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/lit/ - Literature

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4547835 No.4547835[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Why is nihilism so common among teenagers?

>> No.4547861

>>4547835
They can only understand the world in absolutes.

>> No.4547863

Same reason leftism is so common among effeminate attention whores. Immaturity breeds cynical laziness.

>> No.4547880

>>4547863
>the year of our Lord 2014
>being this blindly judgemental

>> No.4547961

Teenagers first experience the transition from the ignorant idyllic nature of youth into a time of realization and exploration. Of course this brave new world is harsher and bleaker than the one of youth wherein everything is seen through a pleasant sepia tone so they experience mild existential crises which manifest themselves in a reactionary, unrealized nihilism for a short time before maturity and experience can shed greater perspective.

>> No.4547978

>>4547861
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescence#Relativistic_thinking

>> No.4547985

>>4547961
Exactly. Parents and teachers tell young children how life consists of happiness and rainbows and how special and beloved they are. When these children grow up and realize that all of this was a lie it hits really hard. In many cases it's just about puberty and rebellion but I think the adults are also to blame for not providing a realistic outlook on life for children.

>> No.4547997

>>4547961
>>4547985
pls help me
what do I read to get out of this edgy shit, im too old for this at 24

>> No.4547999

because every bird must leave the nest

childhood has imposed barriers - imposed by parents - and limitations - from lack of financial autonomy.

being old enough to understand the world, unlike children, yet too young to be tied down like adults, the have inclination to explore.

then they mature and fall back in line

finite ----> infinite ---> finite

adolescence is about exploring your potential and realising your limitation so you can move on to a fulfilling life in equal regards to your desires and capabilities.

>> No.4548001

It's not

>> No.4548005

>>4547997
Realizing that what you're experiencing is edgy shit and that you are too old for such an outlook seems pretty indicative that you're going to be okay.

>> No.4548698

>>4547863
*tips bible*

>> No.4549830

>>4547997
>>4547985
>>4547961
>>4547861
>implying some of the world's greatest ADULT thinkers weren't existentialists

>> No.4549852

>>4548698
>*tips bible*
>Into the garbage-Pen Jillette.jpg

>> No.4550058

>>4549852
>appropriating a /pol/ meme
Check yr. privilege, shitlord

>> No.4550067

notice that everyone in this thread is having an emotional aversion to the ideology as opposed to an actually reasoned, justified one. it's just buzzword this, buzzword that.

/lit/'s dumb as fuck.

>> No.4550109

its not
>le edgy

>> No.4550123
File: 97 KB, 407x405, 45537814.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4550123

>>4547863

>> No.4550130

>>4550123
>Too many words
>Not funny

Commies fucking suck

>> No.4550192

>>4547835
our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

>> No.4550200

>>4549830

Existentialism =/= nihilism.

>> No.4550275

Children are idealistic and don't realise that the world has been around a lot longer than they have. They think it's growing up with them and that, in the same way they have to learn things and become better people, so too will they eventually 'fix' the world (ie, take out everything they don't like or aren't comfortably familiar with).
As they grow into adolescents, they lose this illusion of control over the world and realise they'll never fix it, while still believing it needs to be fixed. They also gain some understanding of their own relative insignificance in the Earth's history, and have trouble adjusting.
It's only when they mature into adults that they begin to understand that the world wasn't broken to begin with, they just needed to grow into it; different things aren't bad, things they personally disagree with aren't bad, and it takes all kinds to make a world. This simultaneously aids their feelings of insignificance; they no longer need to feel like the centre of the universe, because being one of many can now bring a sense of collective purpose and community, rather than isolated insignificance and futility.

>> No.4550298

Because the ontology of reality is incomplete, there's no apparent master signifier, that binds everything together (other than existence itself). Nihilism is the expression of the search for a master signifier (authentic being), to dwell in nihilism is just intellectual laziness or the expression of the realization that the search is futile.

>> No.4550301

>>4550275
Read Descartes, learn the necessary relation between subject and object that your cynicism denies and stop taking for granted that your growth can be applied to every human being

>> No.4550329

>>4550275
I'm in about that stage about now, of discovering that the world is not something centered around me.

Sucks that I realised. it way later than I should have.

>> No.4550335

>>4547835

As a teenager, I have the best and worst perspective on this.

