’t matter now. It was always my choice and it is still my choice. That is the meaning of free will and I am glad for it.