يحق لنا، بصرف النظر عما يستوجبه الدين من مستلزمات، أن نتسائل: أي كرامة في أن يظل رجل مسن يحس بتدهور قواه وهو يعاين وهنه وتفككه منتظرًا موته البطيء، عوض أن يعمد إلى وضع حد للأمر في نفسه وهو في كامل وعيه؟ فالانتحار في هذه الحالة هو العمل الأكثر قربًا للذهن والأكثر طبيعية، ومن المفترض أن يعتبر إنتصارًا للعقل ومجلبة للاحترام، وقد كان بالفعل كذلك في تلك الأزمنة التي كان كبار فلاسفة اليونانيين والوطنيون الرومان الأكثر شجاعة يعمدون إلى وضع حد لحياتهم بأيديهم. وعلى العكس من ذلك يكون الحرص على تمديد الحياة يوما بعد يوم تحت رعاية قلقة للأطباء ونوعية حياة مزرية، والاقتراب أكثر فأكثر من نهاية العمر في حالة من الوهن اقل مجلبة للأحترام بكثير. غير أن الأديان مليئة بالتعاليم الزاجرة التي تعترض على ضرورة الانتحار: إنها وسيلة لتملق أولئك المولّهين بالحياة.

-نيتشه، إنسانيٌ مفرط في إنسانيته.

The novel Fathers and Sons is, in essence, a story about the gap between older and younger generations. It focuses on the characters of Arcady and Bazarov, two college students who, upon returning home from school, come into conflict with the traditional folkways of their families, communities, and cultures. Arcady has met the nihilist Bazarov at college, and has fallen under his spell. Bazarov is in training to become a doctor, but he is a most unusual type of medical student. He is a nihilist who claims that he believes in nothing. The kind of nihilism that Bazarov advocates, however, seems to be based upon principles of materialism, hedonism, and utility, sounding very much like a more modern variant of ancient Greek cynicism. Bazarov flouts all convention, is engrossed in the dissection of animals for the sake of curiosity, womanizes and drinks hard.

- Laughing at nothing, Humor as a response to nihilism

Whereas German nihilism tends toward the theoretical and philosophical, the Russian form of nihilism is more closely associated with radical, revolutionary political movements. In Turgenev’s depiction of nihilism, we find it transformed into a clear-eyed, unromantic, and action-oriented form of protest against the old and decaying forms of Russian political and social convention.

- Laughing at nothing, Humor as a response to nihilism

ببساطة، العدمية بالنسبة للألمان جانت تاخذ جانب فلسفي ونظري أكثر من الروس. حسب الكتاب، نشأت كلمة "العدمية" بشكل إهانة ونقد لأفكار ايمانويل كانت اللي جان يكول أنّ كل معرفتنا البشرية هي معرفة للظواهر (phenomena) اللي نشعر بيها بحواسنا، بدلًا من أن تكون معرفة حقيقية لجوهر الأشياء.

بينما بالنسبة للروس، وصف العدمية ما اعتبروه مُهين، على الأقل ليس من قِبل أبناء الجيل الشاب. هذا لأن العدمية بروسيا جانت حركة راديكالية تسعى لتغيير المجتمع الروسي سياسيًا واجتماعيًا. بهذا فهي "عدمية" لأنها لا تؤمن بأيٍّ من المعاني والقيم اللي يحملها الجيل الروسي القديم. بالنتيجة، العدمية لاقت شعبية بين أبناء الجيل الروسي الشاب آنذاك، على عكس الجيل السابق.

For Turgenev and Dostoyevsky, nihilism had a predominately political flavor. But for Nietzsche, nihilism was more complex and personal, issuing forth as both a spiritual and cultural problem.

- Laughing at nothing

Some teenage memories

I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.

- Nikos Kazantzakis

لقد أحسستُ مجددًا كم أنّ السعادةَ بسيطةٌ وغير مُكلِفة: كأسٌ من النبيذ، بعضُ الكستناء المشوي، مِنقلةٌ قديمة، صوتُ البحر. ولا شيء آخر.

- نيكوس كازانتزاكيس

Paperclips are staples with less commitment

ppl be ashamed of talking about sex, then have a زفة for two ppl who r about to have sex that night

خلي ناس تفرح

يكدرون يفرحون أكثر

The cannon shot (1670)
By Willem van de Velde the younger

It may seem natural to assume that these people who maintain intense practice schedules for years have some rare gift of willpower or “grit” or “stick-to-itiveness” that the rest of us just lack, but that would be a mistake for two very compelling reasons.
First, there is little scientific evidence for the existence of a general “willpower” that can be applied in any situation. There is no indication, for example, that the students who had enough “willpower” to study countless hours for the national spelling bee would show the same amount of “willpower” if they were asked to practice the piano or chess or baseball. In fact, if anything, the available evidence indicates that willpower is a very situation-specific attribute. People generally find it much easier to push themselves in some areas than in others. If Katie became a grandmaster after ten years of studying chess and Karl gave up on the game after six months, does that mean Katie had more willpower than Karl? Would it change your answer if I told you that Katie spent a year practicing the piano and then quit before she started chess, while Karl is now an internationally renowned concert pianist? This situational dependence calls into question the claim that some sort of generic willpower can explain an individual’s ability to sustain daily practice for months, years, and decades.

- Peak, by Anders Ericsson

But there is a bigger, second problem with the concept of willpower, one related to the myth of natural talent. Both willpower and natural talent are traits that people assign to someone after the fact: Jason is an incredible tennis player, so he must have been born with this natural talent. Jackie practiced the violin for years, several hours each day, so she must have incredible willpower. In neither case can we make this determination ahead of time with any likelihood of being right, and in neither case has anyone ever identified any genes that underlie these supposed innate characteristics, so there is no more scientific evidence for the existence of individual genes that determine willpower than there is for the existence of genes that are necessary for succeeding in chess or piano-playing.

صراحةً مبية حيل أترجم