I don't know about you, but isn't Existentialism a bit pessimistic?

I don't know if its the same thing but it kinda rings a bell of something that Sartre wrote...

something like: "In choosing yourself, you choose the whole world."

sartre went on to explain (better than i can) that by choosing an action you should choose the most righteous action, and that by choosing the most righteous action you are choosing the action that would be (in your view) the most righteous action for every other individual in existence.

in other words, you cannot escape the "What if everyone acted that way" arguement simply by ignoring it and responding "everyone doesnt act that way" because the goal of existentialism is Authenticity. You should act the RIGHT way (whatever that may be) and by doing so you are choosing the universally right way to act.

 

Nihilism is natural. It is the basis on which everyone should create their values. Nihilism denies the validity of orthodox values, this gives a person a starting point on which they can create their own values.

This isn't saying in anyway that nihilism is present after the creation of values --that would be contradictory-- just that the assumed values handed down by the culture you are raised in should be disgarded, and new, relevant, and self-determined values should be created in their place.

 

Existentialism mixes with Absurdism from time to time and thats why it seems so pessimistic

 

This is all a load of crap. To say that if I chose what seems "right" to me that I am somehow chosing what I believe right to be for every one is the HUMAN way but that is all. It is all full of ego and selfimportance. the universe is neither positive or negative, right or wrong, interested or indifferent. It just IS. All of that other crap is human ego trying to reach out and touch everyone else. True existentialism implies that we just exist...the universe just exists...and our decisions that we make define who we THINK we are as in reality we are nothing. But that is not pessimestic because that too is just another human invention in a universe that just IS. This all leads back to Eastern dualism and our dream like state where we dream our world view while reality just is.

 

That's exactly how I feel. I just want to exist and live my life the way that I want to, but people shove down my throat that I have to read the Bible, or I have to read Dianetics, or the Quran, etc. That's all a load of bullshit. You don't need guidance from an ancient book that has no meaning in today's society. I prefer optimism over pessimism, because it seems right to me, but if all of those other jerkoffs want to be pessimistic and think that a great apocalypse is going to come, go right ahead and see how wrong you are when it never comes.

 

Existentialism says you should calm down.

 

Existentialism says you should go smoke a joint and eat a big mac.

 

Or A Steak Quesadilla and a Soft Taco with a Burrito Supreme at Taco Bell.

 

I don't think existentialism is pessimisttic at all.
If we live in a world where nothing is fixed, then the possibilities are endless.
It's all about what you make of life, and not waiting for other to make life for you.

 

This is the biggest load of crap I've read yet on the subject of what existentialism is about, mainly because most of the writers I've met and read on the subject of existentialism are bourgeois academics who get their kids to school in the morning then fill up the car with fuel - deliver a few dreary lectures and then go home and watch telly do some writing go to bed and do the whole thing again the next day. In fact perhaps you should read Sartre on the position of "Freedom and Responsibility" in which he says whatever you do in your life is your responsibility - he actually defined the terms under which the Nazis were tried after the second world war, and he was the person who decided the court could not accept a plea "I was just obeying orders". The court asked Sartre to define the prosecution arguments and then effectively to submit the rules of the trial
If you chose to fight in the war then that war was your responsibility - you could have chosen not to carry out the orders