The recent spate of celebrity suicides has me thinking about why people, even very rich and famous people, sometimes despair and give up.  Of course Nietzsche predicted that despair and nihilism would follow in the wake of the death of God, and he worked frenetically to find a solution.  Does his solution work?  We shall see. Nietzsche believed that Enlightenment rationalism and the philosophical materialism that followed in its wake had made belief in God untenable.  God is dead and we have murdered him he famously announced in The Madman: The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes.  “Whither is God?”  he cried; “I will tell you.  We have killed him — you and I.  All … Continue reading Why Do Rich and Famous People Kill Themselves?