On August 09 2012 02:30 Odoakar wrote: There really isn't any meaning to capitalism. We wake up every morning, go do our 8-10 hours shift, come back home, eat, sleep. Rinse, repeat.
fixed it for you
edit: If you'll read Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition (which I highly recommend), you will discover that what you are referring to is the meaninglessness of "labor" (animal laborans) as opposed to "work" (homo faber). It is in the nature of capitalism to reduce all work to labor, which is purely metabolic (as opposed to work, which is something lasting). This is why we speak of artistic production as "content," as it exists only in order to justify the box.
Don't worry once you get older it will become apparent how unrealistic everything Rand ever said was.
Anyway I'm surprised you know many people who know what they want in life at 20, all through college (and after) you will constantly meet people who have no idea what they're doing and still searching. I wrestled with that question for a long time, I remember being 18-22 and looking around at the people who just knew what they wanted to do and were doing it. I was really jealous of it, because I just wanted something I could put my whole being into and go for.
Ultimately I wouldn't try to worry about it too much, but spend effort doing new things and learning new skills and hobbies because you will be surprised at the directions your interests take when you put effort towards expanding what you're capable of as a person. I know people who have had a singular goal in life since they were 2 and I know people who didn't figure it out until their 40s. I've never been extremely passionate about anything except dudes playing video games and things worked out okay for me, I worked hard at it because it's all I wanted to do and an opportunity presented itself to do just that.
On August 09 2012 02:30 Odoakar wrote: There really isn't any meaning to life. We wake up every morning, go do our 8-10 hours shift, come back home, eat, sleep. Rinse, repeat.
Depressing ain't it. We're all looking for something to change in our lives to make truly happy. I mean leisure activities are great and all, but eventually you get tired of it. When I lay in bed at night after another typical work day, the usual routine at the gym, and a little bit of games and chatting over skype with friends... just wonder what would life be if I had one strong passion towards something that I would think about every waking moment I would have.
That passion to create something that really makes you feel like you've fulfilled your quest in self-actualization ya know. But that will never come to us, we always have to chase after it of course. If you can't find that feeling in what you're doing now, then it's time to move on to something else. It's too bad that student loans are such a nasty burden in life after college =_=. Even if you find a great job it's always on your mind. So if you aren't happy with what you're doing right now, too bad your stuck with it because you have to make ends meet and save up for you next endeavor.
Meaning of Life (brought to you by Monty Python): 'Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then,get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.'
On August 08 2012 20:38 DigiGnar wrote: The meaning of life is to pass on your genes. Simple as that. I mean, why do you think chicks even have orgasms? For fun? No, because it increases the chance of getting pregnant.
it's so unbelievably bizarre that we just all found ourselves here. i think the most reasonable course of action then is to try my best to enjoy it. having an objective is kinda like having found meaning, right?
The Purpose of Purpose by Dawkins. He's a biologist, dabbles in the metaphysical, in a lot of debates, etc.
He basically asserts that "Why?" is a silly question to ask about life. As humans, we want to attribute purpose to it, but it's really a silly sentiment. Really good watch if you have an hour.
Hey everyone, I decided to post here and see what everyone's opinion was on this:
Recently a 5-year friend of mine decided to quit everything and become a pastor. While this was a shock to all of his friends and family, it got me thinking. He's the 3rd of my friends that knows exactly what he wants to do in life by the age of 20 and has a extremely specific plan for it all.
Me on the other hand, I have no idea what I want to do. I have no idea what I'm good at. I don't have any ONE thing that I'm extremely passionate about. Do you think that it's a bad thing that I'm completely lost at the moment, or do you feel like in time everything will become clear. Is there a possibility that maybe not everyone is meant to have and do the one thing that they are extremely passionate about for the rest of their life?
Thanks guy. Always know that the TL community is there when you need them.
Op
Ive been there, i feel like my whole life that ive been searching for something that im passionate about. In my opinion i just havent found it yet, that or there are so many things that i enjoy doing that not one activity dominates the others. Its just when other people describe their passions it never feels the same to me. Ive never shared that feeling of wanting to do only one thing for the rest of my life.
I would say, keep trying new things, you never know what you will find tomorrow.
