Added: 3 years ago
From: azrienoch
Views: 26,751
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:

All Comments (490)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • Unfair so...

  • Hey Jeff,

    My friends and I are talking about favorite youtubers on skype and, of course, you came up. I was referred to this vid... I thought I'd seen all your vids... in that case, I am re-watching this one.

  • this is a very strong piece. great work. i too enjoy writing and i found this to be inspiring. thanks!

  • I could tell you why this happens but i feel it's best kept a secret. I sit on the edge myself because i don't see a reason to jump in or stay out at the moment. I plan to jump in in the future though.

  • You sir, inspire me so much in writing. I love your many different views on things, and your poetry. It's wonderful, keep doing so. -Acacia

  • Inspiring stuff.

  • Man, this would be so much more stunning if it was in HD, nonetheless, truely an incredible piece of film, script, art direction.. stunning. @azrienoch

  • Probably your best video ever

    like ever

  • Still some of your best work...

  • I watched this for the first time some time ago. only a few months after being posted. Now I watch it quite often. A very deep incredible video man. Great Work.

  • Rock bottom is the only comfortable place to sleep.

  • "The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."

    ~Hunter S. Thompson

    great video!

  • This excells. Thank you. Namaste. You have found your purpose, to be an artist & speak for us.

  • beautiful

  • Comment removed

  • CREATIVE WRITING!!@!@!#@!

    

  • Wow. That was quite moving. Thank You.

  • "Life it's self has no Meaning, It doesn't need one

    We must all find our own purpose for Our Lives"

    ~BlankPicketSign

    I've found mine, have you? =^_^=

  • I think that was the most intense spine chill I've ever experienced.

    Best trip i got from your works so far.

  • This video explains Az's embrace of absurdism and his new videos, I assume. You'd wish his old videos were still up because I'd really wish to watch how his intellectual journey made him conclude to just "jump off", although maybe I can read that in his books. If Az was influenced by Camus, I don't think Camus' solution had anything to do with jumping off, so I'm curious about why he'd just come down to this, as for Camus this was the equivalent of suicide (mental or otherwise)

  • i've always loved this. always. i watch it every other week or so

  • @TheMindsmack That's dedication. I love it too, I'm proud of it. I don't think I'll ever top it. Thanks!

  • @azrienoch It's been a long time since i watched this man.

    This defiantly one of the best videos ever made.

    Thanks for being you and making this.

  • I fell into the obis. I came back out. But not alone. I had a helping hand.

    I could not have done it alone.

    No one can.

  • I thought Atlas was charged with holding up the Earth?

  • Forgive my literalism.

  • @TheInfernalSpark Though classically graphically portrayed as hoisting a globe on his back, the ancient Greek yarns always have Atlas punished by Zeus to hold up the sky for eternity. It wouldn't have made sense to the Greeks to have any Titan be greater than Gaea (The Earth), the mother of all Titans.

  • @Sh0nin This is true, but not much the Greeks wrote about their Gods made a lot of logical sense. They anthropomorphized too much. But I'll take the information anyway, thanks.

  • You should do another video like this.

  • ur comment is so shallow and point less, you really think ur one meaningless comment will change his ideas?

  • I found this vastly interesting.

    Morality is a sliding scale. Black and white are mixed, with various shades of grey in the middle.

    The human race runs pretty much on fear. Fear is our primal emotion and with so many controversies, scare tactics, subjective injustice and the world's population's inflated sense of self-worth and importance, no wonder so many people would jump...

    ...into the abyss.

  • Wait so is the hole depression? Or what

  • 'Tis hopelessness.

  • @CrazyS0 i think so, either that or what ever dark place the individual makes it

  • @KoruQueen yea, its like the video says, 'rock bottom' and rock bottom is kinda how you make it

  • Amazing video...

  • I love this vid. Among my favorites ever.

  • how powerful our imagination... trapped by the concepts and institutionalized thoughts we have grown to love...

  • Your creative style reminds me of Neil Gaiman.

    Surprisingly enough i believe your even more imaginative. Keep up the good work!

  • It's about God and nihilism, read the description. Without God there can be no purpose, meaning, objective value in humanity and no objective moral law. We are all complex meat computers created by random chance and we are doomed to non-existence at death. Eventually the universe its will suffer heat death and all life will cease to exist. This begs the question however- if life is truly meaningless then how could it be meaningful to affirm life is meaningless?

