Yepicurus

Hey, please don't follow me here. X is garbage and I only use it for its writing UX (which is decent) to workshop posts.

[Yepicurus @Yepicurus]

There are better approaches to meaning. And no it’s not mindless or superficial optimism.

I explore these in my longer essays, which you can find in my bio.

[Yepicurus @Yepicurus]

Consider this:

Way more often than they would care to admit, those who identify as pessimistic nihilists are drawn to the aesthetic and symbolic appeal of this way of thinking.

[Yepicurus @Yepicurus]

The black sun of pessimistic nihilism can initially burn away the husk of outdated notions of meaning, but it can also steadily estrange you from purpose and fulfillment, and ultimately devour your life drive.

[Yepicurus @Yepicurus]

If you found value in this post, you can read more of my work from my bio.

[Yepicurus @Yepicurus]

Rollo May, the great existential psychologist, believed that anxiety (particularly existential anxiety) and creativity came from the same source: openness to possibility.

[Yepicurus @Yepicurus]

With practice, you may even start feeling, “Ah, I’m being called to courage and creativity” rather than simply “I am in a state of anxiety.” This is a powerful and achievable reinterpretation, and its worth working toward.

[Yepicurus @Yepicurus]

If you found value in this post, you can read more of my work from my bio.

[Yepicurus @Yepicurus]

Sisyphus liked tricking the gods. The gods got pissed off and condemned Sisyphus to push a massive boulder up a hill. Every time Sisyphus neared the top, the boulder rolls back down, forcing him to start the task all over again. That’s the classic myth.

Philosopher Albert Camus took a different approach and concludes his essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, with the now iconic line: “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

But wait. Why? Why should we imagine Sisyphus happy?

[Yepicurus @Yepicurus]

Noticing the absurdity of the existential condition is a relatively small part of this. What's most important is how you choose to live despite it. As Camus put it:

"The realization that life is absurd cannot be an end, but only a beginning. This is a truth nearly all great minds have taken as their starting point. It is not this discovery that is interesting, but the consequences and rules of action drawn from it."

- Review of Nausea, published in Alger Républicain (20 October 1938)