/lit/ - Literature

And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach ... the unreachable star ...

Wu Wei

>>2659222
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZc-fXHTSt8

you find out whether you actually have a brain inside you, or whether it's just a myth to keep you from finding out what's REALLY going on inside your head.

Have as much fun as possible. Go out with friends, get drunk, be merry. Just don't do anything that will hinder someone else's ability to have a good time.

>>2659222

>"Life is fucking ridiculous, completely inane, and a useless hassle."

that's just your brain talking, don't pay much attention to it, brains are nothing but trouble

go meditate, you'll realize what I mean

>>2659245
Not OP, but I've encountered this line of reasoning before.
How do you do this? I don't know how anybody ignores the horrors of life and its inevitable end long enough to have fun.

>>2659274
>How do you do this?

become like everyone else...it's easy, eat shit food, watch terrible movies, have no ambition, have no knowledge of current events, stop reading, stop thinking

acquire a tan
acquire new clothes every week
go out and get drunk 5x a week
rinse and repeat

>>2659283
Do I detect that trademark /lit/ snark? Those things suck (except drinking) so I don't see how they would make me feel better.

>>2659222
>>What do I do now, according to nihilists?

Over time, I realized that I had to get up and do something, because boredom is even worse than nihilism. Eventually, because I had to do something, I found what I enjoyed, and I live for doing that. I tell myself, "Just fuck around." That seems to motivate me, to just play, not take myself seriously, and work hard at something I know is ultimately meaningless but prevents boredom, which is worse.

Pretty much what you've been doing until now. It's not like you have control over your actions anyway.

why would a nihilist tell you what to do?

think for a second, son.

Lamp go to bed pls.

>>2659283
You imply that ambition is a good thing to have. What good is ambition if there is nothing that exists to be ambitious towards? inb4 hurr durr make ur own

>>2659274
What makes you happy? What do you like to do? Do that. It's really that easy.

I like to be around good people and see different places, either in this country or elsewhere. During the school year, I make it a goal to spend no more than one night alone. It doesn't have to be anything extravagant, like a dinner with one or two friends will suffice. I also save up what little money I make working to go on a trip every summer. Last summer I spent an entire month in Germany with my three closest friends. In a few weeks I'll be leaving again to spend a few weeks in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile.

>>2659301
This. Find something that binds you to the world. Or take up meditation.

You imbue new meaning to your life, you non-transcendent fucknut.

>>2659317
There comes a point at which you scrutinize everything, every thought and emotion and action, to such a degree that it is impossible to just enjoy something. Obviously if it was as easy as doing what makes you happy no one would be unhappy.

Too many people get tied up in dumb shit like family (having one's own family) and the pursuit of wealth.

>>2659327
When you get to that point, you have to burn out your brain. I spend most of the day doing relatively complicated mathematics, so after I'm done, I can just tune out.

>>2659327
>>Obviously if it was as easy as doing what makes you happy no one would be unhappy.

Happiness and unhappiness both come and go. I doubt anybody is either happy or unhappy at all times. You go back and forth. So you do in fact do what makes you happy, but only some of the time, without expectation of living in some utopian bliss at all times of life. If you can't deal with the fact that life has ups and downs, you're an infantile whiny bitch crying because he thinks pain lasts forever.

>>2659222

You are never going to find a satisfactory answer to that question. And listen to advice from these people, but be wary of any singular "path" that anyone tries to sell you.

This goes for all of you. You are not going to be driven your whole life by one singular pursuit. Shit changes, you change. Life is one giant mindfuck, and there are no easy answers. There is no magic bullet. Not nihilism, not hedonism, not money, not family, not altruism, not amusement, not hatred. Every reason or non-reason you can come up with is shit.

Never ever think you have the answer, because you never will. Keep looking. Keep changing. You aren't a static object, you're a goddamn human being.

>>2659342
I think you've missed the point.

>>2659333
>When you get to that point, you have to burn out your brain

How and why. Why should I "burn out" my brain just because it's aware of the absurd existence it's confined to?