  • there is no mention of god anywhere, apart from "chased by religious leaders" and Atlas, cant be about that idiot.

    "Without God there can be no purpose, meaning, objective value in humanity and no objective moral law"

    yea that's the stupidist thing i've heard in a while..

    the video is somewhat subjective in its meaning but it's primarily about the human race and how we are more and more changing, away from eachother, how we are all "casting away all rational thought" one at a time.

  • Comment removed

  • Well,

    with God there is no (objective) purpose, (objective) meaning, or objective value in humanity and objective moral law either.

    This is for me one of the core teachings that philosophical existentialism provides.

  • Can someone please explain this to me ?

  • I am not intirely sure but I pretty sure it was talking about suicide but the it gets kinda confusing at the end and started talking about rock bottom so then i just thought that the video was talking about depression, but again I say, I am not intirely sure, but it was very nice to watch

  • Basically, it's the metaphor for the state of mind people allow themselves to fall into. Like if you tell a buddy "hang in their pal, everthing will turn out fine" and yet they still fall into their own little world of despair and there is nothing you can do to pull then out of it.

    Well that's what I get out of it, at any rate.

  • I saw this video just recently and there is a lot of controversy going on in the comments. I think that the video can relate to a lot of the problems in humanity. For me the real purpose of it is to make people reflect on their own thoughts and feelings about the world. My opinion is that people's thoughtlessness will eventually drive humanity to its end. And the worst part of it is that we do not realize our mistakes and we just "jump right back in to the abyss".

  • I get chills everytime I watch this man...

  • i hope you make a new vid, man.. a lot of ppl have been waiting.

  • Watched this again after quite some time with a friend - I'm so so glad you decided to share this mind of yours outside of the printed word. I hope you come back soon.

  • Comment removed

  • Just watched the video again with my husband. We've decided to write a song about it, with your permission.

    Damn depressing, it was, but ever so informative. Don't go jumping into the abyss just yet, though. I'm finding out what is worth walking away from the abyss for.

  • Yeahahahahaha!!!!!!!

  • Magnificent. It's been so long since I've watched your videos. I had to take a break for a bit, working on many different things.

    Puts me in mind of Noam Chomsky. Have you seen "Manufacturing Consent"? I'm sure you have--it's about Noam Chomsky.

    The vague and diverse 'project' that I've been working on is going on strong, it's actually started to build in many ways. I should send you some links some time.

  • I just rewatched this after several months, and I have to say it's still awesome.

  • This vid is great!

  • please shut the fuck up. you are so topsy turny on ur own side. u need to take a second and look at what u are typing... i am pretty sure you are either 140+ iq or 70- i cannot tell yet. but u are either to smart to comprehend or to dumb to fathom. so please go live in ur 'paradise' world and fight with ur sticks...

  • people always seem to think that it would be the people with all brawn no brains who would emerge as the future of our race if we were to fall to anarchy, but i disagree...and fuck technology. the animals have it right!!......

  • @bubblegumweed

    "and fuck technology" Are you sure? Don't knock something that's still in it's infancy.

  • this is such a great video, i dont know how many times i've watched it.

  • Why give in......dont get depressed, get fucking angry!!!! Anger is definitly my favourite emotion...

    Its the only emotion that gets shit done......

    Anarchy would solve all them problems!!! mi

  • might create a few new ones.....but not ones you could afford to get depressed about!!!

  • Anarchy, not a viable option. humans seek power so it would end up in tyranny then it would be a viscous circle... learn to control your emotions...

  • I disagree. society has halted our evolutionary process. Anarchy would allow for natural selection to take place again by killing off a lot of the weak, and it would kill off a lot of people with defects in their genes like arthiritis and all them. then we would be a truly powerful race. i mean look at all our martial artists...imagine if we were built for the wild again.

  • society is evolution it may not be from the physical form... if anarchy was to take place,the world would fall back into the dark ages...you know that as well as i do. and another thing if anarchy was to take place. human nature would slowly connect us back together look at the neanderthals the only way to grow is through social connection... if we were built for the wild "again" we would lose all the things they give us reason...

  • yeah i do know that but unlike you i want it that way. imagine what the world would be like today if we had never formed a complex language!!

