#nihilist animism

[mobilefruit-gundam]

“Animism (grand, capital A) began to die as the city was being born. This does not mean the urge does, but that urge primarily moves us against ourselves and towards camping trips, Eschatology, and faith-based approaches to the sickness of this world. Our question is whether mediated experiences are the only ones we are capable of. If that is the case (as is likely), then our capacity for revelatory joy is similarly curtailed, all arguments to the contrary. If we are indeed broken are we capable of NOT being broken? As anarchist who have an interest in how the world operates- -and perhaps how we could perform as wooden shoes to it- -we are naive about what it looks like today to grind gears. We have an urge but little wisdom about the unforeseen consequences of our little strategies. This existential gap, between our desires and our capacity, is also the reason why we are so hungry for the possibility of animism.

The reason we will not solve the problem like the little special snowflakes that we are is because of exactly that, little and weak. Just as monotheism has succeeded in the deception that it represents a personal relationship between you and the almighty, parsed and mediated by priests, ministers, and the dining room table, animism needs a social fabric outside of civilization to keep warm. This social fabric isn’t as simple as playing outdoors with other children, starving for life lessons from the kitchen table where the elders sit and talk, or rituals that help you understand you are a part of something larger- -but one can imagine such simple phenomenon as things that have passed by, that few people experience today in lieu of screens. While the cell phone may itself be sacred and alive the things we see on it are mundane and ordinary and make us also mundane and ordinary.

It is on this unfertile land that spiritual practitioners attempt to live. Generally they have hardscrabble lives devoid of community or anything but scraps of information on how others did what they are trying to do. In this context it makes perfect sense that racial, silly, or fantastic elements (often the same thing) often time(s) infiltrate. It’s not that we can’t ‘go back,’ it is that doing so is just as difficult as marching into the void somewhere new. It just seems easier.

What I would propose, what a nihilist animism would entail, is an acknowledgement that a spiritual endeavor comes from a social practice. It has to pass the test of I/we. If you can find a group of people who are willing to ride the tension of being individuated, having undergone the great pain of core alienation in the modern world- -while not privileging one’s own experiences in a group- -then you could begin. Beginning would look like a long waiting- -while the traffic passes overhead, while your devices beep, bop, beep in your car, while you could be doing other things- -for the world around you to expose its language to you. This will not happen quickly. It will probably take years. This language could then shape a set of principles, a path to walk, that would make sense to your set of people.”

Relations Without End: Nihilist Animism - Aragorn!

[tritoch]

i like people who are like "ugh zenos is so annoying i hate him he's like a git gud video game guy" because like. on the one hand this is a reductive read. and on the other hand there's no crime in being a git gud video game guy in and of itself. i wish i could explain to you the holistic joy of finally embracing the idea of gitting gud.

but also YEAH he's a git gud video game guy. this is a video game. "grr he's wrong i don't like doing ever harder fights and dancing on the precipice of defeat" well okay! you can maybe forgive his mistake since you bought the base game and four expansions to the game where you level up and do dance fights against ever harder bosses! he has to be a git gud video game guy who treats combat like a game in order to properly be a foil to you, because combat literally is a game to you.

[welpthereyougo]

[autonomoustweekazoid]

"We are not drifts of snow moving through reality. Things have happened. Choices have been made. These choices can be evaluated, not from a timeless doctrine but from a human scale. By this human scale the size, the scope, of the choices made is beyond comprehension. This being the case, and as the desire of conscious bodies is to understand, a frame of reference to begin to impact the world can be based on one of two options. Either shrink the world that you desire to understand and touch or assert yourself onto a world gone mad in such a way as to transform scale. Institutions, ideologies, systems, schools, family, capital, government and revolutionary movements have all developed beyond the body. Nihilist anarchism isn’t concerned with a social revolution that adds a new chapter to an old history but the ending of history altogether. If not revolutionaries then possibly epochanaries, for the transformation of society without a positive program."

- Aragorn!

Anarchy and Nihilism: The Consequences

[juegosintiperojuegocontigo]

[revys-closet66]

[zakubabbles]

Maybe

just maybe

I should get back on anti deps

[suturaura]

[superectojazzmage]

Random but I always get super annoyed when people describe Gurren Lagann as “human spirit versus indifferent cruel universe” story like NO did you not fucking watch the show? Spiral power and people using it to become progressively more awesome is literally part of the laws of physics of that universe, that is the natural progression! The universe in Gurren Lagann is fucking awesome and loving and spiral power is holy spiritual strength beyond anything one can imagine, something you use to learn and grow and persevere despite whatever squall you face, and the challenges of life are necessary because a life without challenge is meaningless.