>>2659346

Elaborate please. I'm in the mood to actually learn something. Feeling thoughtful today. What was the point?

>>2659353
You addressed a question that no one asked, to wit: Why can't I be happy all the time?
There's a difference between not getting to go on all the rides at the carnival and anhedonia.

>>2659349
Because your brain has turned against you. Probably because you are not making full use of it. The entire line of thinking of nihilism is a lot like picking at a scab. Instead of focusing on there being no inherent meaning, you have to realize you don't need a meaning in the first place. It sounds cheesy as fuck, but your life really is an empty canvas. You are free to do anything you want.

>>2659357
>>There comes a point at which you scrutinize everything, every thought and emotion and action, to such a degree that it is impossible to just enjoy something.

Oh, I see now. Anhidonia added to my vocabulary. I would still suggest that it's not a permanent state. At least for me, I question everything sometimes, but other times, I just enjoy life. If a person suffers anhidonia at all times, I would think it's a mental disorder, perhaps clinical depression. Ordinary human brains are capable of pleasure even if nihilistic in their perspective of the world. Chemical imbalances, however, might make the brain take no pleasure, which is a malfunction of the brain rather than a result of personal philosophy or a view of life itself.

>>2659361
Calling it a malfunction is a value judgement. I encounter this reasoning all the time: if you are not happy, you are wrong; if something makes you sad, it is incorrect. Biology has no teleology, and being unhappy isn't an illness. It is a mode of experiencing the world that many people share.
The response to this could very well be something like "Well, stew in your own shit, then," to which I can offer no rebuttal. It's really a no-win situation.

>>2659369

I disagree. I think the brain makes happiness possible. It's just a flow of chemicals that stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain. Maybe we associate this with external things, but in the end it's the brain itself releasing chemicals that stimulate pleasure.

Thus, it's not a value judgment. It's just a general assumption that the brain is, in an ordinary state, capable of releasing chemicals that stimulate the feeling of pleasure.

>>2659316
>What good is ambition if there is nothing that exists to be ambitious towards?

So you wish you were born with a preset function, like a bee and you had to pollinate honey all day?

ok, your preset function is to spread your genes, go make as many babies as u can

>>2659222
>What do I do now

There are several things you can do:

1) Alcohol! Start drinking as early in the day as you can. Get drunk long before bed time and you'll have little if any hangover.

2) The Existentialist solution. Create meaning yourself. It's not going to come from anywhere else.

3) Don't focus so much on yourself. Focus on others. Focus on a cause. The less you focus on yourself the better you might feel.

4) Anhedonia is a mental illness. I'm not aware of any meds for this. Therapy *might* help. Behavioral modification is probably the only therapy that can help.

5) Be stoical. Suck it up. Be a man. 90 years is not really that long. You'll be dead before you know it.

>>2659369
Well, I think the guy was saying that there might be something wrong with your brain if you literally can never feel pleasure or happiness. This is different from saying that if something makes you sad, it is wrong. Though it is true that this seems to be a very prevalent viewpoint in the current generations. This is a problem, because people simply do not consider ideas that are unpleasant. And of course, just because something is unpleasant, it doesn't mean that it is false. There's this documentary about the history of advertising called The Century of the Self, that at one point claims mass marketing has effectively created several generations of "happiness machines". Maybe you could watch it to while away the time.

>>2659378
>I think the brain makes happiness possible.
...to different degrees for different people. To say that being happy is its "ordinary state" is indeed a value judgement. It comes back to the terrible misnomer that's bandied about by too many people with a little bit of knowledge: "chemical imbalance." There is no natural state, and saying you should feel how most people feel is a very unconvincing appeal to popularity.

>>2659385
Saying something is wrong with the brain not only does nothing to fix it, but also forces a view of the "correct" way a brain should be. There is no correct or incorrect in biology, only variation. Even saying something is maladaptive is no longer relevant to most (Western, middle class, safe, non-homeless, etc) people, since we're not really in a struggle for survival anymore.

