My understanding of neurology, albeit minimal at best, is that the very act of perceiving is meaning-based. We see a cup, in its totality of meaning, its “cup-ness”, before we see a hollow, cylindrical object, closed at one end, capable of, among other things, containing a liquid. We perceive CUP as our primary act.
It seems to me that we make meaning from a meaningless world, whether we wish to or not, as a baseline function of our existence. Knowing this, the meaning we make becomes an imperative concern: we become what we think = be conscious what you make things mean.
Do you wish to live in a world where you are beset all around with plots and obstacles counter to your purpose? Do you wish to live in a world devoid of compassion and mercy? Well, that’s available from the world around you.
What if you want a life filled with the meaning that comes from compassion, love, mercy, peace? Make your list.
When you really think about it, you have never felt another person’s love for you. You have felt your reaction to your understanding that they behave lovingly toward you, but you have never felt their love; it’s theirs.
Though this may seem isolating, it is an opportunity:
If you want to experience compassion, be compassionate. If you want experience love, be loving. If you want to experience peace, be peaceful. If you want mercy, be merciful... you get the idea. The meaning is there to be made.
Great comment. Totally agree. We do not receive these things, such as love or compassion. We generate them. I think this is a fundamental aspect of our existence many misunderstand.
We get rare insights though. We feel good when we help others, for example.
But most assume we get loved rather than experience it ourselves. An external locus perhaps.
Yes, it reveals an external focus, and that is completely understandable. We are utterly beholden to and at the mercy of the outside world at the most basic level: survival. Why would we not think that love comes from elsewhere?
But when we really look at how we make meaning, technically, the illusion is apparent.
The hopeful aspect of the technical reality of meaning-making, especially as relates to your excellent piece, is that doing makes meaning. Make a spoon, you have created meaning. Write an essay, you have created meaning. Help a neighbor, you have created meaning. You’ll never feel anyone else’s meaning, make your own.
I am very interested in the doing aspect. Its importance is something I only recently began to understand. Life is action. Doing. It is not thinking or imagining.
For those with some kind of intellect or imagination I think this is a difficult lesson to learn. Life is not thinking about the party, what could go wrong, who you might meet, the excitement. Life is attending the party. Everything else is inside your head.
It often explains why those with limited intellects seem to have better lives, or at least more satisfying ones. Their default is action because they lack the capacity to overthink. For those of us prone to overthinking I believe this tendency has to be actively suppressed and replaced with some kind of doing reflex.
That is the journey I am on. To overcome hesitation and avoidance, to default more towards action and doing. To actually live life by embracing the notion it is an experience to be had, not a conquest to plan too far ahead.
I do suspect a significant chunk of the above average IQs in society plan their lives into oblivion then wonder why they are depressed. And I don't mean that in a dismissive way. I think their big brains get in the way. They think themselves into a culdesac they can't escape from.
I get it, the journey of action is becoming a big part of my life too.
Overthinking has been theme for me. I was the kid always staring out the window in third grade, daydreaming. There is a definite trap in that.
If you close your eyes and imagine in great detail lifting your arms in the air, the same neurons fire as if you actually lift your arms. The more vividly you imagine, the closer to real action your brain experiences. The real world begs to differ; but no matter, the accomplishment is felt regardless.
After a decade of struggle and worry, we moved out of town to a house in the country. We were able to parlay our equity to keep the house in town as a rental. At first I was enamored of not having a lawn to mow anymore. Between tenants though, the grass still grows. One Sunday morning a couple weeks ago, I mowed the lawn in town and found a wonderful peace in having action available. What else am I going to do on a Sunday morning, sit around and zone out, think about vacations I’d like to take, look at facetube? I’ve worked very hard to get to a place where I can take it easy on the weekends. Now I miss having that set pattern of chores.
It’s trite to say, but life really can end up being what happens while you’re making plans.
I am painfully aware of the way life can get away from you. I have written a few pieces along those lines. They definitely resonate with people.
I do think action matters. It is all action. I am trying to get to something like 95% action and 5% planning or thinking. You really can dream your life away.
