On Nihilism and personal development

 Brilliant post by Lionel Shriver at Unherd today: How we created a self-hating generation. Intro:

'Once upon a time, a fully realised person was something one became. Entailing education, observation, experimentation, and sometimes humiliation, “coming of age” was hard work. When the project succeeded, we developed a gradually richer understanding of what it means to be human and what constitutes a fruitful life. This ongoing project was halted only by death. Maturity was the result of accumulated experience (some of it dire) and much trial and error (both comical and tragic), helping explain why wisdom, as opposed to intelligence, was mostly the preserve of the old.'

Changing from this to the modern ideas of identity is a lot of what has gone wrong with the world.

100% agree with this part too:

'Nihilism, an oxymoronic belief in the impossibility of believing anything, can prove literally lethal. Young men who feel no personal sense of purpose are inclined to perceive that nothing else has a purpose, either.'

This links in with the conclusion I've come to over the last few years that the West's lack of belief in anything meaningful is the blame in part for our declining birthrates, lack of direction, and confidence in preserving our civilization. Shriver mentions her own personal development and admits how she 'would arguably be a fuller person had I done the very hardest thing — having children' This is also what I've come to believe is a key part of maturity (a number of my friends have spoken on how they only felt like a 'real' adult on becoming parents. This also links in with declining birthrates- those who don't have kids are more likely to have prolonged interests in the nerdier parts of culture such as video games, sci-fi, fantasy, etc.

The challenge is going to be in challenging this nihilism with positive, pro-growth, and reproduction beliefs