Santos, Alec Kim P.

11214341
GREATWK M86
You Only Live Once and the struggle of conforming to societal and religious norms
Y.O.L.O: You only live once. This phrase has been splattered all over social media and
t-shirts all over the world. These four words are also used to justify the yearning for adventure
and danger of the youth today. The message of this phrase embodies the carefree attitude of no
acknowledgment of the future and doing only what feels good now. YOLO is a lifestyle of
adventure, fast living and trying everything and anything (Reimold, 2013) Because of this belief,
this Y.O.L.O generation receives continuous backlash. Members of the society believe that this
Y.O.L.O mentality equates to the entitlement mentality of this generation. Their recklessness goes
against cultural and religious ideals. This generation is becoming more and more self-absorbed by
not thinking about the consequences of their actions because Y.O.L.O. This seems to contribute to
the deterioration of humanity. But relating this acronym to Nietzsches ideals, is the YOLO
movement really contributing negatively to our humanity? Or is it actually helping us get in touch
with our natural self?
The father of philosophy, Ren Descartes, stated that the existence of man is greater than
animals. We are above them all because of we have a soul. Animals are merely machines.
Nietzsche stated otherwise, according to him Man is absolutely not the crown of creation: every
creature stands beside him at the same stage of perfection. Nietzsche believed that we are no
different to animals. We are also machines. In fact, he thinks that man is the most unsuccessful
animal because we strayed ourselves from our instincts. We became controlled by the idea of God
and Satan, Heaven and Hell. We lived by the ideas of goodness and perfection, evil and sin. We
became so focused on achieving the immortality in heaven that we forget to live our life in our
reality. We centered our life on fictitious belief, when after all we only have one life to live and
that is what we are living in now. Man became so unattached to reality. They deprived themselves
from their desires fearing the rules that religious beliefs and cultural norms have imposed. No
matter how long ago this ideals was written, the observations and beliefs of Nietzsche is still
evident in our lives today. People are sacrificing their lives and their identity in fear of being
punished in a non-existent after-life.
There are numerous instances wherein people are baring themselves from their true
identity because of cultural norms and religions. A well-publicized and scrutinized issue that I can
relate to this is in regards to the acceptance of LGBT communities. Because of religious believes
people, who regard themselves member of the LGBT community, are not given a chance to
express their true selves. They experience discrimination and alienation because of who they are.
They are not given a chance to freely express their love to their special someone and they
continually struggle for acceptance. Members of the LGBT community tend to live in the
shadows of who they really are. When you put it into a perspective, what is wrong with loving
someone with the same gender anyway? Social norms consider it a taboo and religion condemns
it as a sin. These ideals prevent these free men to express their true identities and when we relate
it to the idea of Y.O.L.O, these people are not living their only lives at all. An example for this is
the story of Bruce Jenner. Bruce Jenner was an epitome of an alpha male during the 70s. Before
becoming a member of the Kardashians, he was an Olympic athlete, who won a gold medal for

the United States. He was married three times and had 6 children. He lived a life like a man but
deep inside he knew he was a woman. Bruce Jenner felt more himself that way but he could never
be her because of what the culture dictates. After decades and decades of struggling, he finally
admitted to himself and his family his true identity. The media went into frenzy with this story
and he took a plunge in revealing who he really is: a transgender woman.
Bruce Jenner wasted decades of his life because of the fear of being scrutinized by the
society, but in the end of the day he followed his natural self and become who he really is. When I
think about it, I can imagine numerous people who are in a same situation as he is. They are
merely wasting their only chance of living and yet the Y.O.L.O generation is being scrutinized.
Going back to the ideals of Nietzsche, I believe that the idea of being true to ones nature goes
down into one thing: selfishness. We are all made to believe that putting others first is the way to
go. But most of the times doing such removes of from our true identity. As humans, we are
designed act upon things that benefit us. We are programmed to protect and nurture our wants
and needs. In my opinion, it is time for us to acknowledge the fact the selfishness isnt a bad
thing. Putting ourselves first and prioritizing our happiness should not equate to it being immoral.
So is the YOLO movement contributing negatively to humanity? Basing it on Nietzsches
perspective: absolutely not! Human life is not eternal but temporal and finite. Experiencing death
defying adventures, going crazy once in awhile and being selfish isnt all negative. As long as that
is what you want, go for it. We only have one life to live and living it the way we are programmed
to be is not something we should worry about. Maximizing the life we have can help us reach our
full potentials and live a life that we are proud and happy about. Cultural norms and religion
should not dictate who we want to become, instead we should always comeback to our inner self.