The Meaning Of It All

42 has be revised. It's now 62. Ask me why 😎

"This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy. And so the problem remained; lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches. Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.” The Late Great DNA said it best.

veritanuda

This perspective is distinctly one belonging to the "educated class". It is in no way intuitively clear to someone who has had little or no exposure to thinking beyond meeting the demands of daily existence. So, before this perspective can become widespread and "obvious" to all, we must first raise everyone up from subsistence living (without killing the planet), and ensure access to a diverse education.

BobC

I believe we are ancient spiritual beings seeking a physical experience, and that is the only meaning which is up to the individual to decide what that is.

Dr Andy Hill

Hear, hear! Always look forward to your musings, Fran. "Be decent to one another, and be adequate to yourself." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Are we not products of our upbringing? We're taught what has meaning and value by our parents, and by observing the world around us, as we grow from a helpless infant to adulthood. We're just animals after all. Like other living things, we appear to be pre-programmed with a self-preservation instinct. That seems to be the foundation, and because we have evolved to be so "smart" we tend to look to others to help define and justify our existence. Intelligence, as we measure it, isn't automatically equate to our ability to be empathetic, patient or understanding. Many years ago, I was amazed that the Nazi high command being tried at Nuremberg after the war were given IQ tests and just about all of them had scores WAY above average. Huh? As a child I figured Nazis were just a bunch of German rednecks with room temperature IQs who got off on power and killing. So being "smart" is NOT connected directly to the traits we would consider "accepting" or "understanding" in any way. We don't even know how our own brains work to the electrochemical level where memories are created and stored. We can see electrical activity via modern medical scanners, but that's only half the equation. Is my "reality" the same as yours? I can't know. This is such a broad questions that humans have been theorizing and writing about ever since we could chisel symbols on stones. I know what I expect from myself and that is I'm not "superior" to anyone. Everyone gets a fair chance with me even if others have spoken ill of them regularly. Being generous with knowledge, like you do so well, is important to me. Trying NOT to be judgemental of people who are different than me is important. Even when I work with customers from Islamic nations on military projects, I find they have the same priorities as I do, but just in a different flavor. They love their families, just like we do. When I asked a few of them how their media portrayed us, I got "Rodney King". 20 years after that happened. Sad. I told them our media portrayed them as evil fundamentalists that force their women to wear burkas and walk ten paces behind the man. They really laughed at that and told me "Yeah, but 5 seconds after we are home, that burka is off and guess who rules the house?" So we misinform ourselves through our media and for some reason we like to hear bad news more than good. The nightly news is all about "bad" until they run the three minute "smiler" at the end of the half hour to help you cheer up after watching 37 minutes of how things don't work or are dramatically bad. We seem designed from birth to assign meaning and purpose to people and things in our world. Without that instinct, why would we even bother to wake up each morning? OK, I think this is the most disorienting, incoherent rant I've ever written. Rolling eyes and a laugh are welcome!

Matt Wietlispach

Stoics have a good outlook. Saw this Picasso quote for the first time this week: "The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."

LivingInTheNow

As Alan Kay said, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." I guess one could also say "The best way to have meaning in life is to make your own." I'm up for that.

Dan Swinehart

In the TV (movie?) version of the saga, the computer (reconstituted Earth) coughed up the question: What is the product of 6 and 9?

Dan Swinehart

You’re one of the few people out there who’s not afraid to express a lack of meaning or purpose in life without making it a tragedy. I remember walking to work one day and realising that there was no intrinsic meaning or purpose to life, and it was immensely satisfying and freeing. Had to stop for a bit. Kind of the opposite of an epiphany. Life’s a gift (from nobody), and the only worthwhile thing to do is to do one’s bit to reduce suffering.

Mark Wilkes

The answer is 42, the problem is we don't know what the question is.

David Peaker

Hi Fran, you sailed into this post having not defined your definition of meaning. Would you do that please?

Instead of some alien threat from outer space to unite us, I have often hoped that we might find some evidence to indicate to a high certainty that we are ALONE; that we are all there is of intelligent life. Maybe, just maybe, we would start valuing each other as the rare miracles that we are.

Carol K Stouffer