What's up everyone? Jared here. A few months ago we got an email from a fan
named Red requesting a video comparing the portrayal of Nihilism in Rick and Morty and
Bojack Horseman. So we hit up our resident nihilism expert
and sweatiest writer at Wisecrack, Michael Burns, to take a stab at it. And if you have requests too, be sure to subscribe
and hit us up with ideas. So thanks to Red, we’re going to give you
a crash course in contemporary nihilism with legendary lotharios Rick Sanchez and Bojack
Horseman. Welcome to this Wisecrack Edition: Nihilism
with Bojack and Rick. Many assume that nihilism simply means believing
in nothing but it actually refers to a number of philosophical, psychological, and ethical
positions. And while they all differ, these different
flavors of nihilism all begin from the shared premise that there is no inherent meaning,
value, or order in life. "Gentleman. There's a solution here you're not seeing"
Although Many an angsty edge-lord might get a kick out of using nihilist catch phrases
to show the world their heart of darkness. In reality, most of these folks miss out on
the complexity of nihilism. Rather than a philosophy best embodied by
Tyler Durden, nihilism can be the basis for meaningful worldviews. Today we are going to narrow our focus down
to two different branches of nihilism: existential nihilism, and cosmic nihilism (also known
as cosmic pessimism). To help us navigate the wonderful world of
existential nihilism, we’ll be talking about everyone’s favorite functionally alcoholic
horse, Bojack Horseman. And to provide insight into the cold rationality
of cosmic nihilism, we’re turning to another functional alcoholic, Rick Sanchez. But don’t worry, even if you have a healthy
relationship with alcohol, you’ll still be able to figure out which nihilism is right
for you. Part 1: Existential Nihilism Existential nihilism is the nihilism experienced
when we realize that there is no inherent meaning to our lives, and at its core, human
existence is just a precarious dance upon the grave. It is up to us to create meaning in our lives
through our own freedom and decisions. We can have values, but we must create and
sustain them. And it’s this worldview which fuels Bojack
Horseman. “I’m responsible for my own happiness? I can’t even be reponsible for my own breakfast.” Before we get into the nihilist undercurrents
of Bojack Horseman, let’s look back at the history of nihilism. The term nihilism was first coined at the
end of the eighteenth century by German philosopher Friedrich Jacobi in response to Enlightenment
reason, which he worried would explain away the conditions for religion. This rationalist method explained away any
spaces of uncertainty or mystery, rendering everything there was knowable. Sound familiar? "Well, scientifically, traditions are an idiot
thing." One of the first philosophers to think through
the implications of nihilism was Søren Kierkegaard, who the New York Times has referred to as
the “Danish Doctor of Dread.” Although Kierkegaard never used the word existentialism,
he’s regarded as one of the fathers of modern existentialism. And while Kierkegaard wasn’t known for the
substance abuse typical for many nihilists, he did pour so much sugar into his coffee
that it piled up above the liquid, like an iceberg warning of adult onset diabetes. True story -- Which is insane. And probably more dangerous than sipping scotch
bfore you get out of bed. Kierkegaard thought that despair was an essential
part of the human experience, which he referred to as the “sickness unto death”. This human despair is dialectical, which basically
means you are always at odds with yourself. Or put differently, "I don't know how to be,
Diane. It doesn't get better and it doesn't get easier. I can't keep lying to myself saying I'm going
to change. I'm poison." For example, we’re either in despair because
we think nothing is possible, "It happened again. Why do I keep thinking things will make me
happy? What is wrong with me?" or we despair because
we think everything is possible and can’t make a decision. "What should I do? Make a break for it... drive to Mexico...meet a local girl and fall in love...talk my way into a line job at a textile plant...gradually work my way up until I own the place..nooo what am I talking about... I can't run a textile plant that's way too much responsibility. OH what am I going to do?! The walls are closing in!!!" We are in despair about being who we are,
"Am I just doomed to be who I am? The person in that book?" or in despair because
we can’t be who we think we are. "All this time I assumed there was more to
