The New Nihilism

(By Dave, 10-15 min)

What’s with the multi-verses?

Multiple universes are all the rage in the entertainment industry. From comic book movies (e.g. Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness) to this year’s best picture at the Oscars, Hollywood is enthralled with this concept. I wondered about the origin of multiple universes and bumbled my way into cosmology and physics.

Although many worlds is a fifth century musing, the idea of multiple universes got contemporary legs in 1979 when Alan Guth, Andrei Linde and Alexei Starobinsky proposed an explanation for observations of the universe that did not comport with the Big Bang theory (BBT). The BBT argued that there was an infinitely hot and dense object that by expanding/exploding gave birth to the initial elements, light, and the known physical laws of our universe.

To account for differences between the predictions of the theory and some attributes of the universe, Guth et al. proposed that a huge field of energy existed before our universe came into being.  A portion of that energy field experienced an upsurge of repulsive forces. The forces were strong enough to cause a smooth bubble of space and time to pop off of the field like a balloon being inflated. The balloon is our universe which formed in a tiny fraction of a second.

This notion is called the inflation field theory, and it accounts for several attributes of our universe the original BBT could not. Unfortunately, because the inflation happened outside of and before the start of our universe, scientists will never be able to observe the actual event. Even so, maybe the signature of an inflationary origin is present within our universe. For this reason, the inflationary field theory is a very active area of scientific investigation and debate.

Well, that opens an interesting can of worms. What if the energy field inflated not just once to create our universe but lots of times. What if inflation is constantly ballooning from the energy field creating an infinite number of universes? Universes where life exists or not. Universes where a different version of you may right now be reading this blog post containing the same or different words than you are reading.

Everything Everywhere All at Once: a multiverse of nihilism

I recently watched this movie which tells a touching story of a family overcoming a bevy of internal and external strife. However, lurking in the background is a dreadfully dismal worldview with a dark, hopeless solution. If you did not see Everything Everywhere All at Once and don’t want the plot spoiled, this is your alert.

The basic story

Evelyn Wang and her husband Waymond run a failing laundromat and have a failing marriage. The business is in serious tax trouble and the IRS is about to bring the hammer down. Meanwhile Evelyn’s daughter, Joy, is in a gay relationship that is frowned upon by mother and grandfather. Joy is besieged with an ongoing malaise presumably because her family will not accept who she is. She sees her life as pointless and struggles to understand why anything she does matters.

As Evelyn struggles with her own personal dissatisfaction she is abruptly contacted by a universe jumper. He is from a trained group of universe jumpers who are trying to save existence from an all-powerful jumper. The group believes only Evelyn can help them. The all-powerful jumper was initially a member of this group who acquired an unbridled power to move between universes and manipulate them as she sees fit.

Because Mme. Powerful can see everything and be everywhere all at once, she realizes that nothing matters. Why would the occurrences in one universe matter when there are an infinite number of alternate universes. Universes where all the same people are doing something different. Ostensibly, every possible thing that could be done by those people is being done in some universe. The more Mme. Powerful learns, the more depressed she gets until ending existence and herself seems a logical thing. She then uses her magnificent power to create the means to destroy everything including herself.

Turns out Mme. Powerful is a version of Evelyn’s daughter, Joy. Evelyn accepts her call to be a jumper, becomes as good as the jumping version of her daughter, but has no idea her opponent is Joy. When she discovers her adversary’s identity, she has an instant problem with her universe-jumping teachers. They want Joy destroyed but Evelyn wants to save her daughter.

An army of jumpers comes after Evelyn, and she learns that kindness is her best weapon against them. What type of kindness? Giving people whatever they most desire. From simple happy interactions to sadomasochism. From love affairs with talking raccoons to odd relationships where people are ecstatically sucking on one another’s hot dog-like fingers. As she gives each of her adversaries their heart’s desire, they fall by the wayside and Evelyn rescues her daughter as she is getting sucked into oblivion.

Back in the laundromat universe, Evelyn and Joy now have a heart-to-heart knowing all about the multiple universes. Evelyn tells her daughter that she wants to be with her no matter what, and Joy responds:

      “So what? You’re just going to ignore everything else? You could be anything, anywhere. Why not go somewhere where your…where your daughter…. is more than just this (she sobs)? Here, all we get are a few specks of time where any of this actually makes any sense.”

       Evelyn responds, “Then I will cherish these few specks of time.”

They hug each other and Joy asks if her mother still wants to have a party she was planning. Evelyn looks deeply into her daughter’s eyes and with a comforting expression says: “Nothing matters.” The two leave arm-and-arm more reconciled than earlier, and the film ends with the laundromat family getting most of their problems worked out.

Nihilism solution version 1

At this point you may wonder why I give a rip about this movie. It’s just a nice tale of a mother who saves her depressed daughter within a fantasy backdrop. Except it’s not just that. Everything Everywhere All at Once was this year’s best picture at the Academy Awards. It was considered the best across the board from actresses and actors to screenplay, editing, and directing. The film broke an Oscar record for most awards given to the best picture.

