OK, I’d consider myself a realist, but in philosophical terms I’m what’s called a pessimist.

Um. OK. What’s that mean?

It means I’m bad at parties.

Let me tell you, you ain’t great outside of parties, either.

I think human consiousness 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.

Hm. That sounds God fucking awful, Rust.

We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self. This secretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each some body. When in fact, everybody’s nobody.

I wouldn’t go around spouting that shit I was you. People around here don’t think that way. I don’t think that way.

I think the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming. Stop reproducing. Walk hand in hand into extinction. One last midnight, brother and sisters opting out of a raw deal.

Rust Cohle and Marty Hart

True Detective, Season 1