Prefer watching on YouTube? View it here → MTCSD Essay #3: Hope & Nihilism

Overview

In this essay, I suggest we move away from treating hope as a noun and begin relating to it as a verb. I introduce the ideas of outcome-based decision-making versus alignment-based decision-making, and discuss their application in navigating the detrimental effects of capitalism, and the nihilism it both produces and derives its sustenance from, along with the four horsemen of hedonism, boredom, cynicism, and individualism.

Sources & Further Reading*

* 3:35 Caminante, No Hay Camino, Antonio Machado

* 9:30 2025 Federal Poverty Levels, Pan Foundation

* 10:20 Jet Emissions from Davos Conference

* World Economic Forum, Wikipedia

* Private Jet Traffic, Visa HQ

* Opinion Piece by Gary Byrnes, Linkedin

* Greenpeace Report, Greenpeace

* 11:30 Meat’s Environmental Impact, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

* 17:15 Obama & The Myth of Black Excellence by F.D Signifier, Youtube

* 19:00 Nihilism and Capitalism, Wikipedia

* 22:35 Burnout in Healthcare Workers, PubMed Central

* 23:25 Self-Efficacy, Wikipedia

* 23:40 Learned Helplessness, Wikipedia

* 23:45 Moral Injury, Wikipedia

* 26:55 Monoculture, Wikipedia

* 34:40 Cognitive Dissonance, Wikipedia

*I support the democratization and crowdsourcing of knowledge, and I regard platforms such as Wikipedia as valid and valuable repositories of human knowledge that help balance academic gatekeeping of epistemic authority. I also value rigorous fact-checking and common sense.

Disclaimer: I use AI to assist with research, learning, and systems design. All ideas, writing, music, editing, and creative choices are my own. I believe these technologies should support and enhance our creativity, not replace it.

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