The decision taker must be represented tied to the tracks as well
Where did the idea that life should have meaning even come from? Do elephants worry about this? Because, if elephants don’t, then I won’t bother either.
If life doesn’t have meaning, then what’s the reason for living? I think that’s where the search comes from. Some people need to answer the question “Why am I alive?” or “Why should I continue living?” And the search for a reason can easily turn into a search for meaning. If there’s no meaning, can there even be a reason? And if there is a reason, then that must be the meaning.
In nature, there is no search for reason or meaning because the focus is on survival, as individuals and as a herd. Is there enough food and water? Are there any predators around? Are the baby elephants safe? That’s basically all there is to it. No need to ask why.
Humans have added layers of separation between themselves and nature, so that survival is no longer a main daily concern (people living in poverty are a potential counterargument, but people in survival mode generally don’t have the time or energy to devote to questioning the meaning of life; hence the question itself has a reputation for being a bougie pastime).
The search for meaning emerges as a result of the human condition of surplus, convenience, and comfort. “I have all of this: why?” “Why do I have a job? So I can buy food. Why do I need to buy food? So I can live. Why do I need to live? 😳”
If you have people in your life, friends, family, community, or anyone else you care about, then it’s easier to find meaning. “I live for them.” Especially when someone is dependent on you. “My child needs me.”
In post-modern society, hyperindividualism and other phenomena lead to this chronic isolation where many people feel like their existence is separate and insignificant. So it’s not as easy to say “Well my friends/siblings/parents/neighbors would be sad if I was gone.” Unless you have a child who depends on you, literally no one actually needs you to live. And modern society encourages this sort of pitilessness. “Oh no, so-and-so died.” “Who?”
Furthermore, I think many of the pathologies of the modern psyche come from a failure to examine the meaning of life. Some people assume it’s whatever they were societally programmed to do: gain money, pursue ambitions, achieve your goals, be successful, or even “have a lot of sex.”
That’s why you have billionaires who literally can’t stop pursuing infinite growth. It’s toxic, it’s pathological, but they can’t stop because they’ve never questioned the meaning of life and simply assume that it’s “become as rich as possible.” Replace “rich” with “famous”/“powerful”/“popular” etc., whatever it is, and you find a person’s raison d’être.
Not everyone is so shallow of course. Maybe it’s something simpler like “see the world” “learn as much as I can” “become an expert in something” “master a hobby/craft/artform” “create beautiful/profound/innovative/meaningful things” or whatever.
But some people try everything, and can’t find anything that holds their interest enough to become a genuine raison d’être. They skip around from fleeting interest to fleeting interest, while the ground seems to fall away from them at every step. These are the people for whom an existential crisis isn’t merely a turning point in their lives, but a constant, even relentless state of being that they can’t seem to escape. These are the people for whom the “quest for the meaning of life,” or even just the simple search for a meaning, itself becomes their raison d’être.
And when that person finally realizes that the search for a meaning of life is itself a vain endeavor? May the Great Abyss have mercy on their soul… 😔
Well but elephants don’t spend all their time surviving. There’s plenty of times where they are satisfied with food and water and have nothing to do but lay around or play with mud or whatever. Same with almost every other species.
It’s just not necessary to search for any meaning. I personally don’t, I don’t think there is any to find. I’m perfectly happy to just try to fulfill whatever desires that come up in my mind. And there’s simply no shortage of fun stuff to do. Also, almost everything can be fun if you want it to.
It’s a human thing. People need “meaning”, which takes on all kinds of forms, from religiously following their sports club to… well, thinking about if there is meaning.
My life has no meaning, and I don’t need it to for me to be happy.
The belief that you “need” something for your life to be happy may be preventing people from being happy.
I disagree that people need meaning. The idea itself is a meme and the root of religion.
“Nobody exists on purpose”
That’s the beauty of life or the misery of it. Depending on how you personally frame it.
You disagree? For thousands of years (all of recorded history everywhere on the planet) people have been runing after meaning for their live.
Yeah. Old meme.
People have been running after religion at least as long, doesn’t mean it’s needed or real.
But how do you know if elephants worry or not about it?
People generally stop worrying about such things at some point, especially when they are in a position to follow their hobbies and passions & make satisfying progress & contributions through whatever they’re passionate about. That’s the meaning of life right there.
Idk man, stories?