You can definitely wait too long planning and preparing for certain things in this life. There is no golden moment, no perfect plan. The way life works is you start doing and you figure it out as reality unfolds.
There are some very large, even permanent disappointments on the menu if you don’t figure this out soon enough.
"If you want to experience compassion, be compassionate. If you want experience love, be loving. If you want to experience peace, be peaceful. If you want mercy, be merciful... you get the idea. The meaning is there to be made."
I have a simple practice that brings me enormous satisfaction: when I break a cookie to share, I give the bigger half away. It’s so satisfying to give more sweetness than I get. I’m not perfect at it, I’m a greedy ape most of the time. But when I remember to give more than I get, I live in a world of generosity.
The world is full of hurt and disappointment, this is our lot. Be it ordained from a fall, or the raw arrangement of atoms, the reason doesn’t matter; only our response.
One person can change the world. You change yourself and the whole world changes around you. The earth rises up to meet your feet and the path unfolds.
You change yourself and the whole world changes around you. The earth rises up to meet your feet and the path unfolds.
---
This is excellent. And it is also how I think. It took me years to excise the pessimism implanted by various forces in my youth. But I am definitely not a pessimist now because I too think like this. Although I have many moments of doubt.
Really interesting read. I didn't agree with all the points but all well put. I'm sceptical of the idea that we can be whoever or whatever we want to be if we just dream it and work hard to achieve our dream. But maybe we'll think of an alternative dream suited to our actual abilities,lol.
I am not at all skeptical. I would accept some people may have inappropriate ambitions unsuited to their skills (YouTube phenomenon? Lol), but I think meaning comes from effort. I would accept we must adapt to the world as it is so it is not as simple as thinking up an idea then doing it.
Your choice of "whomever you want to be..." rather than "whatever you want to be..." is for me a distinction that is important. As the reader above stresses, maybe the notion instilled in a generation of TV talent-show consumers, wherein a mediocre singer is voted out of shop-worker obscurity and yes, I suppose a meaningless life (in their eyes due to media programming), to become a SOMEBODY...for however brief a span, is shot through with the "you can be whatever you want to be" narrative. Which is in my view a blatant lie and very destructive. As you observe, a life with purpose becomes a life with meaning, although we are very often not aware of that. Meaning has an annoying habit of being retrospectively applied by others!
Adopting a mindset of nihilism keeps people from tackling challenges. Just like Frodo or Arya, real heroes don’t avoid their struggles—they face them head-on and grow because of them. In reality, those who confront adversity, learn from it and persevere tend to find more meaning and personal growth than those who resign themselves to believing nothing matters. Think of figures like Nelson Mandela or Holocaust survivors who, against all odds, endured unimaginable hardship and still found ways to forgive and rise above their circumstances.
While nihilism can be a valid philosophical stance, it leads to emotional disengagement and a loss of purpose. Choosing to face life’s difficulties, no matter how overwhelming, is what helps people find their ‘why.’
I agree. I would argue nihilism, a decision it all means nothing, is the ultimate avoidance strategy. It is convenient, especially for the high IQ types.
Life is really about doing or acting on the world. To those overly prone to thinking or overthinking this can be difficult to grasp.
I think you do things, you act on the world, and you therefore explore what it all means and construct meaning from there, including the mistakes and the calamities.
For sure, and it's so easy to fall into that mindset when you're overwhelmed by suffering or injustice. It’s like an escape hatch when you’re drained and doubting whether you’ve got the strength to keep going. You start telling yourself that life has no meaning, that nothing you do matters and the weight of it all feels impossible. It's a way to disconnect from purpose and give in to despair.
Think of Frodo at Mount Doom, feeling like the burden of the ring is too much for his small hobbit body and wondering if everything he endured was for nothing. The real battle isn’t what’s happening around you—it’s what’s happening within you.
I absolutely agree. We are each the world. Much of what we see in the world is projection. People's fears and worries projected onto some hate figure. Life can be hard.
But we must also remember life is a miracle. We ourselves are little miracles. The fact you even exist is crazy. And we have it all before us. You can more or less construct any life you like. So the doom and gloom needs to be actively challenged.
