Masochistic Pain vs. Nihilistic Pain Many of these pain-inducing stories may sound like the fantasies of a deprived masochist. It is important to note the difference between pain induced by a masochist and pain induced by a nihilist. To a masochist, pain is pleasurable. Pain constitutes a principle part of the masochist’s sex life. There is both a mental desire and a physical urge involved. It could be said by a masochist that pain is better than pleasure and one should therefore act upon this belief and choose pain over pleasure. Really then, masochism is a reverse hedonism, and contains all the philosophical flaws that exist with hedonism. The biggest of which is the fact that one cannot consider oneself rational while idolizing the irrational emotions and urges. So, hedonism and masochism may be viable life styles, but they will never be a viable philosophy because philosophy implies logic and rationality. Nihilistic pain overcomes the pitfalls of masochistic pain because it is founded upon reason instead of sentiment. How can the inducement of pain be considered reasonable? It is based upon a consequence of nihilism. If existential nihilism is correct then values are non-existent. Many adhere to the doctrine that doctrines do not exist in the world objectively, but only subjectively in people’s ideas. A nihilist must overcome even this doctrine as it is conservative. He realizes that it is just as ludicrous to admit subjective value as it is to admit objective value. Hence the famous nihilistic proclamation, “No thing is better than any other thing.” Is this conclusion true? A scientist performs experiments to test hypotheses, and nihilists – being scientifically and coldly rational as well – verify in the same way. If no thing is better than any other thing, then we should be able to perform any action that is personally possible, no matter how evil or repugnant it is considered. Now, a great many experiments may come to mind, but for the present we are only concerned with the extreme case, pain. Pleasure and pain are considered such integral parts of our human existence that they always arise in debates over morals. Morality is the study of what one should do. Most agree that one should more often than not do things that are pleasurable than painful. Usually the ultimate goal of morality is given as “happiness,” which is a euphemistic term for the too-carnal and too-animalistic terms “pleasure” and “pain.” Even moralities which assert that pain is sometimes necessary admit that this is so only in that the pain will relieve future pain or result in future pleasure – long-term hedonism. Basically, all present and past moralities, to a greater or lesser degree, agree upon the equivalence between pleasure/pain and the value judgements good/bad. A nihilistic conception of morality cannot take the same well-tread path because there is no good or bad. To prove this, we must engage in activities of the so-called bad. As stated already, every moral system at least partially equates bad-ness with pain. Thus, the first nihilistic experiment in morality should involve pain. The best refutation of the good/bad dichotomy is to deliberately inflict pain upon oneself. After all, if pleasure and pain have for millennia been the sturdiest foundation for good and bad, and that foundation is shown to be topple-able, good and bad and morality in general must suffer a similar demise. This experiment may well then prove essential in determining the future of humanity since morality plays such a vital role in humanity as we know it. So I guess this is a challenge as well as an experiment. Can you think of any pain a nihilist would not subject himself to? If you can, perhap the secret to saving morality resides within you. Note however, that as yet we are not interested in experiments that result in death. First, we must prove that we are correct in our ideology; because if it turns out that we are wrong and that there is at least one thing that is better than another, then by implication, life would be better than death. So let us begin with our  experiments of profound importance to the future of man.