>>2659394
Well, it's only a problem if you feel like it is one.

>>2659387

No, no. I'm saying that both happiness and unhappiness are natural states, that the brain will naturally vacillate between the two.

>>2659394
You're the one saying its wrong. I said it's a "malfunction," which as a word means "not functioning as it was intended." Nowhere in that word is "good" or "bad." If your hand was cut off, your hand would no longer function. You're actually projecting your own belief about "good" and "bad" onto my language, not the other way around. And you're arguing against the existence of values that suggest good and bad by projecting your own value that the word "malfunction" means "bad." See?

>>2659222

It is now that you either take this realization and transcend the very essence of reality, see the scam you have been pulling on yourself and enter a higher state of consciousness.


We pretend that we are something we are not

We pretend that we have forgotten that we are pretending

We can not be something we are not, and we can not forget this

But we can pretend

Remember that you are only pretending


Or you just get a girlfriend or something, i don't know.

>>2659410

5deep3girlfriend

>>2659406
>No, no. I'm saying that both happiness and unhappiness are natural states, that the brain will naturally vacillate between the two.
...to different degrees for different people. Some people are mostly happy, some people are mostly unable to be happy.

"Malfunctioning" clearly has a negative meaning. Even if it doesn't, as you argue, you're still claiming there's a "correct" way for it to function. Again, biology has no intentions. Your example of a hand being cut off is not analogous at all. That's a very clearly physical injury involving the death of cells and tissue. There is (usually) no such physical trauma in an unhappy person's brain.

>>2659418
>>Again, biology has no intentions.

This may be the root of our disagreement. I myself see very clear intentions in evolution, mainly survival and reproduction. If my view is right, pleasure and pain evolved for the sake of survival and reproduction, which is a biological intention. For example, you put your hand in fire and pull it out again, not because you value your life or choose in any way, but because your biological makeup includes a reflexive attempt at survival. To say that that's not a biological intention is where I disagree. Equally, pleasure and happiness are a biological intention, prompting human beings to seek out things which result in what their genetics have programmed them to do: survive and reproduce. Pain and unhappiness are the other side of that, which I'd argue are existent in order to negatively reinforce the desire for pleasure and happiness. Therefore, pain and unhappiness actually exist and cannot ever be overcome - there is no state of perpetual happiness.

However, I still see it as a fact that a normal brain will feel pleasure, because it's designed for it. Thus, I still see it as a malfunction of its design if it doesn't at times provide pleasure. In no way do I assign values of "good" or "bad" to this (and perhaps I should have chosen a better word than "malfunction," considering the connotations).

>>2659437
See>>2659394
>Even saying something is maladaptive is no longer relevant to most (Western, middle class, safe, non-homeless, etc) people, since we're not really in a struggle for survival anymore.
You are essentially arguing that the "meaning of life" is to survive and reproduce. You can do that pretty easily in the modern world. That leaves you with lots and lots of extra time and mental capacity with no meaning to it, which goes back to the OP. In fact, you can live and breed while being miserable. If being miserable made you a better breeder, would that make it adaptive and thus the "correct" way to be?

>>2659222
You do whatever you want

>>2659445
>Even saying something is maladaptive is no longer relevant to most (Western, middle class, safe, non-homeless, etc) people, since we're not really in a struggle for survival anymore.
You are essentially arguing that the "meaning of life" is to survive and reproduce. You can do that pretty easily in the modern world. That leaves you with lots and lots of extra time and mental capacity with no meaning to it, which goes back to the OP. In fact, you can live and breed while being miserable. If being miserable made you a better breeder, would that make it adaptive and thus the "correct" way to be?

You're really putting words into my mouth. I didn't use the words "wrong" or "correct," you did. That's your mind taking the word "malfunction" and adding on "maladaptive," the "good and the "bad," "wrong," and "correct." I haven't used those words except in reference to your own use of them. Don't you see how that's your values expressed and not mine, and the ridiculousness of projecting those values onto me while arguing in favor of a non-value based view of happiness and unhappiness?

