this episode of after skool was written and narrated by Robert Pantano the writer and
creator of pursuit of Wonder check out more videos on pursuit of W's YouTube channel our
knowledge our conditions and our capabilities as a species have and continue to progress at
unfathomable rates and yet with each new generation in the modern world it seems as
though we have and continue to sink into greater states of hopelessness and cynicism it is no
secret that an underlying tension between each new generation from Gen X to Millennial millennial to
gen Z and almost certainly whatever is next to come is an increasing degree of pessimism that
makes the previous generation look almost bubbly and naive displays of this can be found in media
in art in advertising and in humor as things like irony and dorismar over time to paraphrase
19th century philosopher Friedrich n optimism is dead and we have killed it fundamentally
so many of us have outgrown more comfortable shortsighted narratives and explanations of
life with increasing knowledge and awareness we have now moved into a new realm in which
there appears to be no clear narrative or reason for life at all what we seem to be left with is
in absurdity and meaninglessness to everything we have reached the top of this world and yet
we see nothing from it this is perhaps one of if not the greatest contemporary issue of humankind
finding motivation and a sense of meaning during a time in which existence has revealed itself to be
or at least appears to be meaningless in order to take any steps towards trying to Gra apple
with this problem of meaninglessness it can be helpful to take a few steps back all the way back
to the late 19th century here German philosopher friedi nche would find himself positioned at the
Forefront of the disintegration of meaning in the Western World a primary aim of his life's
work would become centered on this problem at the foundation of n's philosophy was the recognition
that there is no Universal objective truth to be known or discovered in life there are no facts
only interpretations he wrote n denied the very constru stru of any sort of Truth with a capital
T and suggested rather that all attempts to find one are misguided and are what prevent Modern
Man from rediscovering any meaning in life the pursuit of universal objectivity or meaning in
the world Beyond this one takes the spirit out of the present Earthly Human Experience of meaning
which is inherently subjective independent and expressive from here n argued that the individual
should thus turn away from dependence on any universalities Collective experiences or cultural
mechanisms for meaning and instead he placed the creation of meaning squarely in the hands
of the individual suggesting that it is found in the personal pursuit of creative expression
and subjective greatness this philosophy would be embodied in what n would term the Ubermensch
or Overman which he would first introduce in his book Thus Spoke zarathustra the Overman is
described by nche as a sort of defiant confident independent individual who pursues their personal
desires with Vigor and dignifies their independent beliefs unapologetically someone who deviates from
the collective exhibits strategic selfishness and acts with a sort of aggressiveness and
grandiosity these characteristics were justified in n's view by the fact that a new morality that
opposed the moral views rooted in Christianity which praise weakness and modesty was needed to
better suit the natural condition of the human experience which he believed involved the desire
for Vigor power and greatness this view is not without reasonable critiques and unreasonable
misinterpretations however perhaps what is more important than n's definition of the Overman is
what the concept serves to represent in slightly broader terms n sets up the Overman to function
as a sort of idealized version of oneself an image of a perfect and Powerful being who has
overcome all their fears and deficiencies which one can and should set goals to strive toward of
course as an ideal it can never truly be reached but that is functionally the point the desire and
striving toward the ideal of the Overman serve as Perpetual fuel for the process of self-growth as
one works through a continuous cycle of self- dissatisfaction self-improvement and self-
rediscovery over and over for n this process what you would term self-overcoming is fundamental to
answering and resolving the problem of meaning and value in life so long as one establishes
one's goals of growth in the name of what one deems to be an idealized life affirming version
of themselves this process transmutes life into something worthwhile and personally redeemable
if we have our own why in life we shall get along with almost any how n wrote several decades later
20th century writer and philosopher Alber Camu would come into the picture largely picking up
the Baton from n what makes C's insights worth stopping at on the topic of meaning is the way
in which he defined and engaged with the problem cimu defined Humanity's relationship with the
universe and our pursuit of meaning within it as the obsurd Camu writes if I see a man armed only
with a sword attack a group of machine guns I shall consider his act to be absurd but it is
solely by virtue of the disproportion between his intention and the reality he will encounter of the
