Are You a Bloomer? (published in 2021)
Ever since seeing this video (#2 In “Additional Resources”), I’ve wanted to share my thoughts on two polar archetypes that fascinate me: the Doomer and the Bloomer.
Yes, these low-quality avatars seem kind of quirky at first, but I think they’re onto something. Internet culture has exploded and, as a result, new ideas are able to be transmitted in ways that are quicker and more accessible than ever. These Wojaks are perfect examples.
On the left is the Doomer. This is the typical nihilist whose worldview consists of meaninglessness, despair, and loss of hope. Their apathy sometimes even extends beyond themselves and to society as a whole. For the Doomer, human civilization is destined to fall as a result of inevitable political, societal, and environmental issues. To cope with this, they resort to material pleasures to quell their existential angst. Perhaps it’s better if you hear directly from a Doomer what it is that they feel (#1 in “Additional Resources”): “panic”, “dissatisfaction”, “emptiness”, “disunity”, “anxiety”.
From the outside, it’s some pretty dark stuff, but upon further contemplation, you can start to understand where they come from. It seems like nature, society, politics, the economy, everything really, is in a constant state of conflict. To them, it’s only a matter of time become a new problem arises to add on to the last one.
In essence, their worldview is characterized by its bluntness, grit, and realism. The Doomer disassociates his/herself from the human experience and views the universe as a mechanistic process, devoid of any wonder and beauty.
. . .
Let’s transition to the Bloomer. The name “Bloomer” is meant to indicate that one is evolving, or blooming, from their current life situation onto a better one. Contrary to what I said earlier, the Bloomer isn’t the total opposite of the Doomer; that would be someone with ignorant optimism, someone who denies the existence of problems and the negative inner feelings associated with them (the Boomer is this personality type.) Instead, the Bloomer is characterized by realistic optimism. They feel pain and sadness like everyone else, but they use these sentiments to look within themselves and come out improved as a result. They recognize that change lies at the individual level, and through personal betterment they can make this existence a more peaceful one. For them, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
Typical Bloomer habits include cleaning your room, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, meditating, and reading. Pretty plain list, right? Bloomer philosophy is self-development through small, incremental changes. A willingness to explore spirituality is another typical characteristic of Bloomers, in stark contrast to the absolute atheism of Doomers. In all honesty, though, Bloomers are harder to define since they’re so varied in terms of interests. Their defining trait is simply to grow.
I think that the Doomer and Bloomer archetypes have always existed, regardless of era and civilization. However, ever since the world become much more interconnected in the past century or so, isolationism has all but vanished. The biggest contributor to this is probably the advent of the Internet, which has played a large role in raising children from all over the world regardless of background. As a result, youths today share more in common than ever before and people now have an outlet to discover themselves even further and find that there are others just like them. This can lead to destructive outcomes (like the perpetuation of negativity in Doomer circles) or positive ones (the collective encouragement of personal growth in Bloomer communities). Whatever it may be, Internet culture undoubtedly plays a major role in shaping our minds.
Although memes virtually only exist in humor, I think that the philosophical ideas they are able to convey can be truly fascinating and, in cases like this one, uniting.
Thanks for reading,
Alan
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Additional Resources
notes from a doomer, a memoir of sorts coming from a Doomer. Even if you don’t associate with Doomerism, it’s still an intriguing read that allows you to get a glimpse inside the mind of a Doomer.
Who Is The Doomer? - Dealing With An Age Of Hopelessness, an excellent video essay on the worldview of these two archetypes. Pursuit of Wonder is just an incredible channel overall.
r/bloomer, the Bloomer subreddit.
Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer were two philosophers that lie at different points on the Doomer-Bloomer spectrum.
Social Media
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