On Mar 18, 11:11 am, "pol.science kid" <[email protected]> wrote: > Greetings.. fellow eyers.. now.. i dont have much to offer rite now.. > but only require some help.. haunted by this strange emptiness..and a > feeling of void.. without any reason.. it brings me again and again to > the initial post i posted at mind's...the pointlessness of > everything.. and the absurdity behind every action.. when the view is > from a different level..the endless justifications.. a never ending > chain..where justification for something is found in something outside > the thing...and justification for that outside it.. it never ends... > though it is not very articulately put...i hope i make my point > clear....it somehow makes one think of suicide... (no i am not > contemplating it)..;-)
On an emotional level, I can understand how confronting the inherently pointless and meaningless nature of existence can be frightening, but it boggles my mind on an intellectual level. I will start by providing my short response - though I expect it will be less than satisfying: if you desire meaning and purpose, then create it yourself. The long response: I provided my short answer first, so I cannot later be accused of holding anyone hostage to what may be a lengthy post just to convey something that can be summed up in a sentence. So you have my sentence. The problem is that such summation does not include its foundation and consequently may be of little help. Generally speaking, people are adverse to creating meaning. The knowledge that it was created will give the impression that it is "false" when "true" meaning is desired. So long as the knowledge that it was created is there, so is the lingering knowledge that everything is ultimately without inherent meaning. This can, however, be overcome through self- delusion. Many people have, under various circumstances, convinced themselves of an untruth. Patience and simple repetition can do it for just about anything, though traumatic experiences can often be a catalyst. I do not feel that self-delusion through self-hypnosis is necessary because I think the aversion against manufactured meaning is irrational. We create meaning all the time. In fact, I think it is our propensity toward creating meaning that results in the very anxiety toward a meaningless universe in the first place! We are so used to things having an assigned value that we forget that those values are, infact, assigned rather than inherent. The value of things is taken for granted and so we are often left stunned when confronted with the idea that something (let alone everything) has no intrinsic value. Take, for example, money. Fiat money, specifically. It has no inherent meaning. It does, however, have extrinsic meaning. We assign meaning to it. Do you really consider the inherent value of a $5 bill to be five times the inherent value of a $1 bill? It's value is that which we have assigned to it. Yet the knowledge of this manufactured meaning does not give us pause (consider the satirical article here: http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-economy-grinds-to-halt-as-nation-realizes-money,2912/). If you stopped to think about it, I believe you sould see that most everything has a value that is assigned by us in a manner that is conducive to our desires and needs. So why should our lives, and the universe, be any different? Why should the knowledge that the universe has no inherent meaning "haunt" you but the knowledge that a dollar bill has no inherent meaning not cause you any concern what-so-ever? The second manner in which I feel that this anxiety is irrational is the fact that it goes against how we commonly treat the value of things. In this example, we will use precious metals and gems. Why is a diamond considered worth more than quartz? In this case, value is assigned by rarity. (Perhaps a diamond is a bad example since their "rarity" is controlled, at least in part, by diamond companies, but the point stands). The more rare something is, the higher value it is assigned. From our perspective, there is nothing more unique - and hence rarer - than our own lives. We get one life. A finite duration and a finite space we have to perceive our existence. Some people react with fear at this knowledge respond by referencing (and committing) suicide. I find this to be absurd. The knowledge that I have this single life drives me to make the most out of it. I treat my life as though it were a video game and my mother has told me I have to get off once I lose this man. In such a situation I try and prolong it in as much as I can! But what is the point of maximuming the quantity of one's life if one does not also maximize its quality? Now, I don't expect my long answer to be much more help. Emotional responses are rarely assuaged by rational considerations. At least not at first. Simply consider that your life is whatever you want to make of it. Even those that believe some higher entity, force, or presence has done the work of assigning meaning to their lives end up defining, for themselves, their purpose (whether they realize/acknowledge it or not). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en.