contradiction I notice between his true strength and the aim he has in view from the simplest to
the most complex the magnitude of the absurdity will be in direct ratio to the distance between
the two terms of my comparison the Absurd is essentially a divorce it lies in neither
of the elements compared it is born of their confrontation in other words neither Humanity
nor the universe is necessarily absurd on its own but rather their relationship is absurd as
we exist with and act out on our innate desire for me meaning reason and order the universe
responds with none of the above thus what we want and expect from the universe is fundamentally
in contradiction with what we get like n Kimu rejects the nihilistic hopelessness that might
sound like a reasonable conclusion from this and instead somewhat deviating from n Kimu provokes
the absurdity of Life as a means of finding worthy and potent experience within it for Camu to become
aware of and accept the absurdity of life is to transcend it and being conscious and appreciative
of the absurdity we can more freely look for find and create things that are interesting
and personally meaningful F Camu continuing on in life and using its absurdity as a means of virtue
exploration art and unique experience is perhaps the highest and most worthy achievement it is thus
the absurdity of life that makes it worth living in the first place furthermore Kimu suggested that
in recognizing our absurdity we can better accept and Share value with other people because we can
better understand that all people are struggling victims of the Absurd although these Concepts from
n and kamu are very useful there are still of course significant challenges to creating one's
own meaning one especially difficult challenge is deciding how to go about doing so with essentially
an infinite number of choices and combinations of choices for how to determine one's ideal self what
to strive for and what to do with the absurdity of everything the anxiety of choosing properly can be
difficult to Bear ironically though the choice we make here and reaction to the anxiety of choice
is perhaps the most important choice choice of all around the same time as Kimu and following
a similar thread of thought as both Kimu and N the work of 20th century French philosopher Jean
Paul SRA helps provide us with useful insights and motivation for getting over this hurdle SRA argued
that since in his view we are not created with a specific purpose prior to existence we create our
purpose through the choices and actions we take in life man SRA writes is nothing else but what
he purposes he exists solely in so far as he realizes himself is therefore nothing else but
the sum of his actions nothing else but what his life is since this responsibility can be
so overwhelming the easier knee-jerk response is just not choosing to mindlessly assimilate
popular beliefs follow standard routes of life and deflect nearly all the responsibility of
choice onto others s to refer to this however as bad faith a form of lying to ourselves and
denying our basic freedom in other words it is a short-term attempt to dampen the anxiety
of being that in turn costs us our authentic self and experience of life even choosing to
not choose is still a choice there is no escaping the requirements of choice and this is perhaps the
fundamental existential determination to choose or not to choose in this Choice one either harnesses
the anguish of human Freedom or relinquishes it either builds a life of intention or lives
a life of complacency SRA Camu n and many others unmentioned saw the ground crumbling underneath
them and made it part of their life's work to preserve deserve some of the foundation for us
what we are left with now and perhaps what we will be left with for a very long time is merely that
foundation on which we must build our own homes we must realize that this condition is not Barren
but ripe for opportunity that it permits us to no longer be subservient to some specific Grand
meaning or template of life that we don't have to discover or join in on someone else's ultimate
answer rather we can and should attempt to create and build in this world using the blueprint of
our own design Dy it is of course all incredibly hard and complicated but the challenge found in
this in the whirlpool of uncertainty absurdity and responsibility is perhaps the unavoidable
price of the great gift that we are all given at Birth to face up to the abyss to feel the anguish
of choice and potentiality to Bear the weight of self all are but visceral humbling and beautiful
reminders of the potency of Life running through our veins we are perhaps the only stop on this
evolutionary train that is outside the tunnel of Darkness able to take the material of everything
and make it into something beautiful or helpful or interesting to understand and create the meaning
of meaning itself and to do so just because we can because the universe for some reason gave us
a blank page to write on we hope you enjoyed this collaboration it was comprised of a few
modified excerpts from my book The Art of Living a meaningless existence if you enjoyed this video
be sure to check it out it's a collection of essays that journey through philosophy and
grapple with ideas and topics similar to this video the link for it is in the description
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