The following is an excerpt from an email conversation I was having with a dear friend concerning the meaning of life. Incoherent rambling fueled by pathological inspiration can be quite amusing...
FRIEND:
"I see what you are saying about this life purpose just being a human created mesh that one can hardly see through. Why need a purpose when enjoyment is right in front of us? This is a short-sighted view, for those of us who are content with short lived joys."
FRIEND:
"I see what you are saying about this life purpose just being a human created mesh that one can hardly see through. Why need a purpose when enjoyment is right in front of us? This is a short-sighted view, for those of us who are content with short lived joys."
At this point we are having two different conversations. This statement makes it seem that you have not properly entertained the idea that THERE EXIST NO EXPLICIT PURPOSE TO LIFE. Sure, there are differences in taste, yet at the end of the day there is no reason that you and I are here.
To be clear- I am not saying that the purpose of life is a human created mesh that one can hardly see through. I am saying it does not exist in the explicit sense. There is no thing you have to do on this planet, in this life, that will dictate whether you are living rightly or wrongly.
That being said, my point in stating this is that humanity has a tendency to organize itself in order to function smoothly. This organization's consequences are extremely relevant to our daily lives. Subsequently, most actions are considered the "wrong path," while the few involving being productive to these falsely espoused needs of society are prized over all. But that has less to do with my idea than simply the notion that THIS LIFE HAS NOT GOTTEN IT RIGHT ANY MORE THAN JESUS' SOCIETY DID. JUST AS WE LOOK TO THE ANCIENT PEOPLE AND SEE THEIR FEEBLE ATTEMPTS AT ARRIVING AT A METAPHYSICAL DEFINITION TO GUIDE THEIR LIVES, SO TOO HAVE WE. Therefore, my intention is not to say that I don't want to play the game of society. The intention is regarding the fact that games are just that: fictional creations serving the purpose of making life go.
Also, it is the exact opposite of a short-sighted view of life. My own perspective is a profound realization that society has once again created a massive construct with the sole purpose of keeping us within boundaries in order that we may be more easily controlled. (Sound familiar?) That is a long-term perspective in the sense of looking at yourself in the grander scheme of misunderstandings that have been soooooo common to human thought processes. The Greeks had a name for the notion of certainty in the face of utter ignorance: hubris. This is the spell we find ourselves in, and my proof entails looking around and seeing how fucked the world is. The answer? Courageously reinvent yourself as needed. Capitalism, democracy, equality... these are short-sighted. Long term would be to have the balls to call out a bullshit system and actually move throughout life with conviction. Therefore, my letting go of life having a purpose actually will effect my life forever, hardly something that could be so oversimplified as by labeling it "short-sighted."
Thus, while the whole of the population of the richest third-world country in the world sits behind cubicles getting fatter and dumber by the decade, I will stand up and say FUCK THAT! The currency of this world is not worth sacrificing our human decency. People hear me say this and think I must be setting myself up for starvation- hardly the case. For, with my perspective, the only way to ease the horror known as human existence is to cultivate the good within yourself and, if able, help others from being bound by those same tired-ass chains. My own road will inevitably end with some sort of paycheck (so chill out Mom). However, I REFUSE TO HATE MY LIFE AS A FUNCTION OF MY GREED.
What could be more simple than a world that is just there because it is there? Metaphysical assumptions about our purpose and how to live a proper life are far more complex than my simple assertion that life is meaningless. Proof that the myth is so powerful is inhabited in the predictable response you must have had in reading the end of that last sentence. Don't we find it similar to the emotional blackmailing of previously (proven wrong) metaphysical world-views? On a visceral level, we know this to be similar in the sense that one cannot even happily entertain the idea that we are here for NO EXPLICIT REASON OR PURPOSE. That is the horror that humanity sucks at dealing with, for the thought of a meaningless life seems for some reason an abomination. My point is that I see the "purpose" notion as an inherently flawed, loaded question to which the answer does not exist. Just as Christians fear the notion of the universe without God (for this shatters the organization of the universe that has helped them sleep at night), our contemporaries fear the idea that they are here for no reason. That fear is what I attack. I laugh at this fear because it is based on a recurring phenomena humanity is wholly guilty of: creating massive metaphysical myths in order to make the fucked up moments of life (which we all know are numerous, and if you're not elite than likely outweigh the moments of "beauty") more bearable. That's why I speak of courage. One must be brave in "going it alone." I would rather not base my entire life's path on flawed notions rooted in human existence possessing some ambiguous "purpose."
Human imagination is not something to be feared, to be sure. But, massive lies that have redirected humanity towards false hopes are. Lets not confuse the two...
To be clear- I am not saying that the purpose of life is a human created mesh that one can hardly see through. I am saying it does not exist in the explicit sense. There is no thing you have to do on this planet, in this life, that will dictate whether you are living rightly or wrongly.