1. It's edgy. Many teenage so called nihilists are spewing, "life is pointless, everyone sucks" nonsense because they think it makes them seem mature. We read "Slaughterhouse 5" and "Lord of the Flies" (I actually quite liked Slaughterhouse 5) and think bitter cynicism is adult thinking. It's a case of "Optimists are idiots" taken to the extreme.

2. Death and depression are heavily romanticized. It overlaps with the previous point, as angst is just SOOO mature, they also think it makes them unique. If they ramble on about how bad and phony everything is, maybe the equally "enlightened" member of the opposite gender will see how different they are and come sweep them off their feet.

3. Adolescence is a time when we are given unprecedented freedom AND responsibility. Most of us only want the former, and when at first the two cancel each other out we get prissy. Especially when the responsibility seems too much to handle. We have to worry about grades, college, relationships, navigating that fine line between slut and prude, - The line doesn't exist in high school. You're one or the other - as well as developing an identity and goal in life. Nihilism is a coping mechanism of sorts.

4. Insecurities. Teenagers are very insecure, so much so that it's almost ridiculous. "I suck, you suck, everyone sucks," is a way to hide from those insecurities. If nobody's clearing the bar, no one can blame us if we don't either. It's also why so many of them post purposefully ugly photos of themselves on facebook. They can't call you ugly if you're trying to be ugly, right?

5. This is also around the time we learn about the genocides and murders and dictatorships happening around the world. Since the media loves to talk about the negative stuff around the world, that's basically all we're exposed to. You can see how it might play a role.

In my experience it's some or all of these, but I live in a upper-middleclass, suburban neighborhood, so things might be different in more "gangsta" schools. This is all what I've personally observed.

Before you "haha ur teenage gtfo faggot," actually read the post and maybe provide some constructive criticism.

*Note I purposefully left out hormones because I don't know enough about them to say anything worth saying. I'm sure they play a role somehow.

>> No.4550349

>>4547835
Well, people generally start thinking around that age and realise most things that are commonly believed have shaky foundations. Then after a decade or so most of them give up intellectual rigour in favour of a sort of non-contemplative pragmatism and 'get on with life'. They learn to forget. Nihilism is never overcome but merely ignored.

>> No.4550357
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4550357

It's strange how people generally act like how it's obvious that nihilism is dismissable folly of youth and not to be taken seriously without ever hearing arguments against it. Non-nihilism is some emperor's clothes shit.

>> No.4550359

>>4550301
>being this uselessly abstruse, judgemental and dismissive instead of simply engaging in discussion or being quiet
At least your ego's well fed.

>> No.4550369

>>4550335
You're completely fucking retarded and I hope you die post haste, you total dumbass faggot cunt

>> No.4550373

>>4550335
You have absolutely no idea what nihilism means, do you?

Stay the fuck in /b/ you little shit, your opinions are less than worthless

>> No.4550381

>>4550373
>>4550369

Samefag

>> No.4550395

>>4550381
both posts are accurate tho

>> No.4550399

>>4550369
>>4550373
>telling one you perceive to be ignorant to further stunt their growth by dying or leaving

>> No.4550400

>>4550357
True, but on the other hand
>implying that teens who are nihilistic are reasoning from first principles.

>> No.4550404

>>4550399
>ascribing positive connotations to an arbitrarily contrived conception of 'growth'

>> No.4550409

>>4550400
>implying nihilism doesn't denounce reason inherently

>> No.4550410

>>4550404

Not necessarily. If ignorance makes him mad, it follows that the removal of ignorance would make him happy. The quick fix might be death and segregation, but that will risk turning the informed into a dying species. It's only through education and growth that we can truly murder ignorance and cultivate knowledge.

>> No.4550411

>>4550335
>maybe the equally "enlightened" member of the opposite gender will see how different they are and come sweep them off their feet.
>navigating that fine line between slut and prude, - The line doesn't exist in high school. You're one or the other
It's also why so many of them post purposefully ugly photos of themselves on facebook. They can't call you ugly if you're trying to be ugly, right?
>*Note I purposefully left out hormones

Grill probability 75%. Point one is the main one, people like feeling smarter, and pointing out how life or ethics are meaningless is a good way to distance yourself from the 'masses'

Not to discount the real arguments for those ideas.