  • a bunch of uneducated fools trying to use rock and hammers? no i would rather not. the only reason we have advanced is cause of the ability to reason. and if it was like that way yet again we would have a stand still until some fool was to mess up and start a fire... and if u want anarchy i would love for you to go to darfur... cause the way u see it as a free man is not the same way as u would if u were confined to a base to die as in the jews/asians/native americans/ all of these people......

  • we could change our ways eventually.

  • yea evolution.... hmm about that. to bad technology is faster then we are.. and plus our hatred will end it.

  • yeah, pretty intense... pretty damn spot on

  • The abyss is without measure.

  • no god = no hope = despair

  • god = no rationality = no logic = no hope = despair

  • no logic= no hope? WTF?

  • As you just demonstrated, lack of logic produces dumb-founded bigots who, in their ignorance, exist at the expense of others.

    Why should I not take the raitonality of someone into concideration, if they believe that the world is flat, you can live in a fish, and you can live to be 900 years old?

  • all I said was that ignorance is one of the few things that brings happiness.I never said what to believe in and who to respect.

  • Ignorance producing happiness at the expense of others and themselves isn't really a "long term solution".

  • god = lies

  • pretty stupid comment.

    what god what lies?

  • @eche05

    or

    no god = no purpose = no hope = despair

    at least we agree on the two last ones

  • @nocakewalk As far as I could tell by reading the Bible, there was no real other purpose intended for humans than to honor and worship him, after all "God is enthroned on the prayers of his people". If worship is the only thing in your life that you can see meaning in, then I'd say you've already fallen into the abyss and just haven't noticed yet.

  • @Sh0nin Worship IS what gives meaning. Worshiping God is about the same as worshiping anything else (money, truth, logic, Buddha, kindness, music, oneself). Why not worship the strongest? And you are wrong, this is what I realized at rock bottom. This is a problem, that our lives mostly are so good, that all kinds of skimpy, weak purposes will hold up, until people actually fall into the abyss. They end up just walking around aimlessly on the bottom, because they don't know how to get out.

  • @nocakewalk You realized nothing. You hit rock bottom and then instead of pulling yourself back out you found a security blanket to comfort you in the darkness. It's nothing like devoting yourself to music or truth, because worship by definition is subjugating yourself under another person- you're trying to equate your pride as a slave to the love of art.

  • @Sh0nin You seem to think that you have an objective viewpoint, or at least more objective than me. Then you blindly assert things about me, as if I'm not capable of assessing my own condition, and you have diagnosed me from my 500 character comment. I'd rather you didn't.

    I didn't explain myself well enough: Worship is not the same as love, 'everybody' loves music. Worshiping involves 'putting on a pedestal' and revering, which people seem to do with surprising things - like truth

  • @nocakewalk I do think I am more objective than you regarding this, mostly due to the fact that I have no sense of personal gain attached to this subject, while you feel like this is synonymous with eternity and salvation- how could you possibly be objective while believing that?

    There's nothing unfair about analyzing what you say and I'm fully aware this subject doesn't encapsulate you. (I know people who hate music- phonophobics, misophonics, dysmusias, etc.)

    And isn't love a reason to live?

  • @Sh0nin You are grossly overanalyzing me from just 2 comments. It seems like you are only stuffing me into some kind of preconceived notion. How can you possibly be objective with those kinds of prejudices?

    You seem to like logic and rational arguments (from your channel). I have no clue what kind of twisted logic it is that can give you the illusion that you are more objective than me. The only argument you present for this is a massive strawman from what seems like your personal army of them.

  • @nocakewalk You're talking about my prejudices and I can't see any illogical steps I took in my extrapolation, but I am open to critique. Tell me where you think I started to deviate and why you think that? And how does this make love incapable of replacing worship as your life's purpose?

  • @Sh0nin In your last comment, you talk about the "subject", what subject? Worship? You seemed critical to worship, so I presented my observation that people seem to display worship-like behavior towards things or ideas as well as deities, and find great purpose through it. It seems like a natural human "activity". Eternity and salvation are only indirectly related. Love: It will fail as a purpose because human love is stunted, and will fail. But love as a purpose is much better than f ex. money.

  • @nocakewalk

    Anything remotely related to your religious beliefs.

