I’d consider myself a realist, alright? But in philosophical terms I’m what’s called a pessimist… 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… We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, that accretion of sensory experience and feelings, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everbody’s nobody… I think the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction - one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.
— Rustin Cohle (True Detective: S1E1)