(Best viewed in Internet Explorer)
some basics
There is a strange line that I feel that I have always been walking since about the 7th grade. About that time I started wondering what the point of everything was. I'd stare at the stars at night and feel exceptionally small and think about how in this large system my existence meant nothing. And then, I'd think about what difference it would make if I were exceptionally huge or somehow near immortal or otherwise different. I determined that all value is arbitrarily created.
Given that, I had to find values for myself in order to stop myself from committing suicide.
Here are some things that I came up with:
#1: I can't commit suicide because doesn't change the nature of the problems of existence. If I committed suicide it wouldn't change anything and I would lose my chance to explore as much as I could before death.
#2: Good and evil are concepts people made to create order to ease their anxieties about living.
#3: I am ultimately responsible for all of my existence, regardless of whether I want to be. Ignoring this fact changes nothing.
#4: Drug-use and other behaviors that encourage people to stop analyzing their lives and existing mindlessly negates existence. In this sense, avoiding responsibility and embracing escapism is a form of cognitive suicide.
#5: Happiness is only achieved when working towards something that isn't finished yet. Otherwise life has become machinated and ceases to be life.
#6: Values are built by desiring ideals and striving for them. We choose our ideals based on experience, exposure, and reflection.
Given these things, I have spent many, many hours considering how to choose a meaningful lifestyle. I knew right away that being creative is part of a meaningful lifestyle. However, I also started to feel as though lives are increasingly too complicated which actually hinders living a meaningful life. As things grow over-complicated we fall into machine-mode.
There are lots of things that clog our lives, and certainly what we buy is a huge part of that. We live in a culture obsessed with owning things, and I have a hard time balancing what I should actually want to get and what is extra crap that just takes up space. How can you tell?
Certain things make sense to me... the utilitarian value of clothes and food. I justify musical instruments and equipment since I use them to be creative. Same with books... though I have a lot of books that I haven't read yet. But what about other things?
I'm not sure, but I try to keep in the back of my head questions about whether I'm really buying something that is helping my existence or not. Sometimes I just don't really know. But I think, at least, there is value in asking.
Given that, I had to find values for myself in order to stop myself from committing suicide.
Here are some things that I came up with:
#1: I can't commit suicide because doesn't change the nature of the problems of existence. If I committed suicide it wouldn't change anything and I would lose my chance to explore as much as I could before death.
#2: Good and evil are concepts people made to create order to ease their anxieties about living.
#3: I am ultimately responsible for all of my existence, regardless of whether I want to be. Ignoring this fact changes nothing.
#4: Drug-use and other behaviors that encourage people to stop analyzing their lives and existing mindlessly negates existence. In this sense, avoiding responsibility and embracing escapism is a form of cognitive suicide.
#5: Happiness is only achieved when working towards something that isn't finished yet. Otherwise life has become machinated and ceases to be life.
#6: Values are built by desiring ideals and striving for them. We choose our ideals based on experience, exposure, and reflection.
Given these things, I have spent many, many hours considering how to choose a meaningful lifestyle. I knew right away that being creative is part of a meaningful lifestyle. However, I also started to feel as though lives are increasingly too complicated which actually hinders living a meaningful life. As things grow over-complicated we fall into machine-mode.
There are lots of things that clog our lives, and certainly what we buy is a huge part of that. We live in a culture obsessed with owning things, and I have a hard time balancing what I should actually want to get and what is extra crap that just takes up space. How can you tell?
Certain things make sense to me... the utilitarian value of clothes and food. I justify musical instruments and equipment since I use them to be creative. Same with books... though I have a lot of books that I haven't read yet. But what about other things?
I'm not sure, but I try to keep in the back of my head questions about whether I'm really buying something that is helping my existence or not. Sometimes I just don't really know. But I think, at least, there is value in asking.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home