Let me keep my rose-coloured glasses!

Any time something positive happens in the life of a young person reckless enough to share it, it is immediately overshadowed by someone’s reminder that it is undoubtedly temporary. Did you have a good time with your friends? Well, congratulations, just know that all friendships are transactional in nature and good people never stick around for long anyway.

Did you find love? You are just a kid, your heart will be broken soon enough and it is foolish to hope otherwise.

Do you like the country you ended up in? Might want to take a closer look at what its politicians are up to behind closed doors.

This gloomy advice is usually given by someone just a few years older, but with an abundance of negative experiences to prove the point. Are they wrong? Probably not, and if you are selective enough with your data there are statistics to back up whatever your narrative is. And if your outlook on life is just as despondent, I am not here to argue with you, after all, I am not in a position to argue when you can prove me wrong with a few Facebook links or a history textbook. The question is, how much do you really want me to be wrong?

We all need a narrative to follow, a story we can tell ourselves about this chaotic world and our place in it, and in the absence of spirituality in my own life, (There are plenty of reasons that have stripped the appeal of organised religion that I would rather not itemise) I have spent my time searching for meaning among countless philosophers of ages passed. In this quest for purpose, I had come upon one branch of modern philosophy that seemed to explain everything, and at the same time nothing at all.

Nihilism. Or optimistic nihilism (however un-academic this second interpretation may sound)

Nihilism is a philosophical belief that rejects or denies the existence of inherent meaning or purpose in life.

Many see it as an ideology devoid of hope, one that makes life meaningless by denying existence an inherent value.

There is some truth to this definition, but it also has a more positive spin. If life has no inherent meaning, there is nothing stopping us from finding our own. Instead of following an imposed moral code, nihilism offers the opportunity to bring meaning to the randomness of this universe by flowing the moral code instilled in us by our shared humanity.

I believe that we all have a duty to make the world around us as good as we can, without regard for reciprocity. And so what if the good thing will one day come to their due end? What matters, is that they were there. The sun still rises every day, so that we can love each other, help each other and leave this world a little better than we found it, whatever our own definition of that may be. The poets will still make their idealist pleas, and parents will hope that this world will be just a little kinder than the one they saw. Because this is what we ought to give this world, regardless of what it gives us because that is the beauty of our shared human nature.

In the immortal words of Kurzgesagt “The stars are not shining beautifully for us, they just are”

Please take into account that I am still young, and the world has been kind to me so far, by no hidden virtue of my own, but because I have the luck to be surrounded by a loving family, and loyal friends, it hasn’t been too much of an effort to stay positive. (And hey, I reserve my right to come back and edit this article when I feel less optimistic)

So maybe seeing the good in this world is not the worst bias there is, none of us know the secrets the universe holds and we are all a little wrong about our interpretations, but I would rather be wrong in my rose-coloured glasses, blinded by my intentional naivety, maybe we could all try putting them on from time to time.