It wasn't long after I discovered Starcraft that I pursued my lifelong dream of Creation. Since 1999 I have devoted all of my energy and being to bringing my worlds to life. From modding to writing to voice acting to music and 3d modeling. But because of my disabilities, my skills have never improved past entry level in anything I've ever done. Years of fighting depression and lethargy gradually destroyed my passion and desire to try to fight on, and for the last 2-3 years I have done absolutely nothing but waiting to die. Was I wrong to devote to my dreams? I do not believe so.
Sometimes there is no meaning to life, and often you may find any dreams you did have are inaccessible to you. The importance is to make the moment bearable. I stopped thinking about the future and only about the moment. I have never lived, and will never live, a happy life. Being content is all I can ask for. If I can manage that, then for the moment I am stable. Through stability and balance I hope to find peace before the end. I won't, but it's all I have to hope for.
On August 08 2012 21:53 paralleluniverse wrote: The meaning of life? The economists have it right, the meaning of life is utility maximization.
As for figuring out what you want to do with your life, you're better off being lost then being a pastor.
Oh yeah? I disagree. What an ignorant post >.> just because you aren't religious (or whatever you are, atheist, or otherwise) doesn't mean everybody feels the same way. I would much rather do what makes me happy than be "lost." If that's being a pastor, janitor, engineer, or CEO of Apple, it beats being lost.
If I sensed some sarcasm I wouldn't respond like this, but I don't.
Life has no innate meaning. We're animals that have evolved to be pretty intelligent (compared to other animals, at least), on a single planet in a universe that is almost incomprehensibly big which we only dimly understand. We have about 80 or so revolutions around the sun on this little ball of rock and water, and then we return to the nonexistent state we were in for the past 13 or so billion years. Much of your life was determined when you were born (where, when, to who, etc) and by what your genes are, and you've been shaped by so many outside forces and even today (and probably for the rest of your life) you are being push around by society in ways that you perhaps don't realize.
So don't worry about life's "meaning", just enjoy it. Do something useful for the future, or drink the day away - they're both equally valid choices. As long as you're fulfilled no one can say that you've wasted your life. Don't know what to do? That's ok too, and don't be in any rush either - you've got you whole life to figure out your place. Even if you go to bed on the last day of your life unsure of your past, of who you are and who you could have been, take comfort knowing that every day huge numbers of your fellow homo sapiens struggle with the same thing. You've been given the gift of existence for a few years, experience it and enjoy it, don't live in fear of it.
On August 08 2012 21:53 paralleluniverse wrote: The meaning of life? The economists have it right, the meaning of life is utility maximization.
As for figuring out what you want to do with your life, you're better off being lost then being a pastor.
Oh yeah? I disagree. What an ignorant post >.> just because you aren't religious (or whatever you are, atheist, or otherwise) doesn't mean everybody feels the same way. I would much rather do what makes me happy than be "lost." If that's being a pastor, janitor, engineer, or CEO of Apple, it beats being lost.
If I sensed some sarcasm I wouldn't respond like this, but I don't.
as Rome: Total War has always said, priests can devote 50% of their life to their god and 50% to being useful.
You're born, you live and you die. When you're born, you get a name, a secret true name that nobody else knows. You spend that lifetime learning it, the angles and curves of it; you learn to inhabit it, you learn who you are. You become acquainted with its delicacy, its beauty, the lapidary outline of a soul. And sometimes, when things are bad, fate asks you to put that name away, somewhere safe, locked up tight, so that it will stay clean. Behind a door in a room you never knew about. There are no do-overs. No second chances to make things right if you frak them up the first time. You make your choices and you live with them, and in the end, you are those choices. And if you believe your name is gone forever, that your hands are too dirty to retrieve it, you could fool yourself that it's gone forever. That you've given it away and damned yourself. I don't agree. Innocent is not the same as not guilty, and fixed is not the same as unbroken. The day everything gets so terribly awesome that you can rest forever, without a single rough patch coming on the road: that's a long wait. Best to take your chance when you can, to reclaim the light inside what you are, and what you've proven capable of becoming. To make the long walk back, from the altar to the temple. Better to find the best ending possible; to hit the end of line and skip down to the next, to straddle that salt, that end of line, like poetry. Better to hear the angel, begging you to step across: into the new shape, into the story to come.
oh well I associate my meaning of life with death. When I will be old and be thinking I have left nothing more to do and pass out with a smile on the face. I think meaning of life is to learn learn learn so that in afterlife you would know something, as there will be no books or internet for sure.
EPT
