On November 07 2016 06:05 Loco wrote:
“Once I ventured the guess that men worked in response to a vague inner urge for self-expression. But that was probably a shaky theory, for some men who work the hardest have nothing to express. A hypothesis with rather more plausibility in it now suggests itself. It is that men work simply in order to escape the depressing agony of contemplating life – that their work, like their play, is a mumbo-jumbo that serves them by permitting them to escape from reality. Both work and play, ordinarily, are illusions. Neither serves any solid or permanent purpose. But life, stripped of such illusions, instantly becomes unbearable. Man cannot sit still, contemplating his destiny in this world, without going frantic. So he invents ways to take his mind off the horror. He works. He plays. He accumulates the preposterous nothing called property. He strives for the coy eyewink called fame. He founds a family, and spends his curse over others. All the while the thing that moves him is simply the yearning to lose himself, to forget himself, to escape the tragic-comedy that is himself. Life, fundamentally, is not worth living. So he confects artificialities to make it so. So he erects a gaudy structure to conceal the fact that it is not so.”
-- H.L. Mencken
HEAVY HITTER!!!
H.L. nails it.
I do not want to commit suicide though. The horrors the absurdities are not too much to bear. Perhaps the banalities and the mundanities are? No, I can always get some money together and go skiing, watch existential film, grab a meal/coffee with friends, GIVE ME TRANSCENDENCE! I WANT TRANSCENDENCE! AD INFINITUM!
Isn't all this seeking, this chasing, this work and this play meanings?
Artificial is just man made. Of course, man has to make his meanings. There is no God or gods. Of course, they are artificial. I am hoping for a structure that is not gaudy but even if it is gaudy I would prefer that to death. Anyone who does not what keeps you living?
A few thoughts:
A person who believes life isn't worth living doesn't necessarily prescribe or pursue suicide. Logic doesn't have power over biology like that. It's one thing to make observations about the state of living and it's another to seek practical ways to live less miserably. I have no problem reconciling both.
Transcendence is glorified escapism. And it typically doesn't happen when you seek it out, it happens when you've fully given up seeking it, or when you're intoxicated, but that leads to a vicious cycle.
Yes, the seeking and chasing is meaningful. We are all condemned to meaning, as Merleau-Ponty rightfully points out. We're condemned to manufacture meaning and find a way to see ourselves like the hero in a story, with challenges ahead of himself, some places to go, things to accomplish. Often with a legacy to leave behind, for the most narcissistic of us all. If we could ask a hamster running in its wheel in a cage, 'why are you running all the time?', he would probably also tell us these things, "I am going somewhere. I am improving myself." It's life. Biology has needs and carries us forward, while the mind rationalizes them and tries to ennoble them. But the need for some great meaning is never met -- unless we lie to ourselves like the religious do. Who is better off? No doubt the self-deceived person is. Well, it can be done without religion, certainly. You just have to find convincing enough illusions and become a pragmatist like Peterson. He's certainly right when he says that there are always things to fix and that focusing on them makes our lives meaningful. These things are not illusory, but the idea that we can affect them often times is. But hey, whatever works is what most people care about. Whatever gets you to see another day without wanting to hang yourself is probably good. Life is not that interesting without illusions.
Do you remember that guy that wrote that book about shitting and wanting to fuck our moms?
What is the meaning of life?
Drinking, eating, shitting, wanting to fuck our moms. But I like black women? Novelty, there you go. Have fun!
I think everything one does or sees has meaning. If you are doing something, then it automatically has meaning in that moment, in that context. If you're pondering the "meaning of meaning" than in that very moment, pondering the meaning of meaning is what has meaning to you. If at any moment you are watching a movie, then that is what has meaning in your life at that very moment. Does meaning have to be grandeur for it to actually be "meaning"? After all, meaning 'means' just that - something that 'means' something, it exists and conveys a value, no matter how small or big (the size doesn't make a difference). Everything that exists has meaning through the sole fact of it actually existing - the meaning might be different to different observers, but it will be there, always. When I hear people saying that "nothing has meaning" and then trying to frame it as a pragmatic observation, I always feel confused. I mean if you believe nothing has "meaning", then what's the meaning behind you even saying that? I guess the act of sharing it had meaning to you, in that moment when you wanted to say it. So you must believe in meaning, after all.
The cool part is that we as concious beings can observe many different kinds of meanings. I think that's pretty freakin' cool.
United States. Nov 09 2016 02:57. Posts 8514