As far as relevance goes, it is relevant because it still exists. Evolution hasn't taken us to a place where happiness and unhappiness, i.e., pleasure and pain, don't have an influence on us. And, whether you believe it or not, humanity remains in a struggle for survival. Maybe that's not entirely clear in the country you live in, but it would certainly be clear to someone, say, in Iraq right now.

>>2659445

Please excuse the poor quote job I just did.

>>2659456
>You're really putting words into my mouth. I didn't use the words "wrong" or "correct," you did. That's your mind taking the word "malfunction" and adding on "maladaptive," the "good and the "bad," "wrong," and "correct."
By your own admission, malfunctioning means "not functioning as intended." (In case you didn't know, the mal- literally means "bad," but let's ignore that). This could be rephrased as "functioning incorrectly," because if there is an intended function than there are unintended functions. I've already gone on at great length about why there is no intention. Let me repeat my question: if being unhappy made you a better breeder, would this be the preferred state?
You really didn't address anything I said, you just whinged about semantics. Use whatever words you like, I don't care.

>>2659475
>>if being unhappy made you a better breeder, would this be the preferred state?

Again, you're adding your values. "Preferred" is your addition. I said, for the sake of survival and reproduction. I didn't say that those were preferred. In fact, you've done little else in this conversation but project your own values onto me, but you did it in the form of an argument against them, so in essence, you're arguing against yourself. I would go so far as to assume that you're a rebel against a society that exists entirely in your own mind, which is, in fact, you.

So, again, there is no preferred state in my statements. There is a natural state. That in no way suggests a preference, only what exists as it is.

However, if unhappiness lent itself to reproduction, I would assume that more people would be born with the predisposition to unhappiness. Again, I'm making no use of the word "preferred," which is simply your own self rebelling against itself by projecting you onto the world around you.

>>2659486
The semantics of it don't matter. I'm not imposing any values on you. I'm trying to extract very simple answers out of you and you're hemming and hawing.
You called it a malfunction. There is no way around it. Choose your word for it, I don't care. The idea you're espousing is that there is a proper way of functioning, which is the opposite of a malfunction, the latter being, in your estimation, unhappiness.
>There is a natural state.
There are many natural states. For some people, the natural state is unhappiness. What does that have to do with anything, really?

And even with all of this, much of human life, indeed the things often thought of as the most human parts of humanity, have nothing to do with survival or breeding: art, entertainment, etc. Are these malfunctions because they don't contribute to breeding, and in fact take up time that we could use to breed?

>>2659500
>>The semantics of it don't matter. I'm not imposing any values on you.

You do it incessantly without your own knowledge.

>>I'm trying to extract very simple answers out of you and you're hemming and hawing.

Actually, you're answering your own questions by misreading and superimposing your own beliefs onto me, which I assume you do constantly in your life, thus existing in a world created entirely by your imagination, then rebelling against it.

>>You called it a malfunction. There is no way around it.

The word "malfunction" means something independent of your pleb mindset. "-mal" for example doesn't mean "bad" in the sense of morality, that's just your minimal understanding of the English language and your projection of your own values onto a simple word.

>>The idea you're espousing is that there is a proper way of functioning, which is the opposite of a malfunction, the latter being, in your estimation, unhappiness.

Again, "proper" is your term. According to your "good and bad" bias, you would obviously assume that "proper" and "malfunction" are opposites, when in fact that's your value-based reasoning.

>>2659500
>>And even with all of this, much of human life, indeed the things often thought of as the most human parts of humanity, have nothing to do with survival or breeding: art, entertainment, etc. Are these malfunctions because they don't contribute to breeding, and in fact take up time that we could use to breed?

You assume that art isn't for the sake or survival and reproduction. Then, again, you project your estimation of your own values onto me. Malfunctions because they don't equate to survival and reproduction?

Here you assume that I said that unhappiness was a "bad" state that opposed survival and reproduction.

