Though
the idea that you are life, not separate from it and that you are the “circle”
in the eternal recurrence is a way I would agree with in viewing
existence, we come to the question of whether this idea of living fully in the
moment is even possible. With complete affirmation of the moment, you
essentially have to remove any connection with the past or the future. You are
left with a bunch of different moments all completely unrelated. Every moment
lasts an eternity but is also very temporary because it cannot exist outside of
that one moment. But can you really fully live in the moment with no connection
to the past or present? Will the past not always to some extent have an effect
on every moment occurring after it? Will every moment not be influenced based
on some goal or hope set for the future for every moment after it? This what
being human means, one could argue that it is even human nature to not be able
to stop the past and future from affecting our present. Furthermore, if every
moment must be embraced on its own with no relation to the past or the future,
and then this means that every moment exists unrelated to every moment after or
before it, then does every moment not become meaningless? If there is no
history created from moments we have lived out, no strings of events that tie
together than are we not left will the same insignificance and nothingness this
was intended to remove us from? Every moment becomes meaningless; there is no
point with this complete affirmation of every moment. It removes personal
history, and I think we can reasonably say that personal history is important.
Without this personal history where do we find our connection to ourselves, and
furthermore to the world? For me this just doesn't work, I can't find a
way for it to make the idea of the meaninglessness of existence better or allow me to live a happier, more fulfilling life.
We need a clever way to modify "YOLO" to append the idea that you CAN live once "eternally" (as opposed to living once in holy terror of an eternal afterlife): that's what I think Nietzsche was trying to get at. But I agree, to "really fully live in the moment with no connection to the past or present" would be to annihilate the self rather than transcend it. Not a good idea.
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