Meaning is not created by man, nor is it chosen by him, nor given by him. Any "meaning" stemming from man is inherently meaningless because it can simply be taken back -- it has no weight, it has no force, it offers one absolutely nothing to hold onto or ground to build on. Least of all does such an approach address nihilism; quite the contrary, it is literally the *perpetuation* of nihilism.
Meaning is *already there* and can only be *discovered* -- it cannot be created, chosen, given, etc. If meaning is not independent of us, it doesn't offer us the solid ground to build our lives on; i.e., it would fail to do precisely what it does.
I don't think you're interested in learning why you're mistaken, but if you are, you can find a much more meaningful piece here:
And I disagree. That's all there is to it. I decide how meaning is formed in my own life. No one else. I am not "discovering" it either. I am creating it.
A young mother overjoyed at the birth of her first child hasn't "discovered" it. She made it. An act of creation. The child inevitably means much less, if anything, to the rest of us. The intensity is hers alone because she literally created the child.
Step away from the philosophy books and experience life. It is all around you. It is yours to command, as is its meaning.
1) It's not dense, it's actually quite accessible. It's just substantive rather than glib.
2) Philosophy isn't about opinions, nor are all opinions equally valid or true. Philosophy is about truth, wisdom, and living well. Disagreement means nothing if there isn't substance behind it.
3) She didn't make motherhood meaningful, nor did she create any meaning. She, through active engagement, *discovered* how meaningful and joyful motherhood is. Motherhood was and is meaningful outside of her becoming a mother and if it weren't, she could simply choose for it not to be meaningful, and she would be perpetually plagued by the possibility of such a choice -- but that's not how human experience works, thank God. Meaning exists *independently of us* and that is why it has the weight and stability it does, as well as why we are able to tether to it and build around it.
4) You don't know anything about me, so your "step away from the books and live" is just baseless posturing and an attempt to glibly dismiss out-of-hand. I've lived far more adventure and done way more cool shit before 30 than most people ever get around to doing: farmhand, winemaker & distiller, professor, amateur fighter, and more that I don't care to share *all before 30*.
5) Luck is for atheists and nihilists, as it precludes the possibility of being grateful for life's many miracles. Gratitude requires someone to whom one is grateful. Those who understand that life is replete with God-given blessings, miracles, and meaning have no need for luck.
"But no one can give your life meaning except yourself. To believe otherwise, that meaning or purpose is something someone else imparts, is to think like a slave."
Thank you! I've always been mystified by the people who complain about not knowing the meaning of their life. I've always figured that's why so many people are drawn to religion.
Off the shelf philosophies have always been appealing to the majority. Fast and efficient, and they have the benefit of some form of group approval, which many need.
I completely agree. I am trying to keep my rambling articles short, so I am attempting to focus on a single topic in each one. But your comment is correct.
We often get real satisfaction helping others. As you note, this is direct help in some sense. Working at a soup kitchen versus paying taxes.
Some even find genuine life purpose this way. It was the traditional drive for overseas missionaries.
Spiff, I love your clear thinking here and I agree wholeheartedly. Let me add a spiritual element: God gives each of us gifts and talents…as well as a conscience that drives us to find meaning that is compatible with our talents. So it’s no accident that I find meaning in the work that I’m good at.
There is also a lot of evidence in the social sciences backing this up. People get satisfaction from things in which they excel. Very numerate people becoming corporate accountants, for example. Not everyone yearns to be a movie star, and there is real satisfaction in a job well done.
Nihilism (the philosophical point) isn't the end, but the start. That's what gets missed by many, especially when young: deconstructing, dismissing, analysing and so on all the mores and norms and so on we have had imparted upon us doesn't make any of said norms et c meaningless, or void or unjustified or anything like that.
It just means you are trying to understand them relative yourself, your experience (your empiricism so to speak), and communicated/perceived reality vs actual reality.