    Didn't you know 'love conquers all'? With the false dichotomy we've set up, I guess it comes down to being a romantic or a sycophant. In my opinion love for any subjects or individuals can foster great joy, more than enough to sustain someone with a sense of purpose.

  • @Sh0nin

    I'm discussing purpose, again only indirectly related to eternity and salvation. And love does not conquer all, except in Hollywood. Of course love can give a great sense of purpose, but I think there are people, like me, who realize that purposes without a higher external reference are circular and self-serving and stand only because we hold them up. It seems so artificial to me. Love is the pinnacle of my belief, but it also has reference (God and Jesus and their exemplary love)

  • @nocakewalk Such an old lame argument.. Living your life, your one chance at this life, for an 'afterlife' does not seem like a purpose at all. It's a 'one foot in the grave' reasoning. Not to mention that there is so much hate in god that it's love hardly seems worth it.

  • No god = no Hell = Happy ;D

  • This video allmost made me cry.

    Hm..

  • Why does not this video have one million views?

  • You know, something good DID come from that stupid drama horseshit with TJ: I discovered your videos.  You do great work; you deserve to be paid for this.

  • You never cease to amaze me.

  • wow... you've sparked my curiousity once again, good friend. this is a wonderful piece of art. very rare to find such well done thought provoking messages here on youtube. loved this, as i love much of your work.

  • damn he's a good writer

  • not gonna post a coment about how this is the most fucking amazing thing ever made in the history of mankind... its not. It is however a well made piece of a very interesting mind. I bow my head to you yet again good sir.

  • meh

  • *bravo!*

  • The greatest fucking story EVER. Reminds me of Tolstoy a bit, but your take on life seems much more outlandishly surreal, and yet, more plausible.

  • This is absolutely beautiful.

  • One of the best damn stories I've heard in a while. I love the little nuances.

  • my god, write a book, I WILL BUY IT! if it's not already done and I don't know about it!

  • He's already written two

  • Does this vid have any relation to Nietzsche's Beyond Good & Evil, § 146? "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks long into you."

    ....coincidence?

  • i faved this... i opened up a new determination in attempting to have my fave section be of quality!!! quality YOUtube stuff! =]

  • I'm goingsounds like a smart-ass but I don't mean to... I really enjoyed the video.. But when you said that soon there was nothingchasing the them, "they just came and jumped" and then right after you said it was so crowded there was no room to be chased.. that kind spoiled it for me a tiny bit;.. because I was thinking they weren't being chased because there was no room? Or it is a slight fragment..

  • uh dude? they were All being chased up until the point that they jumped into the abyss; Right before they jump the chasers disappear which remains constant throught the story. no slight fragment, just a slight mis-interpretation on you're poitn buddy, re-watch

  • Thanks for articulating calmly - you, your wife, the editor, the musician - what is well-nigh passed. Is there really any inclination to choose any differently? Was there ever? We might... no. This is The Age of Despair. a pale page of the new deal. shrug.

  • Absolutely magnificent. One of the best short stories I've heard in a long time. Favorited and I plan to share this with as many people as possible. As a side note, you tend to inspire me. Maybe someday you'll post a similar comment to something I've written. ?

  • 10th time watching this. Deep stuff.

  • Hey Jeff, I posted your vid on my facebook :) Nice to see you last night! Its been a long time.

  • I find meaning to simply be subjective. Even if there were a god, there would be no reason to attach a meaning to it over anything else. Ultimate meanings, for everyone to accept, would require a loss of individualism, to be a complete zombie. :)

  • Two thumbs, let's get this featured.

    And what was the background music?

  • Brilliant!

  • I think I realized this angst back in high school and went through a sort of depression till I graduated. I don't really let it effect me now but I'm always aware of it. I know that everything I do is probably worth absolutely nothing but I do it for myself and others anyway, I follow my nature. I'm still not sure if that's just me turning away or what.

  • very well done.

  • it's very buddhist. There is no hell after you die, this is hell.

  • you cannot live until you reach rock bottom. you have to hit the worst possible place in the human psyche. the only way you can go is up.

  • this can be compared to the new movie 7 lbs with Will Smith. INteresting vid!

  • eerie.

  • Watchin this video again and it's just as powerful as the first time i watched it! Absolutely fantastic!

