I mean, there is no meaning in nature, it was man who invented it, and often it appeared because of a scarcity, for example, the point is in a beautiful woman, because you are unlikely to find another one as beautiful, right?, or can you find a person who will support you and accept you as you are, like your loved ones? The examples are not the best, but I hope you get the idea.
In addition, I will say that about a year ago I watched the film “The Seventh Seal”, and now sometimes I feel in the place of a character named Antonius Block. I dismissed the inevitable by refraining from suicide as a teenager, thinking I could find the meaning of life, but what was to be expected, nothing worked out. But especially now, how shall I put it… in the age of AI, it is impossible to escape the truth, self-deception no longer works, at least for me personally.
Chess Game with Death:
Sounds like you’re in the Pessimistic Nihilist stage, you just need to process things and then progress yourself to either Absurdist Nihilist or Optimistic Nihilist
Myth of Sisyphus is a great book if you want to lean into the absurdism
Try to enjoy the last of the abundance, things aren’t going to improve.
If theres no meaning, there’s no pressure to live up to anything
I want to learn things and meet people and understand the world and humanity. I can never get even remotely close to doing as much as I want to in my tiny life, so I have to do everything in my power to allow myself to do as much as possible before I die.
I mean, there is no meaning in nature, it was man who invented it
Humans are of nature. Any meaning we find is the answer.
I’m glad there isn’t a meaning to life. If there was a meaning, then I’d have to be doing that thing or be failing at existence. If no act matters, then I’m equally valid for doing my goofy nonsense as I am working hard or whatever.
The thing that shook me out of the existential crisis of understanding nihilism is that life had as much meaning before I was born as it will after my death.
Or in other words: we are the universe exploring itself - in playful exploration and/or aesthetic creation.
To me that gives license to do something interesting with the short time, resources and attention that I have available. I find experiencing new things or in new combinations fulfilling, as do I to help others make a positive contribution to the human experience (be it through positive societal change or practicing kindness).
I guess it doesn’t matter to me? Why does there need to be a meaning beyond right here and right now and existing?
Optimistic nihilism is the way to go. We make our own meaning.
Over the course of eternity, nothing means anything. But on a human scale, we can still profoundly (and not so profoundly) affect one another’s lives, and I think meaning exists there.
We build things that won’t last so others can build new things after us. We change each other in ways we often never see or get credit for, but that doesn’t make those effects any less real or meaningful.
The same way I enjoy ignoring the main quest in Skyrim.
Stumbling around meadows and caves, seeing what random stuff and events I find, and still having a 10/10 great time.
No need for real life to be any different.
The universe created us to bear witness to itself.
I find it simultaneously sad and relieving that nothing we do will matter in a million years. Every embarrassing thing I’ve done or will do, everything I’ve fucked up or will fuck up, eventually it won’t matter. Yes, I’m sad that my achievements also won’t matter in the really long run, but there is an upside
Might as well ask how we live when there are no unicorns. You just do. You tolerate the bad times. You enjoy the good times. It is only when you seek meaning and find it missing there is a hole in your desire. Accept the meaninglessness, take a dump, a nap, meditate, or do something else to break the cycle, and just move on.
I’ve never even quite understood what it is that people are thinking about when they refer to “the meaning of life.” I mean - I know the definition - I know what the phrase is intended to communicate. I just don’t get what it is that people actually expect.
I don’t think I ever even considered the idea of life having some sort of intrinsic meaning until I was old enough to start getting into philosophy and discovered that not only do people believe that life has some intrinsic meaning, but that it’s such a common belief that there’s a sort of reflexive negative view of anyone who doesn’t share that belief.
In spite of that, I saw and still see no reason to believe that life has intrinsic meaning (either empirically, logically or even psychologically) and more than enough reason to believe that it does not.
Now none of that’s to say that my life is meaningless. It’s stuffed full of meaning. It’s just that all of that meaning is things I’ve found and adopted - none of it’s intrinsic, nor does it need to be.
And I still don’t really understand why anyone believes that it does need to be intrinsic. How is all of the meaning they’re free to find and adopt not enough?
For whatever any of that’s worth…