You could be 25ish, firmly believing that "abortion* is an unalieanble right of a woman" with no deeper understanding of the issue or process (especially if you're a man), and with no deeper thought or study ever spent on it. In other words, you feel you know something, but all that's real is that feeling, nothing more since you haven't researched the medical-technical aspects, nor the history around the procedure, or challenged your belief with ethical conundrums ("Should abortion on eugenical grounds be allowed/mandated/banned?" f.e.).
By challenging a set of beliefs or an idea or even a notion, you may arrive at nihilism as you despair trying to find something real. And as the Spaceman says, you don't /find/ it; you create it.
You may return from the Abyss of philophical nihilism with your original beliefs strengthened, weakened, changed or discarded; you however, will not be the same whatever the outcome, and as the Abyss is always just a step behind you you can always return to it again and again to challenge yourself.
If such is your will. For some, that very act of challenge is initself their way of creating a meaning to life (apart from being alive, that is).
Great article - fair, levelheaded and in no way preachy or didactic!
Without a spiritual change, moving to another place and starting over simply repeats a cycle. Consider the experience of Mr. Flitwick in THE MALTESE FALCON.
But we must never forget that if we wobble hard enough, we can fall off the conveyor belt and discover reality.
My understanding of neurology, albeit minimal at best, is that the very act of perceiving is meaning-based. We see a cup, in its totality of meaning, its “cup-ness”, before we see a hollow, cylindrical object, closed at one end, capable of, among other things, containing a liquid. We perceive CUP as our primary act.
It seems to me that we make meaning from a meaningless world, whether we wish to or not, as a baseline function of our existence. Knowing this, the meaning we make becomes an imperative concern: we become what we think = be conscious what you make things mean.
Do you wish to live in a world where you are beset all around with plots and obstacles counter to your purpose? Do you wish to live in a world devoid of compassion and mercy? Well, that’s available from the world around you.
What if you want a life filled with the meaning that comes from compassion, love, mercy, peace? Make your list.
When you really think about it, you have never felt another person’s love for you. You have felt your reaction to your understanding that they behave lovingly toward you, but you have never felt their love; it’s theirs.
Though this may seem isolating, it is an opportunity:
If you want to experience compassion, be compassionate. If you want experience love, be loving. If you want to experience peace, be peaceful. If you want mercy, be merciful... you get the idea. The meaning is there to be made.
Great comment. Totally agree. We do not receive these things, such as love or compassion. We generate them. I think this is a fundamental aspect of our existence many misunderstand.
We get rare insights though. We feel good when we help others, for example.
But most assume we get loved rather than experience it ourselves. An external locus perhaps.
Good old Golden Rule.
Yes, it reveals an external focus, and that is completely understandable. We are utterly beholden to and at the mercy of the outside world at the most basic level: survival. Why would we not think that love comes from elsewhere?
But when we really look at how we make meaning, technically, the illusion is apparent.
The hopeful aspect of the technical reality of meaning-making, especially as relates to your excellent piece, is that doing makes meaning. Make a spoon, you have created meaning. Write an essay, you have created meaning. Help a neighbor, you have created meaning. You’ll never feel anyone else’s meaning, make your own.
Do.
I am very interested in the doing aspect. Its importance is something I only recently began to understand. Life is action. Doing. It is not thinking or imagining.
For those with some kind of intellect or imagination I think this is a difficult lesson to learn. Life is not thinking about the party, what could go wrong, who you might meet, the excitement. Life is attending the party. Everything else is inside your head.
It often explains why those with limited intellects seem to have better lives, or at least more satisfying ones. Their default is action because they lack the capacity to overthink. For those of us prone to overthinking I believe this tendency has to be actively suppressed and replaced with some kind of doing reflex.
That is the journey I am on. To overcome hesitation and avoidance, to default more towards action and doing. To actually live life by embracing the notion it is an experience to be had, not a conquest to plan too far ahead.
I do suspect a significant chunk of the above average IQs in society plan their lives into oblivion then wonder why they are depressed. And I don't mean that in a dismissive way. I think their big brains get in the way. They think themselves into a culdesac they can't escape from.
I get it, the journey of action is becoming a big part of my life too.
Overthinking has been theme for me. I was the kid always staring out the window in third grade, daydreaming. There is a definite trap in that.
