Existentialnihilisticexpialadocious!

First thing, I want to say I truly liked the movie "Waking Life". It had all the tiny little bits of different existentialist philosophies that I reveled in throughout the few days after. (Also, for you Doctor Who fans, I could not help but think about what was said in the movie, how "every cell in our body regenerates every seven years". Say the regenerations start at the age of 7, and once you get to age 91, your body will have regenerated 12 times like the Doctor!)

Many of the ideas of the characters within the movie are similar to Nietzsche's, and for that, it made my week. The immolated man expresses the idea that chaos is not necessarily evil, but is portrayed as evil. That chaos, that Dionysian aspect of our nature is something we should revel in, with all of its emotions and passions. Another man asks, "How can one be free if God knows what he/she will do?" The definition of a human described through physical laws and God limits our thinking, and the goal of Nietzsche's existentialism, and possibly all existentialism in general, seeks to breaks these descriptive limits and discover what a human actually is. The man shouting from his car decrees that we all want freedom: that we are being conditioned to slavery by bias and corporations. We all wish to be free from this, and it is that dynamic human spirit, the one that transcends the Herd, that will refuse to submit and will continue on its own journey of self-recognition. The connection that Laura made when she said, "While Gilgamesh does not have the blight of technology, he still does not want to become one of the masses, anonymous and conforming until his inevitable death," and the previous sentence all point to Nietzsche's concept of the Overhuman. This Overhuman does not believe in God, nor does he define her/himself by the laws of nature, but instead, becomes a true individual and eschews the moral and social ideas of conventional society.

Now, as to reality, the subject is a bit tricky for me. I've seen enough of Inception to have my mind thoroughly blown. In fact, I had a bit of a "mental meltdown" last year, where I could not tell what reality was for a single night, resulting in a crumpled, crying lump of Danny until sleep forced me to make a reality in my dreams. This episode was what sparked my interest in philosophy, and by extension, my fascination with Nietzsche. The movie presented a few ideas about what reality actually is, but the one scene where one person was speaking out loud struck me the most familiar. He said that the world and the reality as we know it is a fake, that we must confront the familiar. I know the feeling, but I dare not confront the familiar because it serves me like an anchor. I believe in this reality because it is necessary. I do this because I feel I am not ready to make a reality of my own or to take charge of my destiny. Perhaps this is why I like Nietzsche so much. He praises the individual that takes no influence from society, but makes his own decisions. It is fantasy of mine to become like one like his Overhuman, but as yet, my self-concept is still cooking.