Rationalizing your own way to hell

As I look back on my younger years, I can surely say that I didn't have the best hand coming up. Part of this has to do with the fact that in that period of time my whole family went through some harsh situations, though I can't hide the damage that my attitude did to my enjoyment of what otherwise could have been good years in my life. This attitude was one of continual denial of responsibility hiding It with overexplained rationalizations of why anything didn't have a real meaning and at the end of the day there was nothing but hopelesness in everything. Since a lot has changed since then, finding myself in a much better place due to seeing the world in a better light, in this series of articles I will explain diferent aspects of the nihilistic attitude, What it exactly is and how a continuation of these lines of though can bring hell to existence. Let's begin with the description of a nihilistic attitude.

The nihilistic attitude:

This kind of thought derives itself from the school of philosophy determined as nihilism, where the main dogma is the ultimate lack of meaning in anything, and the indifference of the universe regarding our suffering. Usual manifestations of this behavior are found in common statements such as "Why to do It If at the end of the day It won't matter" or "Why humans have to mess everything up? It will be better If we don't reproduce" These are identifiable as two examples of the attitudes regarding nihilism, positive nihilism and negative nihilism (Both proposed by Friedrich Nietzsche).

Active or Positive Nihilism:

The principal finality of this variant of nihilism was the destruction of the adopted values that gave meaning to existence in a community, such as the belief in god, to replace It with new ones that form a new moment in history and the birth of a new man. One identification of this can be applied to the russian nihilism movement, replacing the values of the ortodox church with the ones provided by ideologies like the sovietic communism and Its many variants.

Negative or Passive Nihilism:

This might be identified as the consequence of active nihilism, as the "Death of God" and the ulterior meaning that was provided by this concept is lost, bringing the crisis of despair with the uncertainty and hollowness of existence. Also, one of the attitudes attributed to this philosophy is the resignation of the will to live and the decadence of a tormented soul.

I hope that with this little introduction to the reasoning of the nihilistic attitude and two of the paths that It might take, you can gather a better understanding on the psichology of why Its practicants think the way they do. In the next article we'll talk about the dangers of the adoption of a nihilistic attitude and the catastrophic effects that It might have. As always, thank you for your support and Good Luck!