True Detective on HBO

A new HBO series call True Detective started up today. It's tough for them to do wrong over there at HBO, so I made some time to give the first episode a watch. Matthew McConaughey's character, at about the fifteen minute mark, gave a short spiel on his world outlook that I had to transcribe and share here. I don't necessarily share all of his viewpoint, but it's smart, dark and worth contemplating.

I contemplate the moment in the garden...the idea of allowing your own crucifixion. I consider myself a realist, but in philosophical terms, I'm what's considered a pessimist. I think human consciousness was a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware. Nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law. We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self -- a secretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each some-body...when in fact everybody's nobody. I think the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction, one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.

What's your reaction to this? Do you find it unnerving? Truthful? Brave? Disturbing? Or something else? Let me know if you have a moment.


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