2024-07-10 nihilism and purpose

• A collection of thoughts, observations, and opinions about Zeitgeist in my own mind and perhaps outside it.

Wendy Brown (p. 104): "Most young people are in a mode of pre-apocalyptic survivalism, as are we all to some extent."[^1]
/ in Brown's thinking with Max Weber, the way through the loss of authority and tradition is to accept that there is no ultimate purpose, and support and generate the conversations needed to establish values, and the politics that put them into practice //

/ Kate Soper [^2] : human exceptionality must be acknowledged (accepted?) in order to ground conversation and action to support human flourishing and sustain the natural world //

• / trees, mountains, rivers "-- and even dogs", can not be held responsible for actions in the ways that humans can //
• / we humans are a species that talks about "morality" -- it is a construct of the human mind //

Indeed, if human forms of consciousness and agency are on a par with those of the rest of nature, then no special responsibility for ecological collapse can be attributed to humans, and no eco-political strategies for redemption can be expected of them. Paradoxical as it may seem, the belief that humans occupy no special place in nature is likely to confound rather than advance the ecological cause. (Soper, p. 26)

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[^1] Wendy Brown (2024). Nihilistic Times. cf. Wendy Brown - Nihilstic Times
[^2] Kate Soper (2020). Post-growth Living. cf KateSoper-Post-growth-living