    Rob!

  • oops, the dreaded double post :P after climbing out of the abyss, I had to press the 'post comment' button once again.

  • hi, I stumbled upon this from theamazingatheist's site and am pleased that I did. Wonderful work. I could not pull away from it. Best wishes and see you on the precipice.

  • creature speak

  • Atlas holds up the world not the sky :-)

  • No, actually. Atlas holds up the sky. It's just easier to sculpt someone holding a globe than it is to sculpt holding air.

  • I dunno why, but when I watch this, I think of A Scanner Darkly.

  • I loved this video so much that I had to show my grandmother who is also an avid reader of philosiphy and an intellectual. Her take on the video was, that Jeff was talking about peoples disconnection from their spiritual reality and our unawareness of internal presence...how we are all caught up in the physical being.

  • Godammit! Is that were everyone went? I just came form the abyss!

    I'm just not on the same page, ever!

  • that sunlight must have been so tired after travelling 93 million miles that it jst couldn't do the last 1/2 mile..LOL

  • Volume... UPPPPPPP PLZ! That notwithstanding, excellent video.

  • You said it.

  • I love it. I really do.

  • i love this video and just had to watch it again tonight after more thoughts on the state of humanity and the problems we create. while this video may depress some, everytime i watch it i feel a tiny bit more stable in the fact that someone else out there is truly viewing things for themselves as well.

  • i feel the same way.. the first time, kinda depressed but now it makes much more sense.. i love how it points out that as society gets more demanding, the reasons of jumping affect younger and younger ages.. makes you wonder how it will change and who it will change next. Can you be born in the abyss? 0.o?

  • is the abyss just a representation of how sometimes people have nowhere to go with their problems and end up "rock bottom", the abyss is supposed to be a place of no hope? where you end up if you don't solve your problems?

  • As I understand it, the Abyss is "the river-bed made up of grammatical propositions, the constant allusions to these images have caused we hardly pay attention to other images: those Wittgenstein bases on to help us to see our condition consists in hanging above the ungrounded abyss."

  • Lemmings

  • I think you've reached the point in your life which I'd like to reach someday. Complete understanding. Nirvana. Peace.

  • This is one of the deepest things that I have ever watched

  • This was incredible.

    I'm on a constant search for videos that inspire or provoke thought. I'm glad to have stumbled upon this.

    Keep it up.

    =]

  • superb once again

    your videos stimulate my mind, i can ask for no greater gift

  • groovy

  • excellent

  • Another awesome vid.

    Ur Editing is getting much better! I have no idea what you even used for those effects...

    Anyway, thanks for making me think, yet again.

  • That's if you want to fill the void with a steaming pile of bullshit...

  • why don't you? Especially if you know so much about the answer to the void.

  • jesus is not very uplifting.

  • that's deep.... literally

  • Very deep stuff, and I like the style you tried with this one - very storybook-esque. Great job!

  • That really got me thinking, thanks man.

  • Nice

  • I love it. If I wasn't already subscribed I'd have subscribed right then and there. Great job and good luck with your now prospects in life, I hope they treat you well and at lead to exceptionally bright beginnings.

  • ...of course I can say it's worth it, one hundred and twenty hours. But I can't rip out my existence and hand you a scalpel and expect you to understand how it moves me.

    ...but I thank you, anyway, with no better linguistic attempt.

  • Amazing.

    At this moment, listening to your amazing voice, the profound words and striking video, I couldn't think of a better way to spend the time in which the sun rises after getting home from work.

    Just amazing.

  • fanmuthafuckintastic!

  • great work.

  • Beyond effin brilliant.

  • what are some of your book(s) that you have published, i have to read them.

  • WOW

  • We don't understand how that took 120 hours to make. Don't misunderstand, it was good, albeit very dark, and morbid. 120 hours though?? It would have been just as nice to read as an essay.

  • Six hours a day for three weeks. Four different drafts of the script, then editing, and getting a final version. Then get a studio and take 500 photographs. Narrow those down to 400 photographs. Edit 400 photos--getting rid of background stuff, cleaning them up as best as possible. Create new backgrounds. Film outdoors. Place each photograph into its new background in rounghly the same spot and same size as the last in the position.

  • Cut down to 300 photographs. Record the story over and over until you can make one good reading. Arrange