If you close your eyes and imagine in great detail lifting your arms in the air, the same neurons fire as if you actually lift your arms. The more vividly you imagine, the closer to real action your brain experiences. The real world begs to differ; but no matter, the accomplishment is felt regardless.
After a decade of struggle and worry, we moved out of town to a house in the country. We were able to parlay our equity to keep the house in town as a rental. At first I was enamored of not having a lawn to mow anymore. Between tenants though, the grass still grows. One Sunday morning a couple weeks ago, I mowed the lawn in town and found a wonderful peace in having action available. What else am I going to do on a Sunday morning, sit around and zone out, think about vacations I’d like to take, look at facetube? I’ve worked very hard to get to a place where I can take it easy on the weekends. Now I miss having that set pattern of chores.
It’s trite to say, but life really can end up being what happens while you’re making plans.
I am painfully aware of the way life can get away from you. I have written a few pieces along those lines. They definitely resonate with people.
I do think action matters. It is all action. I am trying to get to something like 95% action and 5% planning or thinking. You really can dream your life away.
You can definitely wait too long planning and preparing for certain things in this life. There is no golden moment, no perfect plan. The way life works is you start doing and you figure it out as reality unfolds.
There are some very large, even permanent disappointments on the menu if you don’t figure this out soon enough.
I didn’t.
And then you keep going.
"If you want to experience compassion, be compassionate. If you want experience love, be loving. If you want to experience peace, be peaceful. If you want mercy, be merciful... you get the idea. The meaning is there to be made."
Excellent observation.
I have a simple practice that brings me enormous satisfaction: when I break a cookie to share, I give the bigger half away. It’s so satisfying to give more sweetness than I get. I’m not perfect at it, I’m a greedy ape most of the time. But when I remember to give more than I get, I live in a world of generosity.
It really does work. You could even argue it is some kind of cosmic investment strategy. A thing that pays dividends despite not looking promising.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
The world is full of hurt and disappointment, this is our lot. Be it ordained from a fall, or the raw arrangement of atoms, the reason doesn’t matter; only our response.
One person can change the world. You change yourself and the whole world changes around you. The earth rises up to meet your feet and the path unfolds.
It all sounds so schmatlzy, but it’s all so true!
You change yourself and the whole world changes around you. The earth rises up to meet your feet and the path unfolds.
---
This is excellent. And it is also how I think. It took me years to excise the pessimism implanted by various forces in my youth. But I am definitely not a pessimist now because I too think like this. Although I have many moments of doubt.
Really interesting read. I didn't agree with all the points but all well put. I'm sceptical of the idea that we can be whoever or whatever we want to be if we just dream it and work hard to achieve our dream. But maybe we'll think of an alternative dream suited to our actual abilities,lol.
I am not at all skeptical. I would accept some people may have inappropriate ambitions unsuited to their skills (YouTube phenomenon? Lol), but I think meaning comes from effort. I would accept we must adapt to the world as it is so it is not as simple as thinking up an idea then doing it.
Yes,adapt is the word. Sort of evolve from the original idea. That's a good concept!
Your choice of "whomever you want to be..." rather than "whatever you want to be..." is for me a distinction that is important. As the reader above stresses, maybe the notion instilled in a generation of TV talent-show consumers, wherein a mediocre singer is voted out of shop-worker obscurity and yes, I suppose a meaningless life (in their eyes due to media programming), to become a SOMEBODY...for however brief a span, is shot through with the "you can be whatever you want to be" narrative. Which is in my view a blatant lie and very destructive. As you observe, a life with purpose becomes a life with meaning, although we are very often not aware of that. Meaning has an annoying habit of being retrospectively applied by others!
Who, not what is probably important here. That was Schwarzenegger's view. Focus on becoming WHO you want to be, not what. A powerful distinction.
And yes the talent show generation. Fame and fortune bestowed by others. I can understand why they'd go for it. But it is not a purpose.
