Home Lovecraft and Nihilism

"Carter did not taste deeply of these modern freedoms; for their cheapness and squalor sickened a spirit loving beauty alone while his reason rebelled at the flimsy logic with which their champions tried to gild brute impulse with a sacredness stripped from the idols they had discarded. He saw that most of them, in common with their cast-off priestcraft, could not escape from the delusion that life has a meaning apart from that which men dream into it; and could not lay aside the crude notion of ethics and obligations beyond those of beauty, even when all Nature shrieked of its unconsciousness and impersonal unmorality in the light of their scientific discoveries. Warped and bigoted with preconceived illusions of justice, freedom, and consistency, they cast off the old lore and the old way with the old beliefs; nor ever stopped to think that that lore and those ways were the sole makers of their present thoughts and judgments, and the sole guides and standards in a meaningless universe without fixed aims or stable points of reference. Having lost these artificial settings, their lives grew void of direction and dramatic interest; till at length they strove to drown their ennui in bustle and pretended usefulness, noise and excitement, barbaric display and animal sensation. When these things palled, disappointed, or grew nauseous through revulsion, they cultivated irony and bitterness, and found fault with the social order. Never could they realize that their brute foundations were as shifting and contradictory as the gods of their elders, and that the satisfaction of one moment is the bane of the next. Calm, lasting beauty comes only in a dream, and this solace the world had thrown away when in its worship of the real it threw away the secrets of childhood and innocence."

- Excerpt from 'The Silver Key,' by H.P. Lovecraft

I'd be willing to argue that Lovecraft is one of the greatest geniuses of the modern age. In that small passage from the story 'The Silver Key', we see the true definition of nihilism. Overcoming the truth of how meaningless reality is, and then living to create beauty in life. Never have I encountered the concept of nihilism more clearly spoken or correct as from the small treasures of knowledge found in Lovecraft's pulp horror stories.

The parasites of the world destroyed what beauty it contained, and now most all those in the world who truly appreciate beauty, have simply lost their lives to dreams and fantasies, for this world cannot bring them satisfaction. Nihilism is the philosophy that attempts to return to our world that beauty; the traditionalist values that have been so carelessly discarded by the subhuman parasites.

It is hard to believe that, in this day and age, we actually have a chance to return to that ancient beauty that is now simply a hole in the hearts of all reasonably intelligent people. The likely scenario is that humanity will live the rest of its' time in simple repetition of work and mindless entertainment until the end of our days, all the while those who could've possibly changed the world simply flee this filthy place to their own personal havens. I myself am not far from just giving up and staying within my sanctuary, avoiding the garbage pile that the parasites have made humanity into.

Whether one recognizes the philosophies hidden in his tales or not, I believe people like to hear the truth, which could've been how he gained so much popularity even though his stories were made for no more than pulp science fiction magazines (do not get me wrong, I admire Lovecraft very much even for the fiction elements of his stories). If one feels satisfied with the current world, then, to be blunt, they are simply in the same class as the parasites that made this world what it is today, although they do not actually become the parasites until they actively push this perverted world order. We cannot blame commoners or idiots for being the way they are, but they must recognize what they are and that they are unfit to be leading the world.

Nihilism to me, is simply two things; firstly, acceptance of the lack of value in morality, death, religion, almost any subjective human concept. Once that has been realized you look past this concept and back to life and now you have a perfectly clear view. This view is both beautiful and disgusting. It is beautiful for you realize how wonderful and great life is (I love being alive, even if it is in a screwed up place like this). It is disgusting for you finally see all of the things we have done wrong throughout this modern age, and the current results that we are now living through.

A key player that is to blame is monotheistic religion. They have successfully taken the literal significance of pagan religions, filled it with more ridiculous literal morals that create decay in a system, and simple concepts that the commoners (the majority) can understand and prefer to the old lifestyle. Can there be anything that kills a functioning people any better? Of course there are quicker ways that a civilization might be destroyed that I, for one, would prefer, but these religions seem to be stuck for good in the increasingly worsening minds of the people. Thanks to monotheistic religion and all the other idiots in power who are either selfish and only care about their own shallow material gain or they think they are doing good for humanity, but are actually too stupid to realize that they are the main source to the problem.

So what exactly is the point of this article? Well, there are several. Mainly I wanted to show my view of nihilism, Lovecraft's poetic brilliance in describing the problems that too many of us are unable to recognize, and to restate the common problems that too few acknowledge in hope to show people that change must be made. There seems to be an increasingly smaller group of us Lovecraft type people that are able to recognize the slumber of those who can fix this world. A few are popping up probably as a final resistance to this bug that humanity cannot seem to kick. Though, this cannot last for long, so this must be our time for action before these few fall into dreamland forsaking this hopeless world.

June 6, 2006

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