Lord, what fools these mortals be!
I thought long and hard about a couple of things.
First off, is there a point to any of this?
The unnerving conclusion is a resounding NO.
Why would this be?
We live, grow old, die. We exist in objective and subjective time while we live (I will get to the afterlife in a bit). We eat and sleep and make love. We try to live so we can have a good time. Even the ascetics, they live their lives to maximize their happiness, since they define the fulfillment of their lives by their deprivations.
The days go by, one at a time, while we go to work, eat, sleep, read good books, fuck or lie in the dark crying for the warmth of another. The monotony is horrible for some of us, it leeches the color from our eyes and we become nothing more than automatons for absorbing calories and outputting shit.
Some of us can’t deal bear the monotony of this desert and engage in creative endeavors; we read escapist literature and we write stories or poems. We hide within our imaginations.
Some of us beg God for deliverance.
Some of us beg God for the apocalypse.
In the end, we die.
If there is no afterlife, there is no afterlife. But if there is an afterlife, what do we do once we get there? Does it last FOREVER?
If I am dead, what is the point of a continued existence? To feel good in the presence of God? To REJOICE in his radiance? Those are words without meaning. Maybe if I grew up starving, living forever in a land of plenty would sound pretty good to me.
Maybe heaven is a series of interactive fantasies, kind of like Second Life or World of Warcraft. If you are a World of Warcraft fanatic and you die, and you go to heaven, are you reincarnated as your character?
What about friends?
Can friends or family give meaning to your life? A lover or a wife (or a husband, I suppose)? It’s about memory, leaving fragments in the minds of those who cared for you while you lived. ‘My friend – he is dead now, I miss him’ – these are the thoughts we care to engender, this is the meaning of our lives, at least it is if we choose this interpretation. ‘My love – she is gone now, I miss her’ and you shed tears and you imagine that maybe if there is a heaven you will be with them forever once you die, and this hope of reunification gives you peace.
Children remember you, sometimes even grandchildren, but thereafter your memory fades away and you are gone. A few stories are all that remain of you on the lips of your descendants and then even those disappear.
So there is really no point to this. We can hide in fictional worlds, we can be the most loyal lover or friend in the world, we can pray to or curse the almighty, in the end the traces of one’s presence in this world fade, utterly.
First off, is there a point to any of this?
The unnerving conclusion is a resounding NO.
Why would this be?
We live, grow old, die. We exist in objective and subjective time while we live (I will get to the afterlife in a bit). We eat and sleep and make love. We try to live so we can have a good time. Even the ascetics, they live their lives to maximize their happiness, since they define the fulfillment of their lives by their deprivations.
The days go by, one at a time, while we go to work, eat, sleep, read good books, fuck or lie in the dark crying for the warmth of another. The monotony is horrible for some of us, it leeches the color from our eyes and we become nothing more than automatons for absorbing calories and outputting shit.
Some of us can’t deal bear the monotony of this desert and engage in creative endeavors; we read escapist literature and we write stories or poems. We hide within our imaginations.
Some of us beg God for deliverance.
Some of us beg God for the apocalypse.
In the end, we die.
If there is no afterlife, there is no afterlife. But if there is an afterlife, what do we do once we get there? Does it last FOREVER?
If I am dead, what is the point of a continued existence? To feel good in the presence of God? To REJOICE in his radiance? Those are words without meaning. Maybe if I grew up starving, living forever in a land of plenty would sound pretty good to me.
Maybe heaven is a series of interactive fantasies, kind of like Second Life or World of Warcraft. If you are a World of Warcraft fanatic and you die, and you go to heaven, are you reincarnated as your character?
What about friends?
Can friends or family give meaning to your life? A lover or a wife (or a husband, I suppose)? It’s about memory, leaving fragments in the minds of those who cared for you while you lived. ‘My friend – he is dead now, I miss him’ – these are the thoughts we care to engender, this is the meaning of our lives, at least it is if we choose this interpretation. ‘My love – she is gone now, I miss her’ and you shed tears and you imagine that maybe if there is a heaven you will be with them forever once you die, and this hope of reunification gives you peace.
Children remember you, sometimes even grandchildren, but thereafter your memory fades away and you are gone. A few stories are all that remain of you on the lips of your descendants and then even those disappear.
So there is really no point to this. We can hide in fictional worlds, we can be the most loyal lover or friend in the world, we can pray to or curse the almighty, in the end the traces of one’s presence in this world fade, utterly.
posted by Balázsy András at 9:24 AM
3 Comments:
Bad attitude!It may be true that you will be forgotten but once you are granted approximately 70 years in this universe, you can fill it with pleasures. And if you do not seize the opportunity, you are a fool.
so... there is no point, but I should have a good time while I have the chance? I am willing to consider this version.
I googled my angst and it came up with a parody of some 16 year old moron who was 'convinced he was just a blip on the meaningless plain of existence'; so maybe I should just get over it...
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