I just watched the show True Detective by Matthew Mcconaughey, and this show transformed my thought pattern drastically. This show created a ripple effect of a new chain of thought. We can talk for hours on Arthur Schopenhauer’s thoughts on pessimism, but for this episode I will discuss the ones that were mentioned in the show since it’s what inspired me to read for Schopenhauer the first place. Idea number: 1- Our self consciousness is a Tragic Misstep. That we are hard-wired to seek meaning in our lives when there’s none. There’s no purpose, but the illusion of one. Individually, we think of ourselves as very important, but we don’t know why. Idea number: 1- Our self consciousness is a Tragic Misstep. That we are hard-wired to seek meaning in our lives when there’s none. There’s no purpose, but the illusion of one.  Individually, we think of ourselves as very important, but we don’t know why.  2- Time is a flat circle: This is to say that time is infinite. It doesn’t literally mean that time is a circle of course, as “circle” is a description of physical objects. What’s meant here is that time is infinite, and I’ll explain. And if time is infinite, this means that everything that can happen, no matter how unlikely it is, will happen if you give it enough time. Even if it’s something that has a 0.000000 chance to occur, it will eventually happen. And given that time is infinite, these things (and everything) will happen again, and again. Not once. Not twice, but infinite times. And we are one of these things that could happen. We know that because we are here. This means that you’ve been here before. You listened to me talking about this before, not once, or twice, but infinite times before, and you’ll keep coming here to this point forever! When you die, you cease to exist for a long time, but with enough time (given that time is infinite), you’ll happen again. It will be you in the literal sense. You will experience everything you’ve experienced again and again the exact same way. And it doesn’t mean that this is the only thing that will happen. There will be other versions of you that’ll take different decisions and branch out. 3) The Life Will. We are being pushed by something Schopenhauer called (the life will) that keeps us moving. The Life Will is the only true power that pushes us and gives us the illusion of purpose. Our false sense of meaning and purpose is fueled by the Life Will. It’s  why we fall in love, form relationship, have new plans, projects, and goals for the future. We’re constantly setting new goals and perusing them and there’s only 2 possible outcomes here: A) you fail to achieve the goal which means you suffer, B) you’ll occasionally achieve your goals and feel a briefly. But joy disappears soon to be replaced with new suffering as you set new goals. Our self consciousness deceives us into feeling that we’re special and gives us the illusion of purpose. Incited by the Life Will, we cling to life as hard as we can. If we pause for a moment we find that we’re not the only one that’s being pushed by the Life Will. All organisms do. This includes Animals, birds, insects and micro-organisms. They all push relentlessly all the time. The Life Will is keeping us moving all the time. It’s why we’re never satisfied and content with where we are. We feel a great deal of anxiety if we stop as if we fall apart if we stop moving. Like a planet would fall in its sun if it stops circulating.  https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/

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