{"id":26905,"date":"2026-02-02T17:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T01:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=26905"},"modified":"2026-02-06T16:19:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T00:19:05","slug":"current-events-nihilism-and-the-meaning-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/02\/02\/current-events-nihilism-and-the-meaning-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Current Events; Nihilism and the Meaning of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Pete Hegseth delights in violence;<\/li>\n<li>How Scott Adams was mislead by innumeracy into conspiracy theories;<\/li>\n<li>How conservatives resent a politician telling them to act more like Jesus;<\/li>\n<li>Examples of lunacy from JMG;<\/li>\n<li>Nihilism and the meaning of life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>Today, back to items seen on the web today. (More Facebook soon.)<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>As I&#8217;ve noted. There&#8217;s a certain conservative meanness in this world.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/zJWDpG_Mjx-Xy1fxUxQkbBTp-qI=\/0x0:4000x2250\/976x549\/media\/img\/mt\/2026\/01\/2026_01_29_Hegseth_Shows_How_He_Would_Run_the_Military_on_the_Streets_of_America\/original.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Atlantic, Missy Ryan, 2 Feb 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/national-security\/2026\/02\/hegseth-trump-minnesota-ice-military\/685848\/\">Pete Hegseth Delights in Violence<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;His first year at the Pentagon has been marked by uncomplicated celebrations of death.&#8221;<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>E<span class=\"smallcaps\">ven before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem<\/span> had declared Alex Pretti a domestic terrorist, Pete Hegseth was online trashing his home state. Hegseth, who grew up north of Minneapolis, took to social media in the hours after masked immigration agents shot the ICU nurse with a stark calculation: \u201cICE &gt; MN.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cWe have your back 100%. You are SAVING the country,\u201d the Pentagon chief <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PeteHegseth\/status\/2015180028623851750?s=20\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-recent-on-screen31117857_899=\"386154\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"386154\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">told<\/a> immigration agents in an X post. \u201cShame on the leadership of Minnesota\u2014and the lunatics in the street.\u201d Hegseth didn\u2019t define the <em>we<\/em>. He and fellow Cabinet members? The 1.3 million service members he commands? The troops he put on standby for potential deployment to Minneapolis? He hasn\u2019t said. But if there was any doubt about how Hegseth would wield military might if troops were sent to check unrest or dissent in U.S. cities, there\u2019s your answer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Remember, he&#8217;s the one who changed &#8220;defense&#8221; to &#8220;war.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been decades since I&#8217;ve paid attention to Dilbert, let alone Scott Adams, but this piece is pertinent to the issues I do pay attention to.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/centerforinquiry.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2026\/01\/30115121\/AdobeStock_131066634-1024x683.jpeg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Skeptical Inquirer, Benjamin Radford, 30 Jan 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/skepticalinquirer.org\/exclusive\/dilbert-dilemma-the-tragic-innumeracy-of-scott-adams\/\">Dilbert Dilemma: The Tragic Innumeracy of Scott Adams<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip <em>Dilbert<\/em> that skewered and satirized corporate America and office workers around the world, died earlier this month. In reading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/13\/arts\/scott-adams-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HVA.EJsh.wSRBjGwey1UF&amp;smid=url-share\"><u>the obituary of Adams in <\/u><u><em>The New York Times<\/em><\/u><\/a>, a recurring theme in Adams\u2019s life jumped out at me: how innumeracy and a lack of critical thinking played a role in the scandals that tarnished his reputation and ended his lucrative cartooning career. To be clear, I\u2019m not suggesting that Adams was stupid or that his comics weren\u2019t (at least occasionally) funny. Instead, that he\u2014like most people\u2014fell for bogus statistics and arguments that could have been avoided with a bit of critical thinking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With the prominent example of his Holocaust denial, and examples of dicey polling.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>And this stands out. As I&#8217;ve noted again and again, the behavior of modern conservatives seems at odds with the ideas they claim to venerate: from the Constitution, from Jesus.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!FXWM!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6bbf904-9248-4504-b1f0-c7ac11ca2a27_1400x778.png\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta, 2 Feb 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.friendlyatheist.com\/p\/republicans-are-panicking-because\">Republicans are panicking because James Talarico wants people to act more like Jesus<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The Texas Democrat\u2019s faith-based critique of Christian Nationalism is something the GOP doesn\u2019t know how to fight&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is how you know Republicans are doing everything in their power to avoid facing James Talarico in the upcoming U.S. Senate election in Texas: They\u2019re trying to attack him for saying Jesus was a good guy.<\/p>\n<p>The 36-year-old Texas State House member, progressive Christian, and seminarian is currently one of the frontrunners in the Democratic primary\u2014polling suggests he\u2019s currently in a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/01\/29\/texas-us-senate-poll-crockett-talarico-2026-democratic-primary\/\" rel=\"\">dead heat<\/a>\u201d against outspoken <strong>Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett <\/strong>heading into the March 3 primary\u2014and that means Republicans are doing everything they can to sway the primary race in favor of Crockett, whom they believe is less electable statewide. (For similar reasons, Democrats are <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/opinion\/campaign\/5567533-paxton-senate-bid-melting-away\/\" rel=\"\">trying<\/a> to push Christian Nationalist and scandal-prone attorney general <strong>Ken Paxton<\/strong> to the top of the Republican ticket.