The Sunny Nihilist

How a Meaningless Life Can Make You Truly Happy

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The Sunny Nihilist

By: Wendy Syfret

Narrated by: Shaelee Rooke

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About this listen

Nihilism is making a comeback, and for younger generations, the idea that existence is meaningless is cause for celebration, not despair.

Written directly for burnt-out millennials disillusioned with the search for meaning through career success, a beautiful life and a beautiful Instagram account, The Sunny Nihilist explains why achievement has not made us happy. Looking anew at a philosophy usually associated with grumpy pessimists, writer Wendy Syfret examines how meaning pervades our modern experience of work, love, religion and wider society, and asks whether a touch of upbeat nihilism could actually lighten our loads.

Making the case for rejecting the cult of purpose and accepting our un-importance in the universe as a positive reality, The Sunny Nihilist urges us to be cheerful in the face of it - because if nothing matters, we might as well be happy and good to each other.

In an era defined by stress and selfishness, self-care and obsessive individuality, emptiness can offer absolution.

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I initially abandoned this audiobook about halfway through the chapter on work. I think it was meant to engage readers through self-deprecating humour, but the narration was so sarcastic in tone it was really off-putting. After finishing Oliver Burkeman's "4000 Weeks", I returned to and finished this book. As it turned out, if I'd made it through to chapter 4, where it became more interesting, I would have kept listening.

"The Sunny Nihilist" is primarily concerned with detailed descriptions of the problem: Western self-aggrandizing attitudes and practices, and the contemporary culture of "personal meaning", or as Seyfert terms it, "selfish enlightenment", that is fanned by social media. Seyfert advises we should embrace the pointlessness and meaninglessness of our lives since we will ultimately all turn to dust, be forgotten, and anyway "personal meaning" is the result of a ruthlessly commercial society that commodifies our desire to be individual and special. Seyfert's solution is to think deeply and differently, accepting your meaninglessness so you can be in the present and appreciate your life, and that's pretty much the entire message. As noted in the blurb, this book is intended for millennials and if you're older than that you already know from experience that you're not the centre of the universe and there aren't too many light-bulb moments.

"4000 Weeks" also discusses how we came to be in this situation as a society, explaining how our thinking leads to suffering, but spends an equal amount of time focused on *how* to live knowing your finite human life will ultimately dissolve into nothingness. Perhaps due to Burkeman's lifelong self-confessed productivity geek-ness, it includes many practical suggestions for living day to day in a more mindful, self-compassionate and enjoyable way. Compared to "The Sunny Nihilist", this book comes from a far less self-centred worldview, is graced by gentle and ironic humour, and was far less judgmental. Probably the better book for pre-millenials.