>> No.4550417

>>4550411
>Grill probability 75%. Point one is the main one, people like feeling smarter, and pointing out how life or ethics are meaningless is a good way to distance yourself from the 'masses'

It's also a good way to feel smart without having to do any work, because you're smart enough to not learn things that don't matter.

>> No.4550426

>>4550409
>claim non-nihilists views haven't been arrived at by reasoning
>claim nihilism denounces reason

So you're okay with the former? Or are you not a nihilist, and just dislike people who haven't heard arguments for nihilism? Also:
>nihilism is a single thing you can refer to as opposed to something that has a variety of meanings in different contexts

>> No.4550429

>>4550067
This.

>> No.4550431

>>4550400
They often do not, but actual refutation of their ideas may help them more than just 'lel edgy grow up get a job' type rhetoric. This guy isn't me, the one you were originally responding to, btw:

>>4550409
Who just seems to think all nihilism is epistemological nihilism/scepticism.

>> No.4550449

It really isn't.

Dunno what you guys have got against nihilism. What about absurdism? How do you feel about that?

>feel

Sorry, I meant 'what do you think'

>> No.4550452

>>4550410
>it follows that the removal of ignorance would make him happy

No it doesn't. Furthermore, happiness is a construct not mirrored in reality. No is actually happy, at least not the way that it means.

>> No.4550456

>>4550452
>No it doesn't.

There's also his explicit adamance that it's removed from his vicinity.

>> No.4550463

>>4550449
no, you were right the first time. /lit/ has an emotional, reactionary response to opposing ideologies and spouts le epic maymays at them as though it were a genuine refutation. in fact, most of the world does this, but i would have hoped the (supposedly) 'intelligent' 4chan board wouldn't resort to /b/-tier argumentation

>> No.4550465

>>4550463
It's because the shitposter generation of christians can only think in memes and stars spouting 'tip fedora' when somethign doesnt go with their beliefs.

>> No.4550466

>>4550463
>/lit/ has an emotional, reactionary response

No we don't, fuck you!

>> No.4550467

>>4550463
>and spouts le epic maymays at them as though it were a genuine refutation
Why can't I hold all these ad hominem?

>> No.4550468

>>4550467
>Literlly ignoring every thread that didnt suck up to christianity or this thread
:,)

>> No.4550470
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4550470

>>4550466

>> No.4550471

>>4550463
confirmed edgy virgin pretentious fedora!

>> No.4550472

>>4550463
Yeah it's a shame to say the least.

>> No.4550474

>>4550349
This (or close enough to it).

>> No.4550477

>>4550463
I can't for the life of me figure out why people find reposting memes entertaining. It's just the same shit, posted over and over and over again. It's not like any memes were actually funny to begin with anyway. Someone help me understand.

>> No.4550478

>>4550477
*tips fedora*

>> No.4550482

>>4550463
>>4550472
It happens most commonly in threads that assume people are/point out people are stupid.

Hell, see True Detective threads in /tv/, full of meme shitposting from christians because the show didnt comfort them.

I think people, new generation of posters, are just dumb. They start to think in memes and start shitposting in memes when they realize they are legit stupid.

>> No.4550484

>>4550357

anybody got the pic compilation of all of these?

>> No.4550485

>>4550482
Memes are the alcohol of the people.

>> No.4550487
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4550487

>>4550477

Oh god, I can't think of a meme that applies to this situation to post in hilarious response, what do I do?!

Posting memes over and over generally creates a sense of camaraderie. The fact that we all understand the meaning of something that makes no sense without context, that we have our own language. It creates the illusion if intimacy and community. It also provides shorthand, so we can get our point across even in situations where we'd otherwise have to articulate ourselves, which we can't always be bothered to do. But for memes, that idiot/bro would go completely without our personal burn/brofist, and our input is far too valuable to risk that happening. Case in point, I wouldn't have bothered articulating any of this if I'd only had a hilarious, perfectly fitting meme to shove in your face, comedically against your wishes.

>> No.4550489

>>4550485
I think it's just stupid people trying to survive intellectual debate without realizing they are, stupid.

Or something.

I don't think nobody who trolls posts it. Just stupid people brain crashing when faced up with arguments.

>> No.4550490

>>4550485
New copypasta detected

>> No.4550493

>>4550489
We should have a more difficult captcha to weed the idiots out. There was the idea on /sci/ to get people to solve some differential equations, but WolframAplha would have killed that idea.

