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26/04/2013

Big Big Words! Vanity upon Vanity

From a page on this blog - Anecdotes of My Day...
constitutes my daily experiences. link


Big, Big Words!

Doing a lot of reading recently and I am totally enjoying all the new information I am getting. One terminology that has refused to leave me is NIHILISM. Nihilism is a state of nothingness. Nihilism is loss of meaning or seriousness. If nihilism were complete there would be no significant private or public issues. Nihilism is the fundamental movement in the history of the West. Materialism is a symptom of nihilism. Materialism is the view that all meaning has gone from the cosmos, nature, and culture. Values are objective, explicit options which imply the existence of choice. (Source: ERIC)

Is life itself meaningful? Now the bottom line here is that in the state of a loss of meaning, all educational activity lacks meaning with particular reference to cultural practices. Example, a close friend of mine does not really get why she needs to teach her kids her local language. Her argument is that it is meaningless and not useful to him! Is he going to become the business mogul she knows he will become through the use of the language? In his time, how many people is he going to have to speak it to? Is it for survival?

If we look at her 'nihilist' arguments for the transmission of language deeply, we may begin to see reasons. In the transmission of values, a good question to ask ourselves constantly is..."does it have meaning?"

Now, here I am in my world, thinking, if so, many cultural practices are valueless - in a state of nothingness. If they are valueless, what makes a people unique? Are we human beings equally in a state of nothingness - nihilism? Do you get my drift? If you do, you are definitely in 'the spirit' with me because I guess we must find some meaning at some point as human beings.... otherwise we need not exist.