To Live Meaninglessly May Be The Only Hope for Mankind

“Let’s face the truth. Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer, says Joseph Campbell. I think we should stop asking ourselves existential questions. In order to escape the brain’s complexity, let’s start asking ourselves these simple questions instead: What meaning do I give to my life? What is the purpose of my life? What is most important to me in my life? What are my deepest values and beliefs? Adding purpose and values is the only way to live a meaningful life.” Read more: http://www.exposingthetruth.co/what-is-the-meaning-of-life/#ixzz2czGwh87Q

This author appears to conclusively answer the ultimate question and claims that the answer is the “truth” that we must “face.” Yet, the author then goes about negating that very truth she claims we must “face” by suggesting we should construct our own relative meanings by “adding purpose and value.”

Wait. What?

How is that “facing truth”? Is it not realistic to state that, if life has NO meaning, then to live as though it does is to live a lie? If this is true then everything that egocentrica mammalians do, other than eat shit, sleep, fuck and die is absolutely meaningless and fictional.

If the truth is that life is meaningless, who are we to alter that fact? If life is meaningless, and this has certainly been the conclusion from centuries of eastern and western philosophy (so it’s easy to see why this author claims it as truth), then why are we not living in complete accord with that truth?

Should we not be living as meaningless a life as possible if, in fact, the truth is that life is absolutely meaningless? Why attach relative meanings to an absolute meaninglessness if they are false?

Could it be that centuries of “bringing meaning to life” has resulted in the current state of affairs in which it has become abundantly apparent that we are progressively hurtling toward our own inevitable doom through a confusing confluence of conflicting meanings all crashing headlong into one another? For a belief to be meaningful it must be defended, else why adhere to it and live by it as meaningful. For every belief defended there is the opposite belief also defended and this creates all manner of havoc.

For instance, we have accused Syria of gassing their own people and thus we find it meaningful to drop bombs and kill people to punish them for killing people, because we believe there is clearly a meaningful difference between killing a thousand people with gas or killing a thousand people with bombs.

It appears that if only life could be absent meaning, we’d all be alot happier.

Possibly, what humanity requires is a little bit of nihilistic meaninglessness, because all our meanings are slowly killing us.

If the truth is that life is meaningless, then who are we to oppose or negate that truth by conjuring up fictionally symbolic meanings that really do nothing to alter the truth whatsoever? Should we not pray to the meaningless and practice rituals that have no purpose?

Note that the author claims that life’s meaninglessness is the truth that we must face. Yet, how does one face that truth and learn from it (enlightenment?), if we’re all running around defending fictional meanings that do nothing to debunk the stark truth that it’s all meaningless? If the truth is that life is meaningless, why pretend it isn’t? Is the way to a meaningful life pretending it’s not meaningless, when in fact that is the truth?

Why would anyone want to live in ways that oppose truth?

However, this raises a question:

Is it even possible to live a meaningless life?

If your life is meaningless, why would you want to live it at all? Are egocentrica mammalians the only species with an innate need to seek out patterns, superimpose meaning upon them and then live as if that were true?

Nature is completely indifferent to your meanings and does whatever it does regardless of what it means to you. It follows a causal order or WILL that can and will easily crush your meaningful fictions like a handful of grapes. No matter how many fictions egocentrics superimpose upon nature, nature is meaningless and exists as such. Nature does not care what you find ugly or beautiful. It is not even aware of your sense of right or wrong and it apparently does not have the slightest inclination to conform to what you consider good or bad etc, etc. Nature kills, but never murders. Although you’re all jiggy with how ‘awesome’ you are, nature couldn’t give two farts in the wind about your self-esteem, your values and morals or protecting your precious “lifestyle.” To nature, you are as meaningless as a baby antelope being ripped to shreds by a pack of hyenas.

So now that we know for certain that life is meaningless (as the above author correctly informs) shouldn’t we find a way to live in conformance with that truth? If it’s all meaningless, then all meanings are equally sheit no matter who believes in them or doesn’t. Hence, if life is meaningless, then there is absolutely no purpose to it, making each and everything you do in your busy day as purposeless as anything else anyone else does. Whether you sit on your butt all day and watch soaps or volunteer to feed the homeless, both are equally of no purpose, simply because life is meaningless. Your life is as meaningless as your death, so why are you struggling to do important things with your life? Or maybe death is more meaningful than life…

Nevertheless, because egocentric mammalia has no free-will, he cannot shake free of his need to make meaningful stories as the universe has so endowed him. Thus, he cannot live a meaningless life and any attempt to do so would be packed with meaning, thereby, negating the purpose of meaninglessness which, obviously, must have no purpose in order to conform to meaninglessness. Hence, to avoid the excruciatingly painful vacuum of empty nothingness (imagine living a life for which the only purpose of that life was to eat, shit, sleep, fuck and die) egocentrica mammalians have spent thousands of years constructing fictions for which to fill that void, regardless of the truth.

And not one of their fictions has ever altered the truth even one tiny bit...

Artwork by Greg Simkins