Cushman 1

Thomas Cushman
Prof. Gammage
English 220
8 February 2014
Outline
Nihilism is the idea that todays media driven society is meaningless.
Everything from politics to pop culture is frivolous. People who become absorbed in
pop culture are lost. Nihilists believe that the media distracts people from leading
truer more fruitful lives. A true life is a good life that is honest, genuine, and happy.
Living a fruitful life is essential for being happy. A man who leads a true life does not
have to constantly check his phone every twenty minutes. He can engage in
substantial conversation rather than relaying facts about todays entertainment
industry. Unfortunately, people who lead true lives, void of technological
distractions, are becoming harder and harder to find.
Meaninglessness is the lack of anything worthwhile. Media and pop culture is
predominantly meaningless. Most people have goals in life that they want to
achieve. Goals are anything that a person strives for that will benefit themselves
and/or others. The majority of pop culture impedes those goals because it is
meaningless. For example, Justin Biebers recent acts of debauchery have nothing to
do most peoples goals. Nonetheless, everyone in America tunes into his or her
social media platforms to hear the most recent update on how Biebers career is
plummeting into the ground. Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly touch on
Nihilism in society in their novel All Things Shining.
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For one finds oneself constantly craving the newest, latest post, wondering what the
most recent crisis, or observation, or tidbit could be. One cycles through the list of
websites or friends waiting for the latest update, only to find that once it is
completed one is cycling through the sequence once again, precisely as expectant
and desiring as before (7).
People update themselves in the spirit of distraction. Without even realizing it
people distract themselves with pop culture updates because the hustle and bustle
of achieving ones goals is difficult. Similarly, a pattern has developed that when
confronted with an uncomfortable situation, people simply pull out there phones
and check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or any of the other countless social
media platforms. The idea behind this antisocial act is that by engaging in a
conversation online or through text one can avoid the awkwardness that can arise
from social interaction. This epidemic in society inhibits normal healthy social
interaction.
Pop culture has a wide range of influence. It is like an infectious disease that is
hell-bent on destroying society with its meaningless distractors. Pop culture influences
how people dress. The way people dress is an excellent indication of what type of
subculture someone subscribes to. For example, people who are subscribed to the hipster
subculture tend to wear thick brimmed glasses and flannels. People who follow
basketball culture most likely can be found wearing baggy shorts and Jordans. However,
nihilist would argue that pop culture has influenced society to place too much emphasis
on appearances. The media has fooled us into believing that dressing a certain way makes
us relevant. That is to say that people dress in certain ways in order to communicate an
idea to others. Hipsters dress like hipsters because they want to be seen as hipsters. They
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want others to think that they hold hipster ideals. In David Finchers film Fight Club a
character named Tyler Durden touches on this subject in poetic fashion.
You are not your job. You are not how much you have in the bank. You are not the
contents of your wallet. You are not your khakis the things you own, end up owning
you. It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.
All things considered, pop culture has ruined day-to-day standard social interaction.
People should not be so concerned with appearances. Appearances have overshadowed
the truth of who someone really is. Clothes and money do not define you. Nihilists would
argue that the media and pop culture has destroyed the way we communicate and think.
Fredriech Nietzche is one of the forefathers of Nihilism. His insight made
nihilism what it is today. In his work Will to Power Nietzche judges society. The higher
species is lacking, i.e., those whose inexhaustible fertility and power keep up the
faith in man (14). This quote supports the reformed definition of Nihilism stated
above. Nietzche is saying that people with inexhaustible fertility and power reign
supreme and they decide what the general population subscribes to. Modern day
celebrities hold inexhaustible fertility and power because they are so wealthy,
attractive, and respected. This quote was originally written in 1887, which is
astounding that it still applies today.
In the past Nihilism has been defined as the thought process that life is
meaningless. However, the only thing that is meaningless in life is the media and pop
culture. There was an article titled How to not give a Fuck Without Being a Nihilist on
reddit.com recently that discussed Nihilism from an interesting perspective. This article
discussed how there is irony that resides in Nihilism. There is an irony to nihilism. It
sets you free in a meaningless world where the only worthwhile thing to do is destroy the
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fakery of anyone who still clings to meaning (1-2). It is humorous that Nihilism is
focused on how meaningless life is because if life has no meaning what is the point of
enlightening people with Nihilistic ideals. In this sense the traditional definition of
Nihilism collapses in on itself. If traditional Nihilists truly believed that life has no
meaning they would not waste their time teaching others about their Nihilistic ideals.
Nihilism shows how much meaningless is present in todays pop culture and
media. Society has been sucked into a terrible tendency of electronic social media
addiction. Furthermore, traditional irony if argued further can be contradicted because
everything in life is not meaningless. Overall, Nihilism shows that society needs to
reform the way normal everyday interaction occurs. People need to put their phones away
and explore.












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Work Cited
Dreyfus, Hubert L., and Sean Kelly. All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to
Find Meaning in a Secular Age. New York: Free, 2011. Print.

Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. 20th Century Fox
Home Entertainment, 2000.

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, Walter Arnold. Kaufmann, and R. J. Hollingdale. The Will

to Power. New York: Vintage, 1968. Print.

"Reddit Is a Platform for Internet Communities." Reddit: The Front Page of the Internet.

N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.