Multiverses, Nihilism, and How it Feels to be Alive Right Now

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About this video essay:
An analysis of the metaphorical meanings of multiverse stories, and what they reflect about the burdens of modern existence.

Special Thanks to:

Chapters:
0:00 Prologue
0:16 A Brief Intro to Quantum Mechanics
0:56 Marvel at the Multiverse
1:53 That Funny Feeling
3:23 Accidentally Meaningful
4:07 Post-Modern Miscommunication
5:58 Rick and Morty are here too
7:25 Sucked Into the Void
10:57 Zugzwang
12:19 Wubbalubbadubdub
13:13 Ironic Detachment is for Suckers
13:57 Marvel Can't Keep a Secret
14:45 Black Pills and Member Berries
15:50 Alone with Infinite Selves
17:04 The Burden of Being
18:56 Cosmic Meaning
22:08 Hope in the Dark
27:04 Take a Voyage

Listen to my podcast, Cinema of Meaning:

Further Reading:

Media included:
Avengers Endgame; Bo Burnham’s Inside; Chernobyl; Devs; Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness; Don’t Look Up; Easy Rider; Eight Grade; Everything Everywhere All At Once; Fleabag; In the Heat of the Night; Into the Wild; It’s a Wonderful Life; Jurassic World Dominion; Loki; Mr. Nobody; Nomadland; Rick and Morty; Spider-Man Into the Spider Verse; Spider-Man; Spider-Man No Way Home; The Amazing Spider-Man 2; The Farewell; The Graduate; The Matrix 4; The Tree of Life; The Worst Person in the World; Voyage of Time

Music:
Will Patterson – Between the Lines
Madron – Without Illusion
Slow Meadow – Upstream Dream
Dexter Britain – Ocean Breeze
Dexter Britain – Raising
Will Patterson – Under the Streets
Slow Meadow – Palemote

Additional Music:
Linus Johnsson – Isolation
The David Roy Collective – Enchanted Lands
Fjodor – Vulnerable
Piotr Hummel – Spectacular

[btones]

“How does one act when even the tiniest day to day decisions become these impossible negotiations with the greater good?”
Absolutely beautifully said.

[zellkabellk]

"We want to share the burden of living."
Man, that one hit really close to home... I think it sums up a lot of the loneliness I personally feel nowadays, only alleviated when I spend time with friends and family (and hopefully someday, a partner)... living is tough, living is wonderful... and both sides of this coin are more bearable and enjoyable when shared ;;;;

[ReynaSingh]

Even the strangest things eventually become mundane just due sheer exposure, but the world is extraordinary if you take a moment to really look at it

[catherineb.]

There are so many problems in this world it's impossible to solve them all. The sense of nihilism that has washed over this world is nothing I take any comfort in. It is deeply disturbing. Everyone is being pushed to give up while also being pushed to do more. It is exhausting. I don't have any answers, but I'm also tired of finding problems in everything.

[inqurious]

This is your best one yet. I ugly cried. This is one of the biggest breakthroughs in just _naming_ what it's like to live in this time.

[undeadman]

I think that, in a way, Interstellar was the among the first movies to try to truly capture this idea. The idea that throughout everything, a general acceptance of the situation and a genuine love for the people in it, while seemingly inconsequential, truly transcends time and space. You don’t have to be head over heels for everyone you meet. But life becomes a lot more tolerable, enjoyable even, when you decide to suffer through the onslaught of infinity with others instead of alone. It isn’t a grand, ultimate truth like Interstellar tries to portray, but it does seem to be a step towards one.

[BastionDeLaNova]

I’m grateful to live in a universe where you make videos.

[JerryMeehanJr]

Over the last 6 years I have gone through traumatic event after traumatic event. Last year I randomly lost my dad out of nowhere and I sat on the ground in the rain like a movie and realized at that moment that life is so incredibly short and although nothing matters, it’s what you do with this short time that actually counts. I also realized every time something bad has happened over the last few years I could feel myself shift into another universe the fork in the road and it was out of my hands I can’t stop death but I can control my life and my happiness. External forks in the road are out of everyone’s hands. Enjoy your life.

[denniswade]

All of my life I have been trying to put into words what it is that I really experience about life.
The term "Nihilistic Multiverse" seems to say it perfectly!
I am Schrodinger's cat! I am torn between the two concepts of "nothing matters" and "everything matters". And I have spent my life trying to reconcile these two seemingly opposite points of view.
More and more it appears to me that it's all about choice. I can choose to let something matter, or to let it not matter.
When I choose to let something matter to me, then I feel the urge to engage, to get involved, and to care about it. When I choose to let something not matter to me, then I don't really feel connected to it and life has a hollow feeling.
Life will do what it will do. it is up to us whether we think it is worth our time to engage and to get involved.

[jtmm]

Fleabag looking back and letting the camera know that we can’t follow her anymore was so powerful and gets me emotional everytime.

