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Title about nothing By Rafael Torok

I’ve had an interesting experience within this class. I wanted to care about this book, and I wanted to care about the class. But I soon realized that it didn’t matter whether I got an A or a B. It didn’t matter if I really cared about the book. So why try? It seemed like a fool’s errand. I don’t feel this way anymore. I realized that to look at it that way is foolish and cowardly. You can’t live a life if your philosophy is designed to remove you completely from any sort of meaningful connection to this world. This has become clearer than ever in my reading of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

There have been times in my life when I have felt similar to Moira, a character in the book. Specifically, I am referring to how she feels and acts during the section in which she plans an escape from the compound they were being housed in. Of course, it was not nearly to the same extent as she. However, the base desires were similar. I have been in a situation where I needed to do something disastrous for the long term in order to fulfill my needs in the short term. Sometimes, though, the thing I do, which is beneficial in the short term, is actually beneficial in the long term as well. It’s just bad in the medium term. For example, writing an essay at one in the morning. It’s good for my grade in the class, but it leaves me as an empty shell, unable to do anything useful the next day. What does it actually mean? Best case, I get an A in the class instead of a B. Whoop-dee-doo. What does that get me? A fraction of a percent higher chance of getting into any particular college. After that, nothing. I am reminded of the discussion Offred has with Moira on pages 89 and 90. When Moira first mentions that she’s got to escape, Offred immediately feels panic. She believes it will result in negative consequences. Moira doesn’t. She doesn’t really think it matters. Like Moira, I was tempted into thinking that this class doesn’t matter. I thought it was a boring waste of time. Similarly, it seems to me that Nihilism is an appropriate philosophy to look at the book through. Do the events of the book matter? Many would be drawn to answering no. Humans are leaky blobs of chemicals that are not conscious. Our brains are a collection of neurons tricking each other into doing math. Either everything with a brain is conscious, or nothing is. If you can’t tell, I’m on the latter side for the purposes of this paragraph. If no one on earth is conscious, then there is no reason to do anything. There is no suffering; suffering is an illusion made up by evolution to stop you from killing yourself. There is no pain; pain is a hoax made by your brain to stop you from getting yourself killed. I’ve always seen the appeal of nihilism. If embraced fully, it is the freest one can get. No responsibility, no morals, and no hope burdening you. However, I believe that it is a foolish way to look at the world. Its main philosophy rests upon a non-falsifiable axiom. We cannot prove whether or not human beings are conscious. If we assume they are not, nihilism becomes almost the default. If they are, then all of the other philosophies are still on the table. I know this is a logical fallacy, but I think we should choose the world where good people can exist. We should choose the world in which there is a reason to care.