Adopting a mindset of nihilism keeps people from tackling challenges. Just like Frodo or Arya, real heroes don’t avoid their struggles—they face them head-on and grow because of them. In reality, those who confront adversity, learn from it and persevere tend to find more meaning and personal growth than those who resign themselves to believing nothing matters. Think of figures like Nelson Mandela or Holocaust survivors who, against all odds, endured unimaginable hardship and still found ways to forgive and rise above their circumstances.
While nihilism can be a valid philosophical stance, it leads to emotional disengagement and a loss of purpose. Choosing to face life’s difficulties, no matter how overwhelming, is what helps people find their ‘why.’
I agree. I would argue nihilism, a decision it all means nothing, is the ultimate avoidance strategy. It is convenient, especially for the high IQ types.
Life is really about doing or acting on the world. To those overly prone to thinking or overthinking this can be difficult to grasp.
I think you do things, you act on the world, and you therefore explore what it all means and construct meaning from there, including the mistakes and the calamities.
For sure, and it's so easy to fall into that mindset when you're overwhelmed by suffering or injustice. It’s like an escape hatch when you’re drained and doubting whether you’ve got the strength to keep going. You start telling yourself that life has no meaning, that nothing you do matters and the weight of it all feels impossible. It's a way to disconnect from purpose and give in to despair.
Think of Frodo at Mount Doom, feeling like the burden of the ring is too much for his small hobbit body and wondering if everything he endured was for nothing. The real battle isn’t what’s happening around you—it’s what’s happening within you.
I absolutely agree. We are each the world. Much of what we see in the world is projection. People's fears and worries projected onto some hate figure. Life can be hard.
But we must also remember life is a miracle. We ourselves are little miracles. The fact you even exist is crazy. And we have it all before us. You can more or less construct any life you like. So the doom and gloom needs to be actively challenged.
I love that hot take. I request you do a post on that! If not, I will 😂
Funny you should say. Check back tomorrow, 12:30 GMT. I have one coming; the view of life from an 85 year old.
Preview: worry less and dance much more. Good advice.
But I may take you up on the offer. We could perhaps both write something on the above topic.
This has already been explained to you:
Meaning is not created by man, nor is it chosen by him, nor given by him. Any "meaning" stemming from man is inherently meaningless because it can simply be taken back -- it has no weight, it has no force, it offers one absolutely nothing to hold onto or ground to build on. Least of all does such an approach address nihilism; quite the contrary, it is literally the *perpetuation* of nihilism.
Meaning is *already there* and can only be *discovered* -- it cannot be created, chosen, given, etc. If meaning is not independent of us, it doesn't offer us the solid ground to build our lives on; i.e., it would fail to do precisely what it does.
I don't think you're interested in learning why you're mistaken, but if you are, you can find a much more meaningful piece here:
https://candidclodhopper.substack.com/p/denial-of-the-given
I've tried to read it. Dense stuff.
And I disagree. That's all there is to it. I decide how meaning is formed in my own life. No one else. I am not "discovering" it either. I am creating it.
A young mother overjoyed at the birth of her first child hasn't "discovered" it. She made it. An act of creation. The child inevitably means much less, if anything, to the rest of us. The intensity is hers alone because she literally created the child.
Step away from the philosophy books and experience life. It is all around you. It is yours to command, as is its meaning.
I wish you luck.
1) It's not dense, it's actually quite accessible. It's just substantive rather than glib.
2) Philosophy isn't about opinions, nor are all opinions equally valid or true. Philosophy is about truth, wisdom, and living well. Disagreement means nothing if there isn't substance behind it.
3) She didn't make motherhood meaningful, nor did she create any meaning. She, through active engagement, *discovered* how meaningful and joyful motherhood is. Motherhood was and is meaningful outside of her becoming a mother and if it weren't, she could simply choose for it not to be meaningful, and she would be perpetually plagued by the possibility of such a choice -- but that's not how human experience works, thank God. Meaning exists *independently of us* and that is why it has the weight and stability it does, as well as why we are able to tether to it and build around it.
4) You don't know anything about me, so your "step away from the books and live" is just baseless posturing and an attempt to glibly dismiss out-of-hand. I've lived far more adventure and done way more cool shit before 30 than most people ever get around to doing: farmhand, winemaker & distiller, professor, amateur fighter, and more that I don't care to share *all before 30*.