>> No.4550496

>>4550487
but when they get overused to the point of ridiculousness like 'edgy' and 'pretentious' have been, they lose their meaning entirely. it becomes just an easy response to anything i don't like or don't understand

>> No.4550499

>>4550496
It's a sign of a stupid mind, that's all. Literally 'I cant think, better shitpost'.

>> No.4550513

I'm a teenager, I'm not nihilistic but I'm misanthropic.

Am I still edgy/trendy?

>> No.4550514

>>4550496

But that only strengthens the personal language effect (which, as I said, is just an illusion and not a genuine intimate shorthand).

>> No.4550520

>>4550513
Please tell us about your beliefs and values and the inherent meaning of life, non-nihilist.

>> No.4550524

>>4550520
No, thank you;

>> No.4550527

>>4550524
bitch ass nigga

y'all cowards don't even deny meaning and purpose

>> No.4550531

>>4550524
Fragile nihilist in denial detected.

>> No.4550535

>>4550524

Come to absurdism, we have satisfaction

>> No.4550540

>>4550452
Happiness is just a word to me and it might have meant a thing or two if I had known the difference.

>> No.4550542

>>4550527
>>4550531
>>4550535
I'm an existential christian.

>> No.4550544
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4550544

I've tried to look for books with similar attitude/pov to life as this quote by someone here, but I so far have one book recommended :(

>> No.4550546

>>4550544
How about The Gospel according to larry

>> No.4550557

I'm 18 and life is shit. True Detective is a cool show.

>> No.4550562

>>4550557
I'm 26, all I want to do is sleep and not wake up. I get up everyday like everyone else and make bread. Yeah, life can be shitty at times.. for me, I just want rest.

>> No.4550594

>>4550562
you sound like a good canditate for the welfare life.

>> No.4550595

because modern social organization is unbearably autistic and teenagers are generally in the worst position to experience it

>> No.4550599

Because they've questioned the assumptions they credulously accepted before and they're not learned enough, they're not experienced enough, to convince themselves of the possibility that there is some objectivity, some meaning, and some truth yet to be found.

>> No.4550601

>>4550542
That's almost synonymous with 'fragile nihilist in denial'

>> No.4550607

>>4550544
>but I so far have one book recommended :(
which one?

>> No.4550612

>>4550594
Bread is money, not the literal sense. Welfare is way way way below me

>> No.4550613

>>4550607
"The Last Messiah" by Peter Wessel Zapffe

I have yet to order it (I'm waiting for reading my backlog of 8 books).

The quote was really inspiring to me and I felt it hit home

>> No.4550618

>>4550612
I understood that. How could welfare be below you? Are you a sort of saintly public servant or something that couldn't live without 'contributing to society'? Are you too arrogant to be useless?

>> No.4550620

>>4550613
You could look into Ligotti's Conspiracy Against the Human Race and Benatar's Better Never to Have Been. Haven't read them myself though, but they tend to get mentioned when antinatalism comes up. Also Schopenhauer and Cioran possibly.

>> No.4550624

>>4550618
United states postal service

>> No.4550628

>>4550624
Don't take your guns to work son
Leave your guns at home Bill
Don't take your guns to work

>> No.4550629

>>4550618
Oh and if anyone asks, I gave at the office

>> No.4550630

>>4550620
Thanks alot.

Considering I've barely bothered with philosophy I need to do some backround reading on the writers.

>> No.4550632

>>4550628
..... you dick!

>> No.4550637

When I was just a baby my mama told me,
"Son, Always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns
But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die

>> No.4550641

>>4550544
There's probably hundreds of them. Off the top of my head, read Cioran, Celine and Schopenhaur

>> No.4550645

>>4550637
"It makes no difference what men think of war.... War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner."

>> No.4550648

>>4550599
>possibility that there is some objectivity, some meaning, and some truth yet to be found.

that's because such a notion is utter horse shit and you'd have to be so deep in denial (read: mature) that all you can see is your own face to think otherwise

>> No.4550651

>>4550641
Thanks for the new, Celine.

>> No.4550658

>>4550624
Welfare beats being a postal worker by a mile, friendo.

>> No.4550683

>>4550275
So basically they realize everythings not black and white?

>> No.4550695
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4550695

It isn't. Teenagers can often be in a state of rebellion and hopelessness and wild nay-saying and that type of stuff, but proper nihilism starts post-university.

