"Man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognise that it is he who is asked. Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible." – Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

The world is having an identity crisis. All the old ways, whether in economic organisation, gender roles, patriotism, suburban life, class identity, democracy, materialism, or any of the other systems we once used to bring structure, meaning and/or value to our lives, are dissolving or under threat. But the new ways have yet to emerge fully. There are signs of new growth, like the global climate movement, the solarpunk aesthetic, and all the many proliferating subcultures of reddit. But there is also the carnage inherent to death and renewal: culture wars and real wars, politics that is simultaneously extremist and vacuous, and a mental health epidemic that debilitates both those who cannot stand to see the old world go and those too desperate for the new one to arrive. 

When systems of meaning and value dissolve we get nihilism – the sense that the world is meaningless and without purpose, that value is hollow and fleeting, and that we are not an agent with a mission either individually or collectively but just some flotsam adrift in the universe.

Nihilism is unpleasant. It makes us feel lost, untethered, uneasy, and anxious. It undermines the process of organising communities around shared hopes, dreams, and ambitions, and in so doing makes life unfulfilling. And it calls into question the very possibility of a valuable life, making everything feel grey and straining the process of self-actualisation. 

Nihilism is politically terrifying because it can trigger what psychoanalyst Eric Fromm called the 'escape from freedom'. The need to create new systems of meaning and value is arduous, painful, and nerve-wracking. Many people would prefer, understandably, to just adopt some crude system that makes sense of everything. This is the psychological root of totalitarian doctrines like fascism and communism, which seem to suddenly be ascendent again in the west after decades in abeyance. To avoid the tyranny, hate, and violence that are inherent to such ideologies, we need to come together in love and sincerity to work up a world in which we can all get along.  

Fortunately, the period of my youth through the 90s and early 2000s – the late postmodern era – was arguably the high tide of nihilist sentiment. We are now entering a more hopeful age, though it might not be immediately apparent. Nihilistic themes remain all around us, but they are typically accompanied by a cheerful resolve to push past our existential vacuum and affirm some things as good and right on the strength of our sentiment. You can see this juxtaposition in the wildly popular cartoon series Rick and Morty, where the self-destructive, hedonistic, mad scientist Rick is slowly brought back to caring for the world by his family and friends. 

You can also see it in the smash hit indy computer role-playing game Disco Elysium. There, the detective protagonist wakes up with amnesia deliberately induced by drinking himself to death. He is among the decaying wreckage of the city of Revachol on the island of Insulinde, the “New New World”. While the nihilistic allure of narcotics constantly beckons and the protagonist is buffeted by the pathetic ideological machinations of liberals, capitalists, fascists, and communist thugs throughout the plot, he slowly recovers his zest for life by doing what he’s good at – solving crimes – accompanied by the ever-hopeful sidekick of integrity, Kim Kitsuragi. 

And you can even see it on TikTok, where people are talking about how you should ask for a lift to the airport or help your friends move to build interpersonal bonds. 

This sentimental way out of nihilism is new. Historically, we have always tried to find a metaphysical solution to nihilism. We have always made some claim about reality that imbues it with objective value and meaning. We have used religion, tradition, and most recently reason and rationality to this end. My contention is that these efforts come up empty because reality just is nihilistic. It is up to us as value-creating agents to imbue the world with value and meaning through our care, choices, and art. 

The way out of nihilism commences not from abstract arguments but from the lived experience of being an agent with moral sensations and the responsibility of moral judgement who yearns to live in a world saturated with values. We thereby arrive at an empathetic basis for the collective process of creating maps of meaning that imbue our lives with significance. This is a psychological and sociological approach, rather than a metaphysical one.

To escape nihilism as individuals, we need to be a values-led person. For that, we need self-actualisation. We need to learn how to listen to our emotions, motivations, and other affective signals, how to introspect on this inner wisdom to articulate its insights, and how to recalibrate the goals we pursue to bring harmony to our multiple selves. We can then prosecute the process, part self-discovery and part self-creation, of becoming a whole person. An individual with such agency pursues values that are intrinsically motivated and authentic to them. This endeavour brings meaning and purpose to their life without the need for external guarantee.  

To escape nihilism as a society, we need to be a values-led culture. Wellbeing is something we do together. But we don’t know what we are about. Decades of materialism and individualism have cut us off from transcendental culture and from each other. Postmodernism made us cynical about value judgements, expertise, grand narratives, and all the other ways that people seek to oppress those they don’t agree with. But this cynicism is toxic – we can’t feel part of a community that shares our map of meaning if we’re always taking the piss. 

This is why the ‘metamodernism’ that is emerging out of the postmodern swamp is characterised by earnestness, sincerity, and kindness. We must put our values out in the world on the strength of our love for them, not our hatred for others, and invite other people to join us in celebrating those values ritualistically, artistically, and emotionally. We thereby experience our values not only as palpable to us, but as something shared by others. We can participate in collective efforts to make our world one that we are proud of, one that is valuable, meaningful, and progressing with a purpose.