5) Luck is for atheists and nihilists, as it precludes the possibility of being grateful for life's many miracles. Gratitude requires someone to whom one is grateful. Those who understand that life is replete with God-given blessings, miracles, and meaning have no need for luck.
You do seem a little obsessed with this. I like to take a step back when I feel that way. I am sure we can agree to disagree 🙂
"But no one can give your life meaning except yourself. To believe otherwise, that meaning or purpose is something someone else imparts, is to think like a slave."
Thank you! I've always been mystified by the people who complain about not knowing the meaning of their life. I've always figured that's why so many people are drawn to religion.
Or politics.
Off the shelf philosophies have always been appealing to the majority. Fast and efficient, and they have the benefit of some form of group approval, which many need.
Well written and a timely piece for the millennial generation, lost as we are in an ocean of distraction. I enjoyed reading it very much.
I think, however, you may have left out something crucial — doing things for others.
Not the sort of charity that social security or welfare force on us but willful, voluntary altruism.
Introspection is important but too much will drive you mad. Don't you agree?
I completely agree. I am trying to keep my rambling articles short, so I am attempting to focus on a single topic in each one. But your comment is correct.
We often get real satisfaction helping others. As you note, this is direct help in some sense. Working at a soup kitchen versus paying taxes.
Some even find genuine life purpose this way. It was the traditional drive for overseas missionaries.
Spiff, I love your clear thinking here and I agree wholeheartedly. Let me add a spiritual element: God gives each of us gifts and talents…as well as a conscience that drives us to find meaning that is compatible with our talents. So it’s no accident that I find meaning in the work that I’m good at.
There is also a lot of evidence in the social sciences backing this up. People get satisfaction from things in which they excel. Very numerate people becoming corporate accountants, for example. Not everyone yearns to be a movie star, and there is real satisfaction in a job well done.
Thanks for reading.
Boom. Spot on. Thank you.
Thanks for reading.
Nihilism (the philosophical point) isn't the end, but the start. That's what gets missed by many, especially when young: deconstructing, dismissing, analysing and so on all the mores and norms and so on we have had imparted upon us doesn't make any of said norms et c meaningless, or void or unjustified or anything like that.
It just means you are trying to understand them relative yourself, your experience (your empiricism so to speak), and communicated/perceived reality vs actual reality.
You could be 25ish, firmly believing that "abortion* is an unalieanble right of a woman" with no deeper understanding of the issue or process (especially if you're a man), and with no deeper thought or study ever spent on it. In other words, you feel you know something, but all that's real is that feeling, nothing more since you haven't researched the medical-technical aspects, nor the history around the procedure, or challenged your belief with ethical conundrums ("Should abortion on eugenical grounds be allowed/mandated/banned?" f.e.).
By challenging a set of beliefs or an idea or even a notion, you may arrive at nihilism as you despair trying to find something real. And as the Spaceman says, you don't /find/ it; you create it.
You may return from the Abyss of philophical nihilism with your original beliefs strengthened, weakened, changed or discarded; you however, will not be the same whatever the outcome, and as the Abyss is always just a step behind you you can always return to it again and again to challenge yourself.
If such is your will. For some, that very act of challenge is initself their way of creating a meaning to life (apart from being alive, that is).
Great article - fair, levelheaded and in no way preachy or didactic!
Glad you enjoyed. Always appreciate your insights.
≠ WORD! And thanks!
Isn't this basically the essence of existentialism, in a nutshell?
Couldn't say.
<The musician hearing silence and composing melodic noise is creating meaning.> That would be “melodic <sound>,” speaking as a composer and conductor…
Of course. But the point stands. The act of creation matters.
Without a spiritual change, moving to another place and starting over simply repeats a cycle. Consider the experience of Mr. Flitwick in THE MALTESE FALCON.
But we must never forget that if we wobble hard enough, we can fall off the conveyor belt and discover reality.
I like that image. Discovering reality.
I do think a rebirth is needed. A calamity or major event usually triggers a reevaluation of life. Most shy away of course. But some embrace it.