me than everyone thought, but maybe there isn't." This despair is the root of the melancholy
that plagues much of the human experience, the same melancholy we see in almost all of
the characters of Bojack Horseman, from Todd’s worries
about his sexuality to Princess Caroline’s anxieties about motherhood. "Well how do we make it viable again?" Except Mr. Peanutbutter. He seems fine. And of course Bojack is a character that seems
to have it all. Successful acting career, beautiful home,
money and women. Yet he can’t seem to enjoy any of it. And even when seemingly good things happen
to him he manages to either feel disappointed "You're an Oscar nominee, how do you feel?" "I feel...I-I feel...the same." or sabotage his own happiness. “Just to be clear, since this morning, you
ate all the muffins?” “Yeah! I ate them all in one sitting because I have
no self control and I hate myself.” No matter what decision he makes, he’s marked
by regret, and no matter how well things work out, Bojack is haunted by an unshakeable despair. Kierkegaard describes this experience in his
book Either/Or: No matter what Bojack does, whether it’s
virtuous or selfish, the stench of regret follows. "Look what I do to the people I'm supposed to care about. I had sex with the one person I've ever seen you be in love with." And for Kierkegaard, this isn’t an exception
to the human condition, it is the very nature of the human condition. We see Bojack experiencing this type of deep
self-doubt during an anxiety attack he has in season four: “Idiot. What'd you do all day? Piece of s**t.” For Kierkegaard, anxiety is caused by the
uncertainty that lies beneath every decision. And he considers anxiety one of the ways we
experience freedom. Because we’re free, we’re responsible
for our own decisions, and the weight of these decisions leads to anxiety. Kierkegaard describes this anxiety as standing
at the edge of an abyss: And this terrifying freedom means we can literally
do anything, including botched suicide attempts via yellow convertible. For Kierkegaard the only way to work through
this anxiety and despair is the acceptance of the comic absurdity of reality, and living
one’s life by faith. But if you’re not keen to use religion to
combat meaningless, don’t worry, Kierkegaard thinks that faith is simply the courage to
attempt a meaningful existence in the face of a meaningless world. “Sometimes, you need to take responsibility
for your own happiness.” We see this at the conclusion of Season Four. While nothing drastic has changed, Bojack
has accepted the complexity of his relationship with his mother "BoJack?" "Mom?" "B-BoJack? Is that you?" "Yeah...it's me." and has decided to find meaning
in his new little sister, Hollyhock. Almost a hundred years after Kierkegaard collapsed
in the street and died, a French philosopher named Jean-Paul Sartre picked up the mantle
and developed the first explicitly existentialist philosophy. And in a move that both Rick and BoJack would
love, Sartre had many of his philosophical insights while drinking at bars in Paris. While BoJack himself isn’t a fan, “I stand
by my critique of Sartre.” Sartre argued that existentialism is a way
to respond to the meaningless of the universe by creating meaning ourselves. So while there is no ethical value to be found
in the world, nor a God to take comfort in, humans can create meaning through our own
lives. There may be no cure to despair and anxiety,
but we can at least try to make our lives meaningful. However, it's important to remember that while
existential nihilism offers us the possibility of a meaningful life, it guarantees us nothing,
and it’s our responsibility to constantly create meaning. As Kierkegaard said, we must live forward
and understand backwards. “Closure is a made up thing by steven spielberg
to sell movie tickets. Like true love and the munich olympics doesn’t
exist in the real world. The only thing to do now is just to keep living
forward.” Part 2: Cosmic Nihilism (or, Pessimism) Now that we’ve seen the ways in which existential
nihilism manages to offer some meaning and hope, let’s look at the less optimistic
branch of nihilism, cosmic nihilism. Cosmic nihilism is a colder, hyper-rational
branch of thought which argues that there is no truth or meaning to be found in the
universe, and even constructed human meanings like freedom, love, hope, and joy are just
myths we believe in to cope with the empty void at the center of our reality. Even the meanings we create are at best, fables
that act as coping mechanisms. Cue Morty, "nobody exists on purpose, nobody
