Shadows of Consciousness: Rust Cohle's Philosophical Journey in True Detective

"I think human consciousness, is 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." - Rust Cohle

True Detective is Set in Louisiana, it follows detectives Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) as they investigate the murder of a prostitute, Dora Lange. The story jumps from 1995, when the murder happened, to 2012, when the case is looked into again.

Rust Cohle's character has been through a lot of unfortunate events in his life, like losing his daughter and his wife. These events have a big effect on how he sees the world and how he treats other people.

Cohle has trouble figuring out who he is and what his limits are, which is clear from the way he talks to his partner, Martin Hart. His past experiences and personal beliefs sometimes make it hard to tell the difference between his personal life and his work life.

Nic Pizzolatto, who made True Detective, calls Rust a "anti-natalist nihilist." This means that Rust thinks that life has no meaning, purpose, or value in and of itself. Also, as an anti-natalist, he thinks it is morally wrong to have children because they will have to go through pain.

Throughout history, different philosophers have talked about the idea of "anti-natalism." However, the term "anti-natalism" and the way most people understand it today are often linked to the South African philosopher David Benatar.

Benatar says in his 2006 book "Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence" that coming into existence is always a very bad thing, so it is always wrong to make more beings. He gives this argument in the form of an imbalance between the good and bad things in life. He says that while being alive brings both good and bad things, not being alive brings neither, so not being alive is better.

But it's important to remember that ideas like anti-natalism go back to the ancient world. For example, some of Schopenhauer's ideas and even some interpretations of Buddhism contain anti-natalist ideas.

Arthur Schopenhauer, a philosopher from the 1800s, In his essay "On the Suffering of the World," Schopenhauer said that bad luck and suffering are the general rules of life. This view is similar to anti-natalist views, which say that it is morally wrong to bring new beings into the world because life always involves pain.

In Buddhism, the First Noble Truth is that suffering is real. This principle says that suffering and dissatisfaction are a natural part of life. This view is similar to anti-natalist views, which say that it is morally wrong to bring new beings into the world because life always involves pain.

Rust's ideas about life are very pessimistic. He often has a negative view of people and the state of the world, which comes out in the way he talks throughout the series.

"Much of what we call a person's personality is not a fixed set of traits, but rather ways that they learned to deal with things when they were young. There is a big difference between a trait that is part of a person's nature and doesn't depend on his environment and a response to the environment, like a set of behaviours that were learned to help the person stay alive. -Gabor Maté