All you're doing is arguing against yourself in your own mind.

I'm going to move on now, because I want to watch you try to get in the last word. Which, I already know, will make you feel like you've won something, when in fact you'll be winning an argument against yourself. Carry on. I await your effort at getting the last word, pleb.

>>2659534
I am very well aware of what malfunction means. What is the opposite of malfunction, in your estimation? Use that in place of whatever words I used that you object to. You're not addressing the points I'm making, you're just arguing semantics. Use whatever words make you happy.

>>2659536
You already said a malfunction is something that detracts from survival.
>LOL I WIN PLEB EPIC WIN XD
Par for the course, I suppose. Have a lovely evening.

>>2659548

"Detracts from survival" in no way suggests "bad." The ridiculousness of your understanding of the English language is abhorrent. Plebs gonna pleb.

This shouldn't be a thread on semantics.

>2012
>being a nihilist
>giving a fuck

>>2659560
I never said it did. You never addressed a single point. Nothing you said related to the point of the thread. Congratulations.

Also, I thought you were going to await my effort at getting the last word.

>>2659561

Actually, it interests me how the OP's nihilism is obviously a projection of his own values onto the world while the argument is precisely about that same thing: values being projected onto others.

>>2659573
1. No shit. Everyone projects their values onto the world.
2. OP hasn't posted in this thread in ages. I'm not OP.

>>2659577

I'm still here. So what is your question? Maybe I missed it entirely.

>>2659577
>>Everyone projects their values on the world

You realize that statement is nothing more than a projection of yourself onto the world?

>>2659585
Yes, and that fact is consistent with what I said. Now if I said "No one projects their values onto the world" I would have myself a contradiction.

>>2659585

>that statement is nothing more than a projection of yourself onto the world

You realize this statement is nothing but a projection of yourself onto the world?

>>2659591
>>2659587
>>2659585
And the thread about nihilism dissolves into navel-gazing, as it was destined to.

>>2659594

where else could it possibly have gone?

>>2659587
Do you always think in generalizations? Muddy thinking, shitty understanding of the English language, arguments based on a projection of yourself onto others. What are you, anon, an undergrad in a scarf?

>>2659596

What a faggot tripfag. So what makes you "profane," Benny? Your pseudo-punk fashion, your liberal drug use, or your latent homosexuality?

>>2659748

all three, buddy.

and my bisexuality is far from latent

>>2659760

You think that if you agree with me there's no way for you to feel bad, because whatever I say, you'll be. Nevertheless, you're a faggot because you want to feel good and are willing to feign indifference in order to avoid displeasure. In other words, you tell yourself lies to keep your egotistical anti-egotism propped up, am I correct?

>>2659768

correct on all fronts, yet again.

>>2659773

And conflict-avoidant, I see. Obviously too much of a pleb to realize that he's too much of a pleb to realize that he's too much of a pleb. Agree?

>>2659780

not exactly. i'm well aware of my status as a plebeian.

>>2659783

So you imagine christ-like images of yourself hanging on a cross, don't you?

>>2659788

and subsequently masturbate, yes.

>>2659788
I recognize how you write. I've come across you before. What country are you from? If you don't mind my asking.

>>2659760

>>2659791

And you like the idea of love, as I read in yesterday's poem. Do you have sex and is your seduction routine as I expect? Being bisexual, as you say, implies actual sex.

>>2659560
Not that I want to get involved in this "super" semantics argument you're having but....Malfunction... stemming from the french word mal... meaning bad.

>>2659814

I quite like the idea of love. I have sex, though I can't speak to whether or not my seduction routine is as you'd expect.

>>2659840

So you've been to college?

>>2659840
>>I quite like the idea of love.

I know you do.

>>2659852

junior college dropout, possibly going back in the fall

>>2659222
>What do I do now
whatever you want to.
>>2659569
what's a good place to start with Derrida (or Kittler for that matter)?

A book should do it. If not that, then something that you read.