The Anti-Spiral and Lordgenome are the bad guys because they see the challenges inherent in life — represented with the Spiral Nemesis — and become materialistic nihilistic pricks out of cowardice and greed, choosing to not progress any further but instead to live in ignorance and decadence, lording their prebuilt strength over younger people and denying them the spiritual growth that people need for life to have meaning, perverting the natural life cycle of the universe for their own selfish reasons under the guise of “protecting them from harm”.

Team Dai Gurren win because they see beyond the Anti-Spiral’s shallow idea of life and fight despite whatever their enemies throw at them, even continuing to fight from the next life, because they see the true nature of the universe — a place that becomes better with each turn of the drill — and find true immortality in living their lives to fullest.

[kirbyddd]

consumer brainwashing dont believe their lies

[mrsbeef]

How It Should Have Ended

[chaos-cubed]

The world, the universe, is not a person

It has no contempt, but also no compassion, no love, no joy

And yet,

When you spend time with your friends

When you eat some really good food

When you engage in your favorite hobby

When you step outside and gaze upon the lush greenery, the endless amount of unique creatures, the stunningly beautiful sky

It seems like, just maybe, it really is there

But it’s not coming from some faceless conglomerate of distant galaxies

That kindness, that love, that joy

It’s pouring into us from every person, every organism, every atom in the universe

A billion little glimmers in the night sky

The things we feel are not from the masterpiece

They are from every spec of paint

Every clump of clay

Every pencil stroke

Working in a glorious harmony

So that when we think of all the joys that they bring us, we feel we must credit the whole work of art

So that not one little fraction of it is left uncredited

[misty-wisp]

speaking of shadow selves what do you think hamuko's shadow would be like?

definitely a representation of all the pent-up feelings she's been hiding from everyone over the years. all of the rage and misery that she's kept bottled up in order to make sure that she looks just as happy as she should be.

this wound up being a long post lmao

i always like to imagine that the positive and upbeat attitude that kotone has is an act she does to cope with everything happening around her. think about it: her parents(and twin brother depending on whether you headcanon that) died, we have no clue what the hell her childhood was like after that, the minute it seems that she's going to live a normal high school life she's suddenly bombarded with the nighttime's extra creepy hour summoning scary-ass shadow monsters she has to beat up with a diet stand, and not to mention apathy syndrome and the sleep paralysis demon child she has to deal with every once in awhile.

it'd be crazy!!! it'd be stressful!!! it'd drive her insane!! but no, she's gotta be that happy-go-lucky girl who definitely doesn't have anything wrong with her, not at all!

i'd imagine that the moment her persona would start to break away from her and instead form as her shadow would be after shinjiro's death. at that point, she'd think that everything's fine, she's gotten used to the whole dark hour deal...and then one of her friends just fucking died. or almost fucking died. depends on how you think her route would go in canon.

whether he survived or not, that puts SEES's entire deal back into perspective: she's not just the leader of some team of anime protagonists who'll be perfectly okay no matter what happens. she's just a young girl, and the lives of her and her friends are in real danger, and she just saw one of the reasons why with her own two eyes. and guess what?? that's gonna stress her out even more!! hell, let's throw in her not feeling good enough to be the field leader she's supposed to be because one of her friends (almost) fucking died, even if it's not her fault!!! (and if we go with the "shinjiro lives" route, then she technically saved his life, but i think she wouldn't realize that for awhile)

and for the hell of it, let's throw in orpheus going berserk here and there to show how she's losing sense of herself with all this stress within her.

and when her shadow fully appears, i'd bet that that's around december. her stress is at its peak. the lover of one of her friends just died, and another close friend of hers(or hell, her lover if you see him as such) turned out to be the embodiment of death itself. and he just left her and everyone to figure out whether she's gonna kill him!! so they'd forget everything and live in ignorant bliss as the world ends!! doesn't that sound fun???

no. it doesn't.

not at all.

so i'd imagine that her shadow would be just...a visual representation of a pure, stressful mental breakdown. all of the emotions, all of the fury, the misery, the pain, everything...all of the feelings she's hidden away to put on a happy face in hopes that everyone will think she's okay. lots of yelling, lots of screaming...the exact opposite of the way kotone would've been acting that entire year.

[revys-closet66]

The deadly cynic.

[everyoneisgayandtrans]

[tlaquetzqui]

“In the wake of DV accusations, staff on Rick and Morty reveal that the accused co-creator was often unprofessional and difficult to work with.”

What? Really? Someone responsible for Rick and Morty has an unpleasant personality? I’m truly, sincerely stunned.

Next you’ll be telling me Joel “Bat Nipples” Schumacher is gay!