[flavertex]

Nail on the head. I've been recently trying to articulate that freedom, in the sense of individuated freedom as you describe, is in a sense a drive to be "free from belonging." To be free is to escape an old paradigm, an old culture, an old framework of meaning which had ceased to serve us and to provide for meaning in our lives. We felt the chafing of this old paradigm as oppression. However, in finding freedom from belonging in what we did not want to belong, we have also estranged ourselves from any sense of belonging at all. The risky, chaotic, and generation-defining trait of the present moment is the turn back to belonging, away from freedom: we are free, and what we have discovered is that we did not want freedom for it's own sake, but rather as a means to belong to what we should like, to become integrated into a culture and community and worldview that actually provides meaning for us, that contextualizes our lives. We will need to becomes less free in the sense of having less individual authorship of our worldview through the sharing of worldviews with others in our lives, with whom we should like to live with as a community of collective meaning.

Meaning only exists in reference to some chosen fixed point of value in our perception, in the same way that movement only exists in reference to some chosen fixed point in our perception of space and time. It is relative, yes, but that does not make it unreal in the same way that general relativity in physics has not made motion unreal. Only relative to the observer's frame of reference. When everyone chooses a different fixed point of value, i.e: when everyone uses a different set of coordinates to describe motion, the result is confusion and miscommunication. But when we pitch our tents on the same hill, so to speak, when we agree on our zero-point and use the same coordinates to map our space, then we can communicate effectively with one another and derive a sense of meaning from the joy of knowing that "others can see what I see, I am not alone."

The challenge will be to find balance, of course. We shouldn't force others to adopt the same worldviews as ourselves, else the worlds we make will surely be the kinds that future generations will want to "become free" of. Nor should we compromise the integrity of our worldviews by neglecting to uphold any substantial values, for fear of alienating people. There must be a balance. One that, hopefully, will become apparent as time goes on and our situation becomes more well understood.

[rzr]

Since I was a young teenager, I've had recurring panic attacks while thinking about space and time. The idea that the universe has existed for billions of years before I came along, and will exist for billions more before eventually turning into a void. I have a very hard time feeling that anything matters, in that context. This video allowed me to reflect a bit about that, and for that I thank you. I don't know that it will rid me of the recurring panic attacks, but even momentary respite is appreciated. This is good stuff.

[Jacklawro]

As someone who enjoys a lot of film analysis channels, this was an incredible gift. Thank you.

[robertwinslade]

Interesting that you drew such a strong thematic connection between EEAAO and Fleabag; I hadn't drawn that connection myself, but these are easily the two pieces of media which have emotionally moved me the most in recent years

[silvialiken]

The fact that the daughter was suicidal depressed throughout the entire movie and I didn't see it got me the most.

[IamBrixTM]

This video really touches me. It’s corny but loving your fellow man and moment to moment human connection really is all we have.

“Please be kind— especially when we don’t know what’s going on”

[nicholaslewis]

What incredible synchronicity. I was just musing about why so many multiverse stories have gained such traction in recent years, and you've elucidated the problem brilliantly. Thank you!

[bellacrider]

I think The Good Place could also be added to this discussion. Especially on the topic of feeling like all our individual choices have both the entire weight of the universe and are meaningless. When the group realizes that the point system is flawed bc of how complicated the world is now is such a turning point. Also the use of The Good Place and the afterlife as a comedic multiverse is really interesting.

[inc]

in my view: we are constantly battling between the overthinking and underthinking we do. trying to find the happy middle ground between our individual liberty and social responsibility.
if its even there at all. maybe we're just comfortable animals that are going mad cause we have nothing primal to focus on, maybe were just brats refusing to accept stuff around us cause we simultaneously dont wanna do anything and want to do everything. I find "meaning" or "purpose" as useless conjectures, who says you need purpose to be happy?
in a way having purpose is just a desire for some sense of security. and our negative reaction to our nihilistic reality is just us imposing that because nothing matters we shouldnt care. but who decided thats how one must be? I do not loathe a meaningless existence, because I find it inherently beautiful without the need to consider me big in it.
We are the only eyes the universe has to ponder itself, looking into the void to know that I came from it and will eventually return to it, is satisfactory enough to me to find it beautiful. I can dread the heat death of the universe, but at this moment- I am not dead, and the universe itself is still vibrant and alive. knowing its temporary I choose to be alive because I wanna see that beauty until I cant anymore- theres no rush to the end.

if everything is insignificant than nothing is insignificant. I can care about what I want, I can spend my time adding to the beauty and appreciating the universes many parts, every life and cosmic happening is not from a god nor does it matter that it isnt. If someone loves existence like I do, theyll be belligerently human; the good bad and ugly of it all. it all matters as long as I say it does; I think therefor I am.

thanks for the video essay; its givin me an excuse to say something Im not pretentious enough to say just on whim. brilliant nonlinear structure too.

[mintymay]

Man this is such a huge comfort. I feel like part of me was aware that obviously it's not just me feeling like I'm going mad and struggling to stay attached but not sink into delusion, but without the topic being commonplace in discussion and with me myself lacking the words to express these feelings to the actual people around me, which aren't a whole lot, I so often feel this pull into just confusion, fear, guilt and frustration. Thank you for this video. I'll recommend it to anyone I see struggling with these same issues.