Cartoon from: http://chainsawsuit.com/tag/nihilism/
Evangelical atheist PZ Myers recently reproduced the English lyrics of the Icelandic entry to the Eurovision song contest. He prefixed it with the comment: They get bonus points for reflecting my mood so well.
The revelry
was unrestrained
The hangover
is endless
Life is
meaningless
The void
will get us all
Hate will
prevail
Happiness
comes to an end
For it is an
illusion
A
treacherous pipe dream
All that I
saw
Tears ran
down
All that I
gave
Once gave
I gave it
all to you
Multilateral
delusions
Unilateral
punishments
Gullible
poor fellows
The escape
will end
The
emptiness will get us all
Hate will
prevail
Europe will
crumble
A web of
lies
Will arise
from the ashes
United as
one
All that I
saw
Tears ran
down
All that I
gave
Once gave
I gave it all
to you
All that I
saw
Tears ran
down
All that I
gave
Once gave
I gave it
all to you
Hate will
prevail
Love will
die
Hate will
prevail
Happiness
comes to an end
For it is an
illusion
A
treacherous pipe dream
Hate will
prevail
I would guess (or at least hope) that the author of the these bleak lyrics would tell us that they are a warning to the human race of the consequences of failing to get its cooperative act together; for example, we can see how in the 1930s a web of lies arose out of the ashes of WWI!
By couching these consequences in such a negatively nihilistic way with a strong hint of these consequences being inevitable the author might feel that the warning comes across with that much more force. In conjuring up a stifling sense of hopelessness, meaninglessness, emptiness (and any other anti-superlative you can think of) the lyrics barge their way into the emotions and badger one to ponder the meaning of life if any. In this sense it would classify as a kind of modern day Book of Ecclesiastes. On the other hand perhaps the song writer truly is a hard core nihilist and sees no way but down into the nihilist abyss.
At least Neitzsche did eventually find a way to say "Yes!" to life, but if you are looking for hope in Iceland's Eurovision entry there is very little to go on! The best we can find is that the first person gave all ..... but needless to say received nothing in return!
As I have said so often, atheism teeters on the brink of a thorough going nihilism and these lyrics are eloquent warning of what happens when one goes over the brink. Spelling it out: There is no long term hope and a very ephemeral illusory happiness. Hate will prevail. The irony is that when humanity works hard to bring purpose to life via self-defined goals, there will be inevitable clashes between epistemically challenged less than perfect, human beings with their very different visions of how to go about creating a world of meaning. The very search for meaning has the potential to create hate!
But as the cartoon above suggests in true nihilism it is not hate which prevails but cold indifference. The existence of hate does at least tell us that there is some one out there with the motivation to strive for a purpose although that striving probably gets up some else's nose! If we want to discover the likely consequences of cosmic indifference, however, H. G. Wells book "The Time Machine" can also be read as a warning to atheist man about his grave responsibilities in a world without God. No wonder then that PZ Myers is feeling so bleak!
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