A commentary by vulture.com speculates the movie’s Oscar success was a grassroots phenomenon as opposed to emerging from prestigious film festivals or buzz around the higher echelons of the movie-making business. Apparently, it caught everyone’s attention by inspiring a “rabid cult following who saw it over and over again.” But it takes more than mere popularity to catch the Academy’s attention. Indeed, lots of past fantasy films had rabid followings of repeat viewers and were never considered for best picture.

I suspect this movie was popular with audiences and the Academy because it acknowledges a growing nihilism in our culture and provides a solution. Increasingly, traditional values and beliefs are seen as unfounded and existence is senseless and useless (the classical definition of nihilism). What could fuel this feeling more than the idea of infinite multiple universes where everything you think of doing is likely being done elsewhere. Not only values and beliefs are useless in this reality. Each person is useless as well. Joy’s suicidal response to this is reminiscent of our society’s which experienced a 37% increase in suicide between 2000 and 2018.

Evelyn represents the solution. She stares at the emptiness of multiple universes and discovers two principles for living. Be kind by condemning nothing and letting people do whatever they want. This will eliminate all conflict. Then cling to each moment and the people in that moment. It may only be a speck of time but it’s the moment you have, so experience it fully.

I believe this is why a quite conventional action movie wound up being so well received at the Oscars. On a backdrop of science saying there may be other (maybe infinite) universes how can traditional values and beliefs matter? They don’t. How can you matter? You don’t. The reasonable solution is to kill yourself in despair or you can follow Evelyn’s pathway. Eliminate all conflict by accepting anyone’s desires or values as good and cling to those who are around you in a desperate attempt to stave off the darkness. You can’t go wrong with her solution because, after all, nothing matters anyhow.

Nihilism and its solution version 2

There is a second response to nihilism not depicted in the film. Reject it as false. Believe there is a good and gracious God who created our universe. If there is an energy field from which inflation arose, then it too was created by God. If there are multiple universes, those are created by God, and all of it has a purpose. Every person (in this universe or another) is created by God for a reason and is valued by the creator. The nihilistic perspective of Joy and Evelyn that “nothing matters” is replaced by “everything matters”.

Evelyn’s solution to eliminate conflict by accepting everyone’s desires and values as good is likewise rejected when God is acknowledged. Not every desire should be fulfilled. The creator entered His creation to provide standards for living that will obliterate nihilism. Adhere to those standards and you will find purpose and peace. Gratify yourself at every turn and be lost in hedonism. Moreover, we are not here to gratify ourselves but rather to serve. In that service we will find a much deeper gratification than personal indulgence could ever provide. The solution to conflict is to consider others as a creation of God and valued for that reason alone. They are to be loved and respected, commitments far more authentically conveyed by embracing God’s standards than by condoning atomistic hedonism.

In brief, accept God and God’s teachings and nihilism isn’t possible. True, you can’t indulge your every desire, but with nihilism destroyed life becomes precious once again. God already confronted nihilism and gave us this very solution in Ecclesiastes.

The Problem (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3):

The words the teacher, son of David, king of Jerusalem:

 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”

The solution (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14):

Now all has been heard;
    here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
    for this is the duty of all mankind.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
    including every hidden thing,
    whether it is good or evil.

God or nihilism: the choice is ours

Everything Everywhere All at Once won the Oscar for best picture because it tries to give people hope when they’ve chosen godlessness. Yet its recipe for hope is illusory. When Joy asks Evelyn if she still wants to have a party, Evelyn’s version of compassion is to say that nothing matters. As if somehow embracing the fact that nothing matters will bring her daughter and her closer together. An analogy to the hope being offered in the movie is two people sitting in a lifeboat adrift in the vast Pacific Ocean with no hope of being rescued. They look at each other and say at least we have each other. When they ponder what they should do today, the response quite obviously is nothing matters so do whatever you want. This is the offer of hope the movie provides.

Better it seems to recognize that nihilism is false because God created us for a reason. Instead of clinging to moments of love and pleasure in a desperate attempt to find hope, the follower of God is already hopeful independently of life circumstances and grateful to God for the love and pleasure life contains. There is no nihilism possible when you know with certainty that what you do in this life matters to God. Hopelessness has no footing in a soul certain that when the people and moments of life are passed, she/he will stand side-by-side with the creator content and ready to serve a new fulfilling duty in heaven.

Perhaps it is not surprising that as the rate of suicides have increased religious affiliation has decreased.  Nihilism or God is our choice. Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film with a happy ending. But it’s treatment for nihilism is like morphine, temporarily quelling the pain only to have it return in much greater measure. God eliminates the source of pain providing an unyielding, lasting hope. Still, that Everything Everywhere All at Once won best picture is promising. At least Hollywood is aware that a godless existence is a problem in need of a solution.

Dave