This next post was written by my close friend through the power of coercion.

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=14

Comic writer Ryan North seems able to take any topic, even the destructive side of nihilism, and make it seem light-hearted, silly, and, albeit a bit scaly around the edges, cute. Utahraptor serves his usual purpose in dispelling the hastily-crafted philosophical opinions of his natural-enemy-yet-best-friend T-rex, suggesting a plaintive, peaceful alternative to the violent side of nihilism. Yet, as is often the case, we get little sense of the author’s opinion on the subject; our main characters merely lay out two conflicting, yet logical opinions and we are left with the humorous debate as readers. This style of non-writing clearly has its place cemented in the internet culture of today, allowing fans of a plethora of viewpoints to collectively enjoy badly-drawn dinosaurs rambling about philosophical bullshit.

Yet, are we as consumers supposed to assume that the debate is self-contained and completed, not extending out of the permanent six panels of North’s limited artistic vision? No, no, and probably not? I don’t know for sure. Perhaps I should just enjoy the comic and move on. I like to make things more complicated though, so instead, I’m going to go for it: here’s an analysis of comic number February 18th, 2003, concerning T-rex’s arrogant view on nihilism.

We begin with T-rex midway in an internal debate: he has become detached from his world’s need for meaning and vows revenge on this world for confounding his vision and perception. Already we see a profound ignorance born of a linguistic fallacy. T-rex confidently asserts that, simply because he has not found reason inherent in every stage of his life, that it must not exist. Yet, his assault on the falsehood of perception relies entirely on his assumption that his current viewpoint, a perception like any other, is ultimately correct without need for objectivity or fact. Suffice to say, a more accurate introduction to one’s personal switch to nihilistic thought might go, “after examining what I can of my life, I have found that my viewpoints are often biased and there seems to be a lack of logical fact proving or disproving that nature of God or the Eternal. Therefore, as I can be completely sure of almost nothing, I am going to be decidedly non-trusting of ideas and experiences new and old alike, and continually examine the opinions of others and my own, until perhaps one day I feel comfortable enough in the objectivity of a philosophy to adopt it as my own”. Those of you familiar with Dinosaur Comics will probably note that this explanation is not necessarily past the upper-limit guarding word count in North’s panels, although it is significantly less funny.

However, T-rex’s argument, although sloppy, is not necessarily bad. Our culture promises both meaning and God, sometimes as a package deal. To be denied that which has been promised since before birth is to be denied identity, and to accept this is to entertain a controlled madness into one’s life, the primal nature of which finds relief in senseless violence, anti-social behaviors, hermitism or, in T-rex’s case, stomping. Utahraptor interrupts this hissy-fit by presenting what I consider to be a more mature viewpoint: perhaps T-rex is merely reacting to news he sees as bad, rather than accepting responsibility for his biases, examining life now that he had dismissed meaning, and acting not on impulse, but with the mission to make this life, however meaningless, worth it. Ah, sweet understanding. T-rex may argue that because his viewpoint is just as lacking in objective meaning as any other, that the philosophical “strong will beat out the weak”, but this is just a continuation of his reactive status. The true beauty in nihilism is it’s call, not to dismiss or destroy that which is there, but to act; to build a meaningful lifestyle from scratch, using equal parts skepticism and pragmatic judgment. Rather than getting angry at the world for not handing down your meaning to you on your 18th birthday, or in your first job’s contract, or in the face of your newborn child, take responsibility and make your meaning your own. If, in the end, it all matters not, take that for granted and start making your own path. Stick with Utahraptor and don’t let T-rex get you down!