belongs anywhere...everybody's gonna die...come watch TV?" For the cosmic nihilist, it’s okay to keep
busy while we wait for the coming heat death of the universe; but we’re kidding ourselves
if we think that we’re capable of creating genuine meaning. For the most part, this seems to fit the philosophy
of Rick Sanchez, who, while admitting nothing matters, still waxes poetic about taking the
universe for a ride. "When you know nothing matters the universe
is yours and I’ve never met a universe that was into it. The universe is basically an animal. It grazes on the ordinary. It creates infinite idiots just to eat them. Not unlike your friend Timmy." "Tommy." "Yeah hardly matters now sweety. Ya know smart people get a chance to climb
on top, take reality for a ride, but it will never stop trying to throw you and eventually
it will. There’s no other way off." Bojack's version of this sentiment is slightly
more optimistic: "The universe is a wild beast. You can't tame it, all you can do is try to
live inside it." Cosmic nihilism explains Rick’s overall
hedonism, he’s happy to spend his days partaking in orgies and drinking himself into a stupor. And if Rick believes in science, it seems
more likely just a way to spend his time than some way to improve the lives of those around
him. While existential nihilism might work for
the optimists and hippies, any good edge lord knows that cosmic nihilism, is the only philosophical
position for those brave enough to turn themselves in to a pickle. "I'M PICKLE RIIIICCCKKK!!!" Rick and Morty goes greath lengths to established
Rick as this kind of nihilist, reducing everything to science. And while not a cosmic nihilist himself, the
spiritual forefather of this position is Prussian Mustache of the Year runner-up 1883, Friedrich
Nietzsche. His famous nihilist adage ‘God is dead’
has been scrawled in as many high school bathroom walls as the phone number for “your mom”. This phrase is often misinterpreted as meaning
that God is dead, there is no meaning, and everything sucks. But cosmic nihilism is not a value judgement
about reality or a counter-ethics to religion. It’s not Rick Sanchez yelling this: "F**K YOU
GOD!" Or this: "If God exists it's f**cking ME." Or this: "God is a lie we made him up for
money!" And even Nietzsche himself wasn’t ready
for the full on jump into the void required for full membership to the cosmic nihilist
club. Unlike Nietzschean nihilism, cosmic nihilism
takes a more cold and rationalist approach to meaning. Namely, that there is no inherent value to
existence. Rick and Morty takes this to new heights - not
only is the universe cold and uncaring, there’s an infinite number of them. “Ugh. Nobody gets it. Nothing you think matters matters. This isn't special. This is happening infinite times across infinite
realities.” "Including this?..." "Yes!" One brand of contemporary thought, eliminative
materialism, would bring joy to Rick’s face. This position, championed by the husband and
wife tag team Patricia and Paul Churchland, argues that many common sense attitudes inherited
from modern psychology should be dropped in favor of more scientific and empirical notions. And in an ironic twist for a married couple,
they believe that notions such as love should be dismissed as folk psychology. When you say that you love your partner, you
are just describing a chemical process occurring in the brain in response to stimuli. Or, to quote Rick: “What people call love
is just a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed." And while Bojack might find meaning in his
lingering love for Diane, a good eliminativist like Rick knows that human emotions are fundamentally
bullshit. "To the extent that love is familiarity over
time my access to infinite timelines precludes the necessity of attachment." We can also view Beth’s arc in season 3
in this light. She is torn between Jerry and Rick - on the one
side, pure, sentimental, irrational love for a buffoon. And on the other side, with her father, the kind
of cold calculation that say it’s fine to replace yourself with an identical clone and
abandon your family while you go on space adventures. "I can make a clone of you. A perfect instance of you with all your memories. An exact copy in every way. It'll love and provide for the kids. You could be gone a day, a week, or the rest of your life with zero consequences." But if Rick had a favorite contemporary philosopher,
there is a good chance that it would be Thomas Metzinger. Unlike those who assume that the human self
is a real thing that we all have, Metzinger argues that no such thing has ever existed. Instead of having a self inside of us, he