>> No.4550698

>>4550648
I don't disagree, but I still maintain that answer OP's question. These nihilistic teens, believing in nothing, see the world the most clearly.

>> No.4550714

>>4550058
These "/pol/ memes" are posted here everyday.

>> No.4551043

Nothing like a bit of post-modern, 'all teens are awful' malarkey, eh boys?

>> No.4551080

>>4550695
In Kurt Vonnegut's "Mother Night" there was a 10 year old girl who was a nihilist.

>> No.4551083

>>4551080
She must have been raped profusely.

>> No.4551086

why do people on /lit/ commonly use the word "nihilism" when they mean "depression" or "atheism?"

>> No.4551095

>>4551086
Idiocy

>> No.4551103

>>4551086
Because those things are connected in their little minds. Just like they think NEETs must have social anxiety and love anime.

>> No.4551113

It's not.

Do you truly kno that many teenage "nihlists"?

>> No.4551123

>>4551086
>why do people on /lit/ commonly use the word "nihilism" when they mean "depression" or "atheism?"
I think people in general think nihilism is some sort of trendy feeling instead of an actual philosophy. It's colloquial.

>> No.4552594
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4552594

>> No.4552761

>>4552594
could you pls elaborate on what this book is about?

>> No.4552777

>>4552594

Ah yes, my favorite commentary on The Phenemonology of The Spirit, Adam Smith, and the 1960s.

>> No.4552819

>>4547835
Because adolescence is a time when you're trying to figure out your identity and what your place in the world is, and a lot of teenagers struggle to discover what their purpose is

>> No.4552848

>>4551123

>tfw you use the word "Nihilism" to refer to the viewpoint that nothing exists
>tfw /lit/ says you're wrong

I'm not wrong. That is one form of Nihilism, though it's not the most commonly referred to.

>> No.4552853
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4552853

>>4549830
you must be real fuckin dumb to think that existentialism and nihilism are the same thing

>> No.4552864

Most teenagers don't even know what nihilism is

>> No.4552951

>>4552848
That's why you should specify specifically that you picked the least popular one out of the wikipedia article each time.

>> No.4552983
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4552983

>>4552864
you don't have to know the name of a philosophical concept to agree with it

>> No.4553017

teenager here, I'm an absurdist actually

only until I work up the nerve to kill myself though

>> No.4553024
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4553024

>>4553017
>absurdist

Don't spend your teenage years in half-hearted agnosticism, anon. Just say no.

>> No.4553031

>>4553024
>half-hearted agnosticism

but I'm actually gnostic

>> No.4553367

>>4550496
mmm, wouldn't say that edgy or pretentious are memes so much in their initial usage. Sure, they have become memes but that wasn't through using it as shorthand, more I think as the terms being misappropriated ala "literally" which people then make fun of ironically by using the same words.

Really it's a failure to articulate on the OP's part for the origin, I think. It's far easier for an opinion to come across as edgy or pretentious if it's not constructed in such a way so as not to see edgy or pretentious - and here we get into a chicken and the egg issue, did the inarticulate OP's or the misappropriating respondents come first?

>> No.4553381

>>4551080
that must be exhasting

>> No.4553447

a real nihilistic person would never create a word for that concept of nihilism, so the people who invented it are for call any other think, i don´t know exactly what, but for something outside, for something they want to mention and proclaim i suppose... is too academic and stupid call himself a nihilist. if you don´t believe in nothing that doesn´t signify you can´t believe in anything you want, or maybe some day... baaaaa... any person who have no gain in the field can´t believe nothing too seriously... more or less...

>> No.4553582

>>4553017
I wouldnt imagine as an absurdist that would acomplish much of anything, not that that should be a prime concern of yours, granted.

>> No.4553643

>>4547961
You sound like a terrible retard.

>> No.4553652

>>4550395
still samefag

>> No.4553655

>>4547835
I'm a teenager, and I'm a nihilist because religion is a doctrine, happiness is an illusion, and life IS meaningless.

There is nothing you can do to change my opinions. I don't like you, either.

>> No.4553656

>>4553447
You just went full personality that could potentially see fit to wear a fedora in public.

Never go full personality that could potentially see fit to wear a fedora in public.

>> No.4554597
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4554597

>>4553655