I feel it.Leo Lyons wrote: ↑Mon Oct 01, 2018 10:28 amGood reply, thanks.Whack9 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 01, 2018 10:07 amYou're right. We're all going to die. Unless you're historically significant, in a generation or two you'll be entirely forgotten. No one will even know you ever existed. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't aim to improve things for those already here. There's a lot of suffering in the world. We can either throw up our hands, declare it's all for nothing, and become nihilists reveling in the chaos because it's entertaining and lapse into hedonism, or we can do some good and help others and spread some love.
Read it again - Implicit in what you wrote is "me, me, me!" If what someone believes and what they do and why they do it rests on their ego and self centerdness and narcissism, then yeah, what you wrote rings true because you're just going to die anyway. Might as well become a nihilist.
I wouldn't go as far to label myself a total nihilist. I do wonder about our purpose on this f*cked up chunk of rock and water, but I do not reject religious and moral principles. I believe in a Supreme Creator, but I don't go for organized religious gatherings. I have many doubts about Old Testament events, but I leave them alone and leave those who follow them alone. As for morality, I detest immorality and the results I've seen from it.
What I see now and have seen in my years, is the same as will be seen in the future. Nothing will change, people will protest, get their names and pictures in the media, dictators will get richer, waters will still be polluted, three-toed-spotted-horned-swollygiffers will still be headed to extinction, and governments will be still debunking climate change.
"it is appointed unto men once to die"
People like that have always existed and they'll continue to exist.
I think it's our duty to always aim at becoming better versions of ourselves, even if others don't do the same and continue to be shitty. One of the things that gets in the way of this is our egos. We all have it, some more than others. Things don't go out way and we get mad. People are mean towards us or slight us and we get mad. We get into an argument with someone, they say something mean, and we get mad and want vengeance. Sometimes we want vengeance on the world in general. Like they say - "some just like to see the world burn". Most people lack the humility to sometimes step back and say "you know what, I said something mean in a fit of anger and I apologize. I was wrong". Shit man just think about how better things would be if we all had a little more humility? But even then, we're often too worried about our humility not being reciprocated and instead choose to counter with more of the same anger. Can that even be called humility?
I don't personally believe there's any inherent purpose or meaning in life. I don't think it matters whether or not there is, personally. I don't think it matters that the world is ambivalent to our suffering or that the bad guys sometimes win. It shouldn't have any bearing on who we are as people or who we choose to be as people. I know people suffer, and I know it's really shitty to have to suffer. We can choose to better ourselves and others, or we can choose to succumb anger, hatred, jealousy, resentment, cynicism, and nihilism. I don't know man, but my life has been so much more laid back and peaceful and happier since choosing the former and choosing to give up the latter.