There seem to be a great number of social media posts recently on the subject of the meaninglessness of our lives. Some point to what they believe to be an absurd cycle of “eat, work, be entertained, sleep” that repeats itself endlessly until we become infirmed and ultimately die.
Personally, I see nothing absurd about any of this. Sure, our lives have no external meaning; it’s up to us to confer meaning to our existences by the choices we make. I used to say that I was put on Earth to solve corporate marketing challenges, the same way doctors are here to cure disease and cops are here to fight crime.
Also, this strikes me as a “first world problem.” Think for a moment how few people living in areas that are war-torn, impoverished, disease-ridden, or ruled by cruel tyrants, who have the bandwidth to concern themselves with the meaning of life and to bemoan its monotony.
I’m here for the same reason that any of us are: my parents had sex, and that’s essentially all that any of us can say, whether the pregnancy was planned or accidental. From there, it’s up to each one of us as individuals to make our way through the world.
There’s nothing about this that makes our lives absurd.
Almost all respondents on social media were enthusiastic about banning the garb at left.
Two points:
1) I’m thrilled to live in a country that protects its people’s freedom of expression. As an older American, I’m not crazy about massive tattoos, face-piercings, and young guys walking around with their pants worn down around their knees, but I’m a real fan of the United States Constitution.
The author of the meme might want to take a peek. It’s a good read.
2) What actually works on a societal basis, and what no one can regulate, is public acceptance or rejection. You’re free to wear extreme forms of the hijab, or claim that the Holocaust was a hoax, or believe that the Earth is flat, or tell your neighbors that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, that you, with no training in science, think climate change is a hoax, or that vaccines are often lethal.
However, you’ll pay a stiff price in terms of acceptance into refined society. Want to get a high-level job or join a country club dressed like that? Do you think that spouting off the gibberish of uneducated MAGA slobs in the workplace will advance your career?
Good luck.
Easy. It’s 36% in the United States, and somewhere around 15% in the rest of the developed world. It’s slim, and it’s disintegrating fast.
The world isn’t in great shape right now, but most human beings are good people, and they abhor the crimes and the constant barrage of crimes. It’s really no more complicated than that.
What Kurt Vonnegut said here is interesting, but I doubt it’s correct.
Yes, people talk about religious people’s “imaginary friend in the sky,” which would be, of course, a remedy for loneliness. But I believe that the primary driver for religion is fear–of all things unknown, and especially of death and the afterlife.
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