That being said, my point in stating this is that humanity has a tendency to organize itself in order to function smoothly. This organization's consequences are extremely relevant to our daily lives. Subsequently, most actions are considered the "wrong path," while the few involving being productive to these falsely espoused needs of society are prized over all. But that has less to do with my idea than simply the notion that THIS LIFE HAS NOT GOTTEN IT RIGHT ANY MORE THAN JESUS' SOCIETY DID. JUST AS WE LOOK TO THE ANCIENT PEOPLE AND SEE THEIR FEEBLE ATTEMPTS AT ARRIVING AT A METAPHYSICAL DEFINITION TO GUIDE THEIR LIVES, SO TOO HAVE WE. Therefore, my intention is not to say that I don't want to play the game of society. The intention is regarding the fact that games are just that: fictional creations serving the purpose of making life go.
Also, it is the exact opposite of a short-sighted view of life. My own perspective is a profound realization that society has once again created a massive construct with the sole purpose of keeping us within boundaries in order that we may be more easily controlled. (Sound familiar?) That is a long-term perspective in the sense of looking at yourself in the grander scheme of misunderstandings that have been soooooo common to human thought processes. The Greeks had a name for the notion of certainty in the face of utter ignorance: hubris. This is the spell we find ourselves in, and my proof entails looking around and seeing how fucked the world is. The answer? Courageously reinvent yourself as needed. Capitalism, democracy, equality... these are short-sighted. Long term would be to have the balls to call out a bullshit system and actually move throughout life with conviction. Therefore, my letting go of life having a purpose actually will effect my life forever, hardly something that could be so oversimplified as by labeling it "short-sighted."
Thus, while the whole of the population of the richest third-world country in the world sits behind cubicles getting fatter and dumber by the decade, I will stand up and say FUCK THAT! The currency of this world is not worth sacrificing our human decency. People hear me say this and think I must be setting myself up for starvation- hardly the case. For, with my perspective, the only way to ease the horror known as human existence is to cultivate the good within yourself and, if able, help others from being bound by those same tired-ass chains. My own road will inevitably end with some sort of paycheck (so chill out Mom). However, I REFUSE TO HATE MY LIFE AS A FUNCTION OF MY GREED.
What could be more simple than a world that is just there because it is there? Metaphysical assumptions about our purpose and how to live a proper life are far more complex than my simple assertion that life is meaningless. Proof that the myth is so powerful is inhabited in the predictable response you must have had in reading the end of that last sentence. Don't we find it similar to the emotional blackmailing of previously (proven wrong) metaphysical world-views? On a visceral level, we know this to be similar in the sense that one cannot even happily entertain the idea that we are here for NO EXPLICIT REASON OR PURPOSE. That is the horror that humanity sucks at dealing with, for the thought of a meaningless life seems for some reason an abomination. My point is that I see the "purpose" notion as an inherently flawed, loaded question to which the answer does not exist. Just as Christians fear the notion of the universe without God (for this shatters the organization of the universe that has helped them sleep at night), our contemporaries fear the idea that they are here for no reason. That fear is what I attack. I laugh at this fear because it is based on a recurring phenomena humanity is wholly guilty of: creating massive metaphysical myths in order to make the fucked up moments of life (which we all know are numerous, and if you're not elite than likely outweigh the moments of "beauty") more bearable. That's why I speak of courage. One must be brave in "going it alone." I would rather not base my entire life's path on flawed notions rooted in human existence possessing some ambiguous "purpose."
Human imagination is not something to be feared, to be sure. But, massive lies that have redirected humanity towards false hopes are. Lets not confuse the two...
FRIEND:
"If you want to be an elite and critique the very structure that has enabled you all of your opportunities simply because it is ravaged with imperfections, fine. But that is like suing the brain surgeon for not saving your grandmother's life--she was going to die without the surgery, guaranteed. The surgeon was only their to help her."
Also to be clear, "society" and "human ingenuity" are hardly interchangeable terms. It was not because of the massive lies you dub the "structure of society" that we were able to achieve all that we have. On the contrary, we have been able to achieve so much IN SPITE OF these gigantic lies. To me, this does not champion the "structure of society" so much as it proves that we are capable of far more than we have been allowed to achieve. Do you consider that little thousand year period known as the "dark ages" as something that enabled many opportunities for humanity? You think those submerged in that time period had the ability to call it out for what it was? No, but a few did. That is how we know it was the "dark" ages, because there were a few special people whose humanness shined through, learning and growing despite the bullshit lie that pervaded every European life during it. It is my contention that had that lie not existed we would be in the Star Trek generation today; instead in the present day we fight over whether it is moral to advance science (can you say stem cells?). This is just a small example out of many concerning of how our flawed beliefs have held us back, then and now. How naive for this generation to believe that we have solved the issue of living blindly under massive mythological human constructs, and that it could never happen to us!
We kill our potential every day we sell our souls for a fucking buck. Necessity is a relative term, as is most of reality. Lets treat it as such...
We kill our potential every day we sell our souls for a fucking buck. Necessity is a relative term, as is most of reality. Lets treat it as such...
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