>>2659222
kill yourself and become god

http://www2.b3ta.com/mind-control/

Kill yourself and become a movie star.

be a moralfag for some reason so far unidentified.
but it sounds cool:

I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship; but it is not this day! An hour of woe, and shattered shields, when the Age of Men comes crashing down; but it is not this day!

>>2659969

Brilliant!

lrn2existentialism

"Kierkegaard may shout in warning, 'If man had no eternal consciousness, if, at the bottom of everything, both large and trifling in the storm of dark passion, if the bottomless void that nothing can fill underlay all things, what would life be but despair?' This cry is not likely to stop the absurd man. Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable. If in order to elude the anxious question: 'What would life be?' one must, like the donkey, feed on the roses of delusion, then the absurd mind, rather than consigning itself to falsehood, prefers to adopt fearlessly Kierkegaard's reply: 'despair.' Everything considered, a determined soul will always manage."
—Albert Camus, "The Myth of Sisyphus"

>>2659984

I think Camus too quickly brushes aside the power of delusion in a gesture of masculine bravado.

When faced with the existential crisis, delusion is a fine choice.

>>2659987
only when it's not accompanied by self awareness. Fideism is disconnected from reality. it's not the way people think or motivate themselves. people only go along with delusions when they know it's true, not when they know it's delusional. To their own mind, everyone's following a a path of reason, not faith. Aquinas > Kierkegaard.

>>2659222
Congratulations, you have now unlocked sandbox mode. Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Go.

>>2660026
But still some things are forbidden.

>>2660026
>thinks if nothing is true then nothing exists

Plebs gonna pleb.

There is no good or evil: only power and those too weak to seek it.
~Michel Foucault, The Subject and Power (1982).

>>2660037

Nah, there's other stuff too.
~Me, like, I dunno, a couple minutes ago

>>2660007

Aquinas being better than Kierkagaard, that's funny.


Being suspended in religious fuckdrabble and taking the idea of a purpose and ultimate allegiance so seriously as to hinder human potential does not outweigh Kierkegaard.

Aquinas thought that masturbation was WORSE, as in, LESS PERMISSIBLE and thus LESS PUNISHABLE than rape because rape serves to fulfill a biological purpose, i.e. being fruitful and multiplying, while masturbating wastes seed.


Rape over masturbation, this is serial-killer-with-abusive-parents-and-lasting-attachment-issues-throughout-adulthood logic.

>>2660034
>doesn't know that total scepticism is the only plausible epistemology and that it makes truth claims impossible, therefore making validating claims about either the existence or not existence of anything impossible
>doesn't know that this results in being unable to derive some sort of ethical argument from anything, so one is also unable to make validating claims about any ethical system being the right one, therefore having no reason to dismiss any form of behaviour, thereby permitting everything

>>2660052

>doesn't know that society doesn't give a shit about your theoretics and will fucking kill you for disobeying their rules

>>2660050
Punishable by rape? Who the fuck? Kierkegard wasn't a rapist.

>>2660058
>implying I don't know that and simply calculate risks against my desires and cut corners where I can get away with it and gently obey the authorities when it is in my best interest

>>2660052
>troll wants to look intelligent by disregarding intelligent speech thereby acquiring points with the little people

Pleb.

>>2660060

Then everything isn't permitted, you dummy.

>>2660063
>can't into counter-argument against scepticism and amoralism

Have a wonderful day.

>>2660067

You're not even amoral. You're an ethical egoist.

>>2660067

You mean you're actually serious about what you say? That's pathetic. And you think it's my job to correct you? That's entertaining.

>>2660066
It is. Other peoples rules are seen as forces of nature, not commandments. Everything wouldn't be permitted for me if I were to take their rules into account even if I were not to be reprimanded for breaking them. But I treat their rules like I treat any obstacle: I acknowledge its existence and seek to get around it if I can.

>>2660050
wtf i didn't say he was better in every way. that was just concisely rounding off my point. reason over faith

>>2660069
For from it. I don't think people should act in their own interest in general. I think they should act in my interest. Not because they ought to morally, but because I would like that.

