Life has no meaning, purpose or value – Nihilism
If you’ve been online lately, you’ve probably seen the Nihilist Penguin. It’s a small, tired-looking penguin paired with captions like “Nothing matters” or “Why bother?” There’s no joke setup, no twist—just blunt honesty.
The penguin captures a feeling many people have today: exhaustion. Not dramatic sadness, not anger—just quiet resignation. In a world that constantly pushes motivation, success, and “finding your purpose,” the penguin does the opposite. It simply exists. And even that feels optional.
Behind this meme is a serious philosophical idea called nihilism.
What Is Nihilism?
Nihilism is a philosophy that says life has no inherent meaning. According to nihilism, there is no built-in purpose to existence, no absolute truth, and no universal moral values.
The word comes from the Latin nihil, meaning nothing. As a philosophical idea, nihilism developed in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially during times when traditional beliefs—religion, morality, social order—were being questioned.
At its core, nihilism isn’t about sadness. It’s about emptiness.
Basic Ideas of Nihilism
Most forms of nihilism share a few core ideas:
1. Existence is useless
There is no ultimate reason for living or believing in anything.
2. There is no truth
Truth, like morality, is not fixed or universal.
3. Everything is meaningless
Life, values, goals, and even the idea of “meaning” itself have no objective value.
Thinkers Who Wrote About Nihilism
Several major thinkers explored or reacted to nihilism:
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Friedrich Jacobi: Buddhism first references the concept of nihilism, and Socrates even discussed the topic as well. However, the first person to coin the term nihilism was Friedrich Jacobi. He equated it to rationalism and how all rationalism will become nihilistic. Jacobi felt that this went against the concept of God. .
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Søren Kierkegaard: strongly opposed nihilism, arguing that life does have meaning and that nihilism erases individuality.
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Ivan Turgenev: Russian nihilism became a form of political nihilism in Russia because of a cultural movement in the country from 1860–1917. The Russian Ivan Turgenev referenced nihilism in the novel Fathers and Sons, which he published in 1862. In it, the main character of the book, Yevgeny Bazarov, states that he is a nihilist and shuns all societal norms. Fathers and Sons created a movement of nihilists.
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Friedrich Nietzsche: A German philosopher who lived during the nineteenth century, Friedrich Nietzsche associated nihilism and nihilistic tendencies with Western culture. His point of view on nihilism was that it took away any inherent meaning from human beings. His work often discussed Christianity and problems related to moral nihilism. He believed Western society was moving toward nihilism after losing belief in God and traditional values. His famous line “God is dead” was a warning, not a celebration.
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Albert Camus explored similar ideas through absurdism, asking how humans should live in a meaningless universe.
Different Types of Nihilism
Nihilism appears in different forms:
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Epistemological nihilism: True knowledge does not exist—or cannot be known.
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Ethical nihilism: There are no moral rules or ethical standards.
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Existential nihilism: Life has no meaning or value.
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Passive nihilism: Accepting meaninglessness without trying to change it.
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Political nihilism: Rejecting all political systems and institutions.
The Nihilist Penguin fits best with passive nihilism—no rebellion, no solutions, just acceptance.
Why the Nihilist Penguin Feels So Real
The penguin isn’t popular because people truly believe nothing matters. It’s popular because people are tired of being told that everything must matter all the time.
The meme doesn’t motivate you.
It doesn’t inspire you.
It doesn’t sell hope.
It just says what many people are quietly thinking—and sometimes, that honesty feels like relief.
In a strange way, the Nihilist Penguin doesn’t make life emptier. It simply stops pretending that meaning is easy.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.