The N Word

When people hear "the N-word," their minds immediately think of something xenophobic. But the word I'm thinking of is not a slur or an insult; it is a philosophy: Nihilism.

Nihilism is the belief that life lacks inherent meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. The word comes from the Latin nihil, meaning “nothing,” which pretty much summarizes the philosophy: that the structures humans treat as meaningful—morality, success, identity, even truth—may ultimately rest on nothing at all. Nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche, who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history. (iep.utm.edu)

At first glance, this sounds ridiculous. How could life be meaningless when it's filled with things that obviously matter to us? Health, wealth, relationships, grades, reputation, even something as small as a name. People spend their entire lives chasing these things, measuring their worth through them, structuring their days around them. To suggest that none of it matters feels insulting to the way we live.

Yet nihilism pushes exactly that absurd idea. It argues that many of the systems we treat as actualities that matter are, in fact, arbitrary constructions: rules and expectations that societies created, rather than laws embedded in the universe. Take moral nihilism, for example. It claims that concepts like "right" and "wrong" are not objective truths but agreements humans decided to follow. From that perspective, laws and ethical codes are less like natural facts and more like guidelines we invented to keep society from falling apart.

Existential nihilism goes even further. It suggests that human life itself has no predetermined purpose. Unlike a machine designed for a specific function, humans arrive in the world without instructions. Meaning isn't something that could be discovered through waiting; it's something people try to create so existence doesn't feel empty.

That's the uncomfortable part about nihilism. It forces you to question whether the things we obsess over—grades, status, achievements, recognition—actually have inherent meaning, or if they only matter because we collectively decided they do. And maybe that's why the idea is so unsettling. Because if meaning isn't built into life, then it means we're the ones responsible for creating it. 

So now you might wonder how this "N-word" is relevant to a 16 or 17-year-old whose life seems to revolve around getting good grades and chasing a version of success defined by status or wealth. To answer that, take a minute and ask yourself a simple question: What is your goal after high school, and why?

If you already know why your goals matter to you, then you've probably escaped the nihilistic view. But if that question makes you pause, if you wonder whether your goals actually mean something or if they're just ideas handed down by society about what success is supposed to look like, then perhaps you've encountered nihilism without even realizing it.