>>2660067

if i wanted to i could argue with you endlessly. i studied literature and linguistics for 3 years at university. apart from that i realized that 90% of these literature theorists and lit. philosophers are mostly full of elitist crap, trying as hard a possible to make everything they say as inaccessible as possible to everyone, i really find it hard to see a book as brilliant when it's plain boring. but i guess i'll fight my way through.

ideas have eaten you all

>>2660082

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.

>>2660083
men controlling ideas, ideas controlling men. it's indistinguishable.

>>2660082
I studied literature and philosophy for 3 years and came to roughly the same conclusions. Brofist.

That said, I still this opinion leads you to get hostile about my fine reasoning.

>>2660080

Okay, fuck the labels, I won't try to thrust one upon you.

However.

If you were a nihilist, you wouldn't see any reason for your interest to be important.

If you were a skeptic, you wouldn't even be able to know what 'your interest' actually is.

>>2660088
lol

>>2660082

classic attitude of someone who has never been to university.

>>2660094

classic attitude of someone who has never had an anus devoid of horsecock

>>2660088

i'm on the phone with the FBI. i studied literature and linguistics for 3 years at university. apart from that i realize that your inane. but 90% of these literature theorists and lit. philosophers are mostly full of elitist crapi studied literature and linguistics for 3 years at university. apart from that i realized that 90% of military personnel are mostly full of elitist crap, trying as hard a possible to make everything they do as violent as possible to everyone, i really find it hard to see a soldier as dangerous when it's plain boring. but i guess i'll fight my way through.

>>2660089
1. Ideas are cerebral
2. The brain is a part of the body
3. A person is the whole of its body and its functioning
4. Therefore the idea is part of the person
5. A part of a thing can never have more of a certain quality than the whole thing, since the part is included in the whole
6. Being merely a part of the person, an idea can never exert more power over the whole than the whole can over itself
7. Therefore, it is impossible for an idea to control a person.

>>2660092
I agree. Still, I act. So far I have found it most pleasant to remove myself of pain and familiarise myself with pleasure. It's a drive that I have that isn't connected to any idea of truth. It operates without the need for that. That is the nice thing about seeking pleasure, it doesn't require the truth.

>>2660099

So your shit, which is a part of you, exerts a level of control that your brain cannot distinguish from your ideas right? In other words, your ideas are influenced by your shit? Do we agree?

>>2660107

Plebs gonna pleb.

>>2660107

Yes it does. You have to know what it is.

>>2660098

not bad/10

this new pasta's boring though, and likely won't catch on or be posted by anyone other than yourself

life is stupid. the sheeple run the show and all they do is bitch and moan about rock and roll and whats latest in the movies

Make the best of it, since you don't know how good the alternative is

Stack paper to the ceiling and ride 24" chrome, homie

>>2660144

but whats the alternative?

>>2660145
Death

>>2660147

the death of what?

figure out how to be an idiot

>>2660158
nope, wrong line of thinking buddy.

>>2660158

Yourself

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the point of this thread, but, from what I gather, OP is bitching about life. My argument is that, since we don't know whether the alternative (death) is any better, it's best to enjoy the good things in life (stacking paper to the ceiling and riding 24" chrome)

>>2660225
>since we don't know whether the alternative (death) is any better

Who said anything about life being good to begin with? I think you're life of masturbation, self-seeking, and self-approval is rather abhorrent, pleb.

>>2660229
How do you know it's bad? What do you have to compare it to?

>>2660231

Who said anything about life being bad, pleb? I can see from your use of language that you masturbate yourself with the approval of others, that's all.

Somebody heard about absurdism, but not the punchline?

Protip: The punchline is Fuck it. WE'LL DO IT LIVE.

>>2660235
Well, OP, for one

I'm not seeking approval of others. Big chrome rims look fresh

Life's a game. Play by the rules until you acquire enough funds to drop off the grid and not starve

>>2660239

When life is good, we don't ask "why am I here? What's the point?" We only ask that when things aren't going well. We're having a bad day or feel lonely or sick. This indicates that a "point" beyond living itself is unnecessary, and when living is unpleasant we want another thing to focus on to comfort us.

