On /r/JordanPeterson, posts like these by millennials are common:
Just because there’s no inherent purpose to being doesn’t mean we have to get all upset about it. Is simply being not good enough for you? And if your conclusion is that it isn’t, then fine. You can kill yourself. Seriously, if that’s what you want to do, who is anyone else to tell you otherwise? Do what you have to do.
The thing about it is, when you accept that there is no inherent purpose to existence, you can feel hopelessly trapped by it, but you can also feel totally freed. It all depends on your perspective.
And yes, I’m a hypocrite. I hate existence. I’m bitter about a lot of things, and more often than not feel like it’s not worth it to go on. I think about killing myself every day. But you know what? Maybe if I didn’t grow up with everyone around me telling me how special I was, how I was a son of God destined for greatness here and in the afterlife, how my intelligence was going to make my life awesome and easy, how all it takes is a little faith and hard work to make my dreams come true, I wouldn’t have come to expect so much out of this. Maybe I’d actually be content with the way things are, because I would have never assumed it mattered so goddamn much.
…and You’re either a winner or a loser:
… I just don’t see the point when its nothing but suffering and things will never be easy because im not an alpha male or a female. Plus, I often find myself asking, “What does JP know?”. Hes a good looking man, born in a developed country, has multiple masters degrees and a few PH.D’s, married with successful children, happy marriage (as far as we can tell), hes got almost everything a person could want. So how do people like me, who aren’t anything like him, take anything away from his messages? Its like listening to a squirrel tell all these turtles how to be the best reptiles possible.
EDIT: To clarify, my question is, why play a game where the goal is happiness, the game is rigged for other players and against you, no one cares if you win at any point or not, and any time not spent losing is pretty miserable. Sure, I could make a morning routine, actually start and do the self authoring program, treat others with kindness, become responsible for my own life completely, try to find some sort of burden and carry it, blah blah blah, but WHY? Sounds like a fucking terrible solution to a shitty problem.
These were posted within the last 24 hours, so it’s not like I had to dig deep in the archive to find them, and shows how such posts are pretty common. It would seem like many millennials are suffering from a lack of guidance in life, a lack of direction, and general confusion about the point and purpose of life; essentially, an existential crisis. This ties into the post a few days ago Everyone is a Realist about the ‘millennial condition’, which is somewhat related to the ‘postmodernist condition’. The problem is, culture has taught millennials what not to believe in and to always be skeptical, but offers no solutions as to how to fill the void as to what one should believe in. Believing in science and facts only goes so far; a sort of transcendental or metaphysical component may also be needed.
This also relates to the rise of alt-left and alt-right ‘extremism’. The media is trying to understand why so many young people are gravitating to these ideologies. The problem is the absence of leadership. Pop culture, school, parents, teachers, and politicians don’t provide the leadership and confidence young people seek. Despotic leadership is better than none at all. You can choose 1000’s of movies to watch on Netflix or one of 50 genders on Facebook, but these are are not substitutes for value and identity. Although choice is nice, it does not tell you how you should be or act, only that there are many options.
From Vox Day on 9/13, literally on the same day I began writing this post Mailvox: The Origins of the Alt-Retard. Although I object to the neologism ‘alt retard’, it weird how we’re all thinking the same stuff, all the way down to the very hour and day, despite the absence of communication with each other.
I’ve been pondering the origins of the AltRetard. Who are they, and why are they? They are, by and large, young white men, probably middle to lower class, who are the products of the environment and culture that they have been raised in. They know that this environment and culture is broken, is pozzed, and they are seeking an alternative. They are seeking health and well-being in a sick world, and this is good. But they haven’t found it yet.
I have some sympathy for these young men. Their condition is largely not their fault. As a GenXer, my own working class childhood situation was far from ideal, and things have only gotten worse for this demographic since then. We all stumble around in search of knowledge and wisdom that we don’t have, because they have not been passed down to us as they should have been.
“Tradition” means “that which is passed down.” The Western tradition – Christianity and Greco-Roman philosophy – teaches us how to be in the world, teaches us what we are and what to do with what we are. But this tradition has been systematically removed from the education system for the vast majority of Americans and Europeans. Only those whose parents have the foresight and the money to send their children to private schools that still teach the Classics and the Bible have learned much about it. And those men, because they have financial privilege, have mostly sold out for the sake of their own comfort. They have not handed down the tradition.
But it isn’t. It wasn’t the supreme evil either, and to that extent it’s the (((media’s))) fault for creating such a powerful taboo in the first place. But while it may feel good for hopeless young men to meme out images of Schutzstaffel Pepes gassing hooknose rabbis, at the end of the day it’s just reactionary child’s play that produces nothing and leads to nothing – nothing for the young men themselves, and nothing for the Western civilization which needs to be not only defended, but first rediscovered by generations of miseducated young men that have been denied their birthright and their spiritual home.
C’mon Vox cannot use the triple parenthesis as a dog whistle then call them alt-retards. But such patronizing tone and attitude is part of the problem. Why would anyone want to side with or take heed from someone who insults them?