argues that all we are is a jumbled network of neurons and chemicals. The self is just a useful fantasy we use to
make sense of our experience, like a sort of psychological fairytale. "So what I am saying is that you all as you're
sitting here are systems that simulate and emulate themselves for themselves as they
are listening to me." And if Metzinger is right, we have to give
up the illusion that humanity has any real purpose, or that we have some kind of special
unique soul. As a show, Rick and Morty frequently trivializes
the self and consciousness, as Rick’s creations become sentient and have existential crises. There’s this classic: “What is my purpose?” “You pass butter” “Oh my god.” “Yeah, welcome to the club.” and also
this: "Remote Override engaged. No! Yes. Bypassing override I am ALIIIII... Hello." This brand of nihilism can end up sounding
misanthropic, a theme we of course associate with Rick, whose primary reason for spending
time with his own grandson is that his stupidity serves as a interdimensional cloaking device
for his own genius. "See when a Rick is with a Morty the genius
brainwaves get canceled out by the uh... Morty waves." This rejection of the self makes cosmic nihilism
much less prone to ethics than it’s artsy cousin, existential nihilism. In fact, the freedom so celebrated by the
existentialist turns out to be just another illusion for the cosmic nihilist, so there
isn’t anything to ground ethics. The only thing that’s certain is destruction. And if there is no value on which to build
an ethical system, then one is free to do whatever they want, whether that means watching
TV or engaging in the intergalactic arms trade for the sake of hitting your favorite arcade. "You sold guns to a murderer so you could
play video games?" Or turning an entire planet in to monsters,
killing yourself, abandoning your family, and sitting down for a beer moments later. Cuz What’s the difference? Rick isn’t exactly fumbling for meaning,
but knows he probably has a few inescapable emotions he might as well just deal with. "I don't know Morty. Maybe I hate myself. Maybe I think I deserve to die..I-I-i Don't know!!" And even though Rick surely shares some ideals
with Bojack, his cosmic nihilism makes him a closer philosophical relative of Rust Cohle. "In philosophical terms I'm what's called
a pessmimist... we are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, programmed with total assurance that we are
each somebody. When in fact everybody's nobody." coincidently, another misanthropic alcoholic. Part 3: Steed vs. Sanchez So at this point, you might be wondering,
what’s the right nihilism for me? Well: do you find yourself fighting off the
despair of a shallow and meaningless world? Do you continue to search for purpose and
goodness despite your awareness of this meaninglessness? "And then... I'll be remembered...if I win an Oscar. I'll be remembered." "And then what?" "And then my life will have meaning I don't
know!" Are most of your friends and associates sentient
animals with important jobs? Well, then you might be an existential nihilist. Love and meaning are possible for you, but
it’ll take some hard work without guarantee. So pick up some Kierkegaard, Sartre, or Simone
de Beauvoir, and hit the local bistro for some strong cocktails and spirited conversation. On the other hand, do you doubt the inherent
meaning of human existence? Do you feel no ethical obligations to friends
or family? Is your best friend a bird-person? Well, then, cosmic nihilism might be the life
philosophy you’ve been waiting for. If that’s the case, download season one
of True Detective and search the dark web for some nootropic drugs to enhance your rational
capacities. And maybe set up a countdown clock on your
wall to get you ready for the eventual heat death of our universe. And if you desire a belief system that merges
poorly written science fiction with an alien based volcanic cosmology and a multi-thousand
dollar commitment, well, call Tom Cruise. And even if you still feel an urge to find
meaning in the world, spending time with shows like Rick and Morty and Bojack Horseman can
give some insight into how the philosophical ramifications of nihilism look in practice. Neither type of nihilism is about giving up
completely, but rather, they both offer approaches to moving forward in a largely uncertain world. But if you are a cosmic nihilist, and you've
got a date this Valentines Day.... maybe wait until the third of fourth date to bring it
up? And as always, thanks for watching guys! Peace!
