On Meaning of Life
The question of the meaning of our lives comes when we are (relatively) free and don't need to fight for our survival. It doesn't come when we are in a lack of food or without a shelter, or when there is a heavenly-blessed telling that we live to serve him.
This question is like a slow poison. It brings a chaos in our lives, weakening our strengths, killing our moral and motivation. The reason for that is obvious. We have a long history of wars and usurpation. we just don't know how to live in peace and freedom.
The solution would be to learn how to live in peace and freedom. To set up goals and values in the society that have meaning when there is no-one to fight. This is a major change to the way we live now. So it is easier to start a new war.
Labels: abstract
# posted by romka,
Sunday, September 07, 2008
11:29
So is living in peace the meaning of life? Or you meant, that because we don't know the answer, we go to war?
Wars are usually made in the background of economical goals. Any movement or change in the map is started because of the money, either some want more or some want it back.
Then it comes to values in our society, that are highly dominated by money. Try to change that!
In general economical processes are very complex, not for a computer scientists to understand (sorry for my skepticism). I have a suspicion that nobody understands them in general. I would suggest you, who seems to be so eager to make the world better to create a modern philosophy of living (like you know, modern sports karate). It should be based on minimalistic kind of living aiming at people having lots of time, feeling good and having little money. Then you have to live like that and involve more people. A good starting example is "craggers"
For many people (including me) it is important to have an answer to the question "why do I live?". I believe there is no universal answer. Everyone should find it for himself. No, "living in peace" is not an answer, it is just a situation, when this question comes very frequently. In hard times we are led by our instincts and beliefs, but when everything is alright the instincts are silent and there is no need in beliefs. I totally agree that this society is built up on consumerism and it won't be easy to change. If I have a chance I will try :)
Actually, the answer is as simple as the question. I came across it quite recently - in my lv diary. Since in fundamental level we are beings whose survival is dependent on ability to breed, then the meaning of life is to create as many descendants as possible, raise them with our best efforts and provide them the best conditions so that they could create as many descendants as possible. Your role in this is to enjoy yourself during this process as much as possible :), because anyway most of our wishes are somewhat loosely related to this scenario.
From the perspective, that we are animals yes, the more kids you have got (especially if with different women), the better worker for your lady boss Evolution you are. But somehow humans position themselves above animals and play according to different rules, a different game. As long as we play this other game, there are no clear rules, but you got to play. If you quit (suicide), you die of course. Many would pay for the rule book at least, because it is not easy to find out everything on your own.
As for the beliefs, I would say it is the opposite. When you are safe and warm, you start to search for the rule book and play the game, you remember that there should be some goals of the game. When you are hungry and fight for survival, you are back in the game of evolution, you need no explanations what life is, because you can see what death is.
A wonderful post, and I'm so very happy that my life has led me in opposite directions from your experiences:
- I have learned that especially when times are hard, we question the meaning of our life so as to create a sturdy foundation in order to weather the next storm
- Of the hundreds of folks I've interviewed on 'the meaning', fortunately, no one equated the question to a slow poison. Actually, just the opposite. Asking yourself the question, finding your answer, and living faithfully by that answer is the cure that ails us.
- Why we go to war? When we do find peace, we don't trust it. We choose to listen to Ego (power, greed, etc.) which causes the chaos. A better way is to trust Spirit.
And that's where, my friend, we agree (yea!) We do need to learn how to live in peace and freedom, and in a society that values meaning versus the almighty dollar.
As we are all learning, taking the easy way is not the answer.
Thank you for sharing your food-for-thought ideas...
take care,
Louise Lewis, author
No Experts Needed: The Meaning of Life According to You!
FREE gift (pdf) copy at: www.noexpertsneeded.com
Hmm, I'm on the fence right now - to call that comment a spam or gibberish...
yes indeed!
Unfortunately Americans have got a completely other view of the world. Probably feeling on the top of the world makes the difference. But the world is unfortunately flat, and they seem not to know aboot it!
Anyway we should either close the discussion or extract some main issues we should agree on:
1) when people start to think about/search for the meaning ?
(imho it is when they have it too good, food and shelter provided, nothing else for the brain to do, proven experimentally)
2) What are possible answers to the q "Why do I live?".
Firstly we should discuss the complexity of the problem and downgrade it to some HW problem like "Why a butterfly lives or why a tree grows"
3) As we agree that we live despite knowing the answer or not, maybe it is possible to outline how we should live (dos and don'ts?, don't make wars, make love etc.). It is like finding a way of living which is independent of the answer, best case and worst case scenarios.
Otherwise the topic is too broad and if you get into it, you start writing books :)
To Guoda: My first book will be called "My first and last PhD thesis".
To Louise Lewis: Thank you for sharing your opinion, it gave me some food for thinking.
To everyone: This discussion is quite interesting, but I cannot participate in it a lot - at the moment I have to concentrate on my first book.