But living is the thing. Living is THE thing. It's all we have. So when life is bad, you try to make it better. When you can't make your own life better, try to make the lives of others better until the opportunity arises to improve your own. Who knows? You might enjoy helping people.

But whatever you do, the point of life, again, is LIVING. Period, end of.

I'm a nihilist on good days because I don't feel the need for any meaning. On bad days I'm an absurdist because I know if I can just keep going then I'll get to be a nihilist again.

>>2660241

It's clear when you lie about it where your fantasy of being different comes from.

>>2660229
>masturbation
fun
>self-seeking
Not sure what you mean here. Seeking to know and understand yourself, or seeking whatever you personally want?
>self-approval
The other option is to seek the approval of others, which is a recipe for catastrophe.

As long as you're not hurting others, then hedonism is perfectly acceptable. Especially since most hedonists (who don't constantly seek nothing but pleasure but instead just try to enjoy life and live it, savoring pleasure as it comes) of which I know tend to enjoy doing good for others, as they recognize that they themselves have value, and that others are individuals with value much like themselves.

>>2660258

Pleb. You're raping the whole world and you don't even know it. Is that valuing others?

>>2660271
I'm not the person you were talking to before, you flaw. And the word "pleb" has lost all meaning on 4chan.

>Life is fucking ridiculous, completely inane, and a >useless hassle.
>What do I do now, according to nihilists and the like

finish high school.

>>2660241
>tfw someone else knows the objective glory of rolling on dubs or more
>be poorfag but roll with ghetto fabulous folk daily and still appreciate what you imply wholeheartedly

Never change.

>>2660287

Satan has ruined this board.

life's not game, it's a fucking trial

>>2661135
>implying afterlife
fgt

>>2661147
trial for what? we don't know. perhaps nothing, which simply makes it even tougher.
at least if it were a game with no reward, we could play for fun. but most of us are not having fun. most of us are incapable of playing for fun even if we wanted to. even those in a position to enjoy the game with no reward, still find a way to turn it into a arduous procedure.

You should read Albert Camus.

The Myth of Sisyphus is amazing.

http://www.philosophybro.com/2010/12/camus-myth-of-sisyphus-summary.html

A very good summary

What an enlightening conversation.

You just keep trying, that's all. You do your work. Everybody has a purpose. Every moment has a purpose. The purpose is love.

>>2659361
I feel like reading this whole thread later, but I think what he's talking about- because I feel the same way, most of the time- isn't exactly anhedonia. It's not at all being unable to feel pleasure or happiness, but rather the compulsive analysis of every situation you're in, every feeling or desire you have, that puts this auto-mediated filter over everything, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. It's not being unable to be happy, it's being unable to *just* be happy.

>>2660111
You are indeed influenced by your digestion.

>>2659222

You only find life meaningless because you are too much of a fucking huge worthless faggot infected with slave morality to actually create some meaning yourself. This is what Nietzsche, and I, would say.

>still expecting life to have a point to be validated
>2012

nigga wtf

>>2662741
>2012
>master/slave morality dichotomy
>not realising that these term referred to peoples of old
>not realising that we are all the mixed result of both these paradigms
>not realising that this is what Nietzsche thought
>acting as the lord protector of the great moustache without understanding his philosophy

Sure hope don't.

>>2662747

>Not realising that you are unable to make sense in a post.

If life is meaningless then how come I'm alive?
God gives it meaning.

>>2662752
>not having read On the Genealogy of Morals and therefore being unable to understand what I'm referring too

>>2662769
Read second chapter of the Selfish Gene and you'll know why you're alive.

Link:
http://books.google.com.br/books?id=koaD_Aod_V0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+selfish+gene&amp
;hl=en&sa=X&ei=zGy-T8O1MejH6AHtgZFZ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false