The self-deception of a “sunny nihilist”

Photo by Juan Davila on Unsplash

Australian writer Wendy Syfret does not think being a “happy nihilist” is oxymoronic. In a recent post in Aeon Psyche she explains how she is managing to create happiness within a worldview that embraces the reality that everything is meaningless. It is a protest, of sorts, against the claim that nihilism inevitably leads to despair. Does she succeed?

I will argue that she does not succeed and that there is a much better antidote to nihilism than this rather desperate embrace. But, Syfret makes some very important and insightful observations about how our culture attempts to compensate for the meaninglessness inherent in the dominant worldview.

The development of micro-meanings

Each year about $800 billion is spent on advertising alone. About $300 billion of that is spent on mobile advertising — ads aimed at smartphones, tablet computers and other small screens. Watch these critically and see if you can spot what might be called “micro-meanings.”

Syfret points out a couple of examples:

“A chocolate bar isn’t skim milk powder and sugar, it’s a chance to create an intergenerational family moment. A lipstick isn’t a bullet of colour to light up a drawn face, but a weapon of radical self-expression.”