So if you are at a point in your life when your existential questions are increasingly spending time with nihilism, you may worry, slippery slope and all, that anhedonia is around the corner.
To make sure that you do not slip down that slope, you may want to anchor yourself to some purposes or objectives. Goals. Don’t bother with a single metaphysically illuminating supernova. Remember, you are where you are because those just didn’t pan out.
Consider, for example, making improvements in your mobility. We exist, for better or for worse, in a body that moves us through the world. Increasingly, there are people who are developing or following exercise routines that focus on improving the control you have over your body’s motion and increasing the ways in which you can smoothly move your body. The West’s take on Tai Chi basically.
As an aside – this should become the focus of compulsory schooling’s PE class.
Throw several more of these “improvements” on a list, work towards them, strike off ones that aren’t really getting any traction and replace with new ones.
Do these goals all have to be improvements? And what makes something an improvement? Your skeptical mind is why you are where you are in the first place and so it is only natural that these questions will follow.
Increasing your ability to metabolize alcohol by drinking more on a regular basis for example is in some respects an improvement. You ponder – What makes liver cirrhosis different from Muay Thai shin “conditioning”? You answer – the former shortens life while the latter doesn’t. You rebut – you assume a longer life has more value than a shorter one. You question – would I rather live in a drunken stupor for 40 years than live sober for 80 working on my mobility?
No problem. You do you.
But take heed – The more you dabble in nihilism, the more likely it is that you will degenerate into a full blown imbecile.
When you dedicate brain power for nihilistic projects, the neurons involved begin wiring together into structures that create unhinged and meaningless work. If enough of this happens – you go full retard.
Coming off a personally satisfying project in which he replaced the tires on his bicycle with running shoes, The Q, who is apparently an engineer, decided to replace his bicycle tires again when winter came and neighboring surfaces froze with ice.
This time, he chose circular saw blades. That’s right. The video at top shows you the efforts he expended to remove the hubs from his existing wheels and install them on two large circular saw blades. He then fits his bike with his newly produced saw wheels and records himself trying to propel himself forward on a frozen lake.
When your brain has become overrun with neurological connections that have been firing to create useless garbage – living in nihilism – there’s little left to make you think
- just buy a set of hubs with brake discs and keep your wheels intact because you’re going to need them
- rotating a circular saw is what makes it, well, saw
And, as expected, with the 70-80 kg downward force his body is putting on the circular saw as his legs turn the pedals, his new wheel saws into the ice. This sends him back to the drawing board.
His engineering background wakes up from its slumber to have him cut the tips off the saw’s teeth and weld them sideways creating what is effectively a gear or a rigid continuous track like you see fitted on tanks and dozers. He then rides off on the ice pleased with himself.
In an age overpopulated with digital content creators, one expects dross in the deluge of output. That’s not what we are witnessing with The Q. The Q has millions of subscribers and almost as many clips featuring innovations similar to the ones described above; all made with enthusiastic intentionality.
The Q is a purveyor of shameless nihilistic creation. And in case you needed more evidence – his logo is in comic sans.
Take heed. If you were not born an imbecile, be grateful and fend off imbecility by living with meaningful purpose. Cultivate discernment. The options are myriad. There’s no excuse.
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