drafterman... i appreciate your response and thank you ...but you see my friend this had nothing to do with emotions watsoever...it was completely passive..and no iam not a disillusioned depressed youth considering suicide..But your ending only reaffirms my point...that there is no point.. of course We give meaning to everything(like you mentioned).. the fact that you said at your closing ..make the most of everythng and the one life that you have(and yeah one life..two lives three lives ..it makes no difference ).. i will have to consider 'making the most' out of things that i find already meaningless.....which certainly does not mean that i have stopped living... good thing about self conciousness is you can take a step backwards and survey everything simultaneously being a part of the thing being surveyed.. the thing is i find the whole human existence pointless ,not because it is temporary(which i believe it is)..if it were neverending it would still be absurd..we can go on arguing for ages and not arrive anywhere.. to put it simply maybe it is just a lack of 'inspiration' on my part...The closest thing that comes to giving me 'meaning' is ot find out how it all began.. an where the hell is it going...
On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 11:58 PM, Drafterman <[email protected]> wrote: > 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]<minds-eye%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en. > > -- 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.