Life has no meaning, just enjoy the ride.
What if I’m not enjoying the ride?
oh no
Change the ride.
Have you tried masochism?
Maybe have somebody ride you? Works for some people
That’s on you.
It’s like saying you’re bored. There is no entertainment captain on this ship and likewise there is no one that is going to seek you out and feed you joy.
I meant it more as being an American in this hell hole.
What specifically is not fun for you, for example?
For real?
I wake up every day wondering if family members, friends and neighbors have been kidnapped or even shot by my own government just because of the color of their skin. That’s in addition to a laundry list of other things the US is doing to destroy us, but that’s what keeps me up at night the most.
I’m for real.
I understand. But that doesn’t really take much time out of your day, or? Or can you not have fun anymore because of this fact about your life? Is your whole day spent worrying about this?
I think your taking things a bit too literal.
Yes what I said legitimately worries me on a daily basis. Some family members are on citizen statuses that have had people deported in the past few weeks.
I still find some joy in things but it’s hard while this shit is having direct impacts on my life.
Exactly. I go do things that I want to do because I don’t wanna regret it on my deathbed. We are here and then we’re dead. We could die any time. Might as well have a blast while we can
Think of the hubris it must take to yank a soul out of non existentce into this… Meat, to force life into this… thresher.
I wonder if there was ever a time when we did not consider existence to be a burden
I still don’t but I also live in one of the better countries to live in as a non-millionaire.
There was, when there were so few humans on this earth, your only goal was to survive as a hunter-gatherer.
So they weren’t terrified about what lurked beyond their campfire and could kill them at a moment’s notice? Where an unsuccessful hunt, which definitely happened, could mean you go hungry or eventually starve? Where environmental changes could happen at any point, forcing you to wander hundreds of kilometers in search of new water, food sources?
I really don’t think that our current psyche would be any happier when living in that environment.
It’s pretty simple - lots of resources, happier - no resources, unhappier. We’re living in an era of artificial scarcity. Of course if you currently have to wander the equivalent of hundreds of kilometers in search for new resources (work long hours at shitty jobs) you’re gonna be unhappy. But that doesn’t mean the ancient humans didn’t live in environments where that was the case.
It depends on your situation, and that is pretty much the same. The question is how different the distribution is from earlier to now, that I do not know.
I didn’t say we would’ve been happy, but we certainly wouldn’t have had so much idle time to contemplate our condition (at least not as much) before the development of civilization.
Oh no?? … Oh yes!
It’s great that there is no meaning. Embrace nihilism.
Do you imagine Sysiphos happy?
My main man Camus.
The Myth of Sysiphus is a very difficult read, but I would recommend everyone should read The Stranger by Albert Camus.
Well that’s just absurdism
I made my own meaning.
Assholes ruined it 😢
Nice marmot.
Double it and give it to the next guy
So, meaning is a pyramid scheme
What’s particularly meaningless is the comments on this article, after OP deletes their post/account in a couple days
If people stopped downvoting memes, they probably wouldn’t have to delete and make new accounts all the time.
Massive amounts of downvotes display as warnings next to the username on certain instances, and this will attract more downvotes. There’s possibly also a posting limit for people with huge amounts of downvotes, and more of a chance of instances hiding these posts.
- The warnings appear only to piefed users, which are a small fraction of Threadisers. And given whoever is doing this isn’t even on piefed, they wouldn’t be seeing it to begin with.
- The comics they’ve been posting have for the most part been highly upvoted, so they would have a positive reputation score, not negative.
- There is no such posting limit. And it doesn’t explain them deleting their own posts which have garnered huge amounts of upvotes and comments.
In case you are unaware, I’m referring to an ongoing person trolling the comics comm, it’s been an active trend for the past month or so.
Edit: This comment thread picked up 3 ppl downvoting me and upvoting the other commentor immediately. Checking the vote ids, of course it’s OP and their sibling day old accounts. Yay for vote manipulation.
Good thing that votes here have no meaning either.
People still can’t help but get attached to them.
If their memes are being downvoted maybe that means they aren’t wanted?
Usually it just means that the topic of the meme/comic/etc is divisive somehow.
I’m pretty sure this poster is the same one who posted these a few weeks ago.
spoiler
They get a lot of ⚠️ next to their usernames and just seem to post comics and delete their account to make a new one and do the same thing every however long.