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Examples of lunacy from <strong>JMG:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/NickiMinajTrump-660x330-1.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/02\/nicki-minaj-demoncrats-sacrifice-babies-to-satan\/\">Nicki Minaj: \u201cDemoncrats Sacrifice Babies To Satan\u201d<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/02\/trump-republicans-ought-to-nationalize-the-voting\/\">Trump: \u201cRepublicans Ought To Nationalize The Voting\u201d<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/02\/pastor-bad-wig-all-my-prophecies-have-come-true\/\">Pastor Bad Wig: All My Prophecies Have Come True<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No they don&#8217;t. Another prediction coming true. You don&#8217;t say.<\/p>\n<p>The last item has notes and links to the many predictions Lance Wallnau claims that have *not* come true. Why does anyone believe this guy?<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Well, because people need a story to believe in, a story that validates their existence, and provides &#8220;meaning.&#8221; Whatever that means.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/nihilism2feb26.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/nihilism2feb26-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Big Think Interview, (2 Feb 2026), Alex O&#8217;Connor<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/series\/the-big-think-interview\/nihilism-and-reason\/\"> What nihilism acknowledges that other philosophies don\u2019t<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The thing that the nihilist recognizes is that the values he or she holds are not grounded in anything other than their own preferences.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Overview:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Most people go through their lives with perfectly good reasons for what they do, and almost no reason to question these reasons. What happens when we ask why ordinary actions feel self-justifying, and what happens when that chain of \u201cbecauses\u201d finally runs out? Alex O\u2019Connor explores.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;ve listened to part of this, and there&#8217;s a transcript. Years ago I linked a Veritasium video by Derek Muller, on the &#8220;beauty of nihilism&#8221; &#8212; in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2015\/08\/18\/links-and-comments-derek-muller-and-the-beauty-of-nihilism\/\">this post<\/a>. See there for quotes. The gist is that all of our religions and other explanations of &#8220;meaning&#8221; are made up; they&#8217;re projections of human values onto an enormous universe that is mostly inimical to life. To let those stories go is a liberation.<\/p>\n<p>The consensus among current thinkers (including the writers of three books I just recently read) is that evolution and life are inherent in the structure of the universe, and humans can be a part of that by extending the struggle against entropy, by learning, gathering information, growing and fighting off the eventual end as long as we can. But there&#8217;s no &#8220;meaning&#8221; to life, in the sense of worshiping a creator, a relationship that&#8217;s too much like slaves worshiping their masters.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll quote the opening lines of the interview.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Most people instinctively think that there is some kind of meaning to life. They just sort of assume that it&#8217;s there in the same way that if you ask them, &#8220;Why are you getting out of bed to go to work? Why are you doing that to make money? Why to provide for my family? Why to bring up my children healthily? Why because I want my children to be healthy? Why? What do you mean why?&#8221; For some people, they just don&#8217;t recognize the question. They&#8217;re just like, &#8220;What are you talking about?&#8221; For other people, they hear that and they go, &#8220;Gosh, you know what? Fair enough, I actually don&#8217;t know.&#8221; The nihilist is someone who sort of takes a bird&#8217;s eye view of it and realizes that it&#8217;s all a little bit meaningless. It is nicer to think that you are here for some kind of reason that&#8217;s written into the rules of the universe than that it all is just a happy or unhappy accident.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>There are many meanings of life. Conservatives would merely perpetuate the species in deference to a creator. (What was that creator doing through all eternity before he created humans, some 6000 years ago, as the believers think? Maybe running his experiment over and over again?) Others understand the structure of the universe, how it is expanding, how pockets of complexity confound entropy and create new knowledge, new information. So: the meaning of life is to try to understand what&#8217;s really going on, and not be content with the stories of the previous generation. And it&#8217;s to transmit that knowledge and your experiences to the next generation. Make the next generation, whether your own children or culture in general, better than your own. Leave the world a better place. I think that&#8217;s the best we can do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pete Hegseth delights in violence; How Scott Adams was mislead by innumeracy into conspiracy theories; How conservatives resent a politician telling them to act more like Jesus; Examples of lunacy from JMG; Nihilism and the meaning of life. &#8211; &#8211; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/02\/02\/current-events-nihilism-and-the-meaning-of-life\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,18,33,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatives","category-lunacy","category-mathematics","category-meaning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26905"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26947,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26905\/revisions\/26947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}