Nier:Automata - On Suffering
August 13th, 2022
Side note -> One of my favorite OSTs from Nier:Automata is Peaceful Sleep
I did a full playthrough of Nier:Automata Endings A through E. There's a lot in this game, it's confusing at times. But one of the cores fundamental beliefs is this: suffering.
2B kills 9S. 9S doesn't know what to fight for and despairs dramatically. 9S suffers when he sees 2B dies. Eve screaming in agony at the death of Adam.
The theme of Nier:Automata is that man's search for meaning always brings suffering and despair. Yet we feel inevitably compelled to do it either way.
Nier:Automata just takes a lot of detours to re-discover and critique what previous philosopher's have stated and the suffering each belief brings. A great video by Michael Saba goes over this, but the main message is kind of mixed in his analysis of each boss.
Life is just full of suffering and rage and despair and sadness. That's what this is about. And to beautifully accept it... is where a sense of peace is found.
And, personally I think that message resonates with all of humanity. But a lot of people find that there's no real big point in indulging in the feeling. Might as well just laugh about the absurdity about it. Which is another philosophy.
Why most people don't give a shit about "eXiSTEntIAliSm!!!"
Because they're too busy with what they have right now to take a step back and see the big picture.
Most people have a built-in belief system they don't want to question. Probably a belief system their parents handed down to them. (And if they questioned what they believe in, they'd start despairing. Most if not all people have done this. And, that's why to an extent some people get violently angry or upset when approaching any philosophical context. They can't handle their beliefs being questioned. In fact, you the reader might get frustrated reading this...)
Which is another theme: Authority. Most people don't question authority... at all. They probably don't even think about what they've been told to believe and just wholeheartedly believe it.
I think that's one of the most interesting things about leaders or authority figures: it's about telling people what to do and think without making them feel like you're telling them what to do or think.
It's an incredibly common, juvenile realization, but money? Power? Fame? Those are all things we're told to want. As a kid, you have no idea what those things are until your parents or some source of authority teaches you.
Sure, I'm basically saying, "oMGMGMGMOGMOGMGOMG iT'S a sOCiAl cOnSttrucTT!!!!" But why haven't I thought about it more? I understand that it's just the way things are in order to keep our society going and to keep the people moving forward and getting shit done (right? Because otherwise we'd all fucking kill ourselves and be demotivated to death. Like the YorHa needing their "humans on the moon". Or perhaps, the crusaders needed the Catholic God in order to justify and motivate them to keep going.) Our sense of authority in this day in age is money.
Money is the new God. Money is the new concept, the new hot abstraction for us to chase and forget the fact that we're all going to die and life is pretty meaningless. And you know what? Most people are okay with that. So okay, they don't even question it.
Because money, or God, or fulfilling the wishes of mysterious Moon Humans (YorHa) gives us SOMETHING to defer our lives to. Because for some reason humans need that external source.
Our natural instinct to escape an existentialist crisis is to immediately defer control to an authority. From childhood it's our parents. Later it's to the government. Maybe to our community. And of course, to money and career.
But is that really the smartest thing to do? No, not smartest, sorry. I mean, is it really the right and good and best thing to do?
If you were to prioritize happiness and smiling faces and feeling good all the time, yes. It'd probably be best to just assume the same God that everyone else is assuming and be on your merry way.
If you were in the Medieval Dark Ages, you'd probably just submit to the Christian God. "O God have mercy on my soul!"
For east Asia, the emperor was the God. And it continued to be in spirit even through Imperial Japan of the 1940s. A nationalism or jingoism took the place of the reason to live. Tribalism is one of the strongest forces for keeping people motivated.
For the Founding Fathers of America, the reason to live for the 13 colonies... was to fight against the British oppresors for freedom. And then once that was done... then what? Vietnam veterans wondered what the hell they were fighting for and look how that turned out. Awful for everyone involved.
For Jean-Paul Sartre the self and the freedom of choice was the authority to defer to. To find it out yourself. But it's a selfish choice, one that's explored in Nier:Automata in an interesting fashion. (See Jean-Paul from Nier Automata.)
It feels as if the reason we keep going changes by the century. Each century morphing into something else entirely and recognizing the faults of the previous mass belief system. For jingoism it was the mass killing of WW1 and WW2. For Marxism, well, you still see it to this day.
What should you defer authority to?
Suffering and Authority
What authority is worth suffering for?
I think that's the answer to the meaning of life. Whatever you choose, what are you willing to suffer through hell for? What pain will you be able to derive pleasure from?
Either way, if you start questioning yourself it'll just end in pain. But personally, I think I'm a glutton for pain, suffering, and melancholic feelings. Being sad feels nice.
Maybe that's my meaning for life. Suffering. Being edgy and suffering like this. Or maybe it's the whole joy and beauty spiel I was going off about a couple days ago. Lord, I don't know. But the instability of this helps me find new ideas and maybe, just maybe, bring me closer to a truth than anything else.