/lit/ - Literature

>>4529987
Ecclesiastes

>>4529987

>>4529987
IF life is meaningless, te all that matters is its meaning to YOU personally, in which case, get crackin'!

My life is not meaningless, bro.

So what if its meaningless. You are so self indulgent.

>>4530002
but it truly is....

sure you have a wife and kids, but on a macro scale, you are nothing, as am i

>>4529987

>>4530008
On a macro scale, we are all parts of this giant universe. Nature abhors a vacuum, and we each fill it up.

>>4530007
what reason is there not to be self indulgent?
Disregarding solipsism, you are the only one that matters

>>4529987
Read some Heidegger or Nietzsche, enjoy either dwelling poetically or imposing your own virtue and meaning onto the world.

Either that, or become a Christian if you believe in a creator, which isn't all that of a bad choice. You're here to witness the world and share it with God, and get to deal with the immense burden of living in Christ's footsteps. Read some Aquinas and maybe some C.S. Lewis or something.

I distinctly remember hearing about a book that discussed what it actually meant to "live like Christ" and that it was weighty decision that involved a lot of trouble. I feel like it's something Lewis would write, but I can't find anything by him like that.

I don't care when I'm high

>>4529996
this chart should be updated and expanded

>>4529987
>A hedonistic approach cannot be the answer, can it?
actually yeah

>>4530053
Very much so, yeah.

i couldn't care less about meaning, it's basically useless to me

>>4530021
> you are the only one that matters

Have some compassion. Also who are you, or what are if you, if not for the sun or the grains of rice from asia?

>>4529987
>A hedonistic approach cannot be the answer, can it?

I thought it was at first, but even that gets old pretty fast.

>>4530000
But nothing matters to me personally to the point of filling up my life with meaning. Sure, I enjoy doing some things, but ultimately I'm always left facing the void every single day, when I'm not distracting myself with something. It didn't use to be like this and I don't know what changed in me for it to be so.

>>4530067
You will always face the void. Everything is subject to impermanence, unsatisfactorines and emptiness.

Knowing and realizing this fully, you should chill out and enjoy the ride.

>>4530058
>useless to me
And yet you used your cognitive faculties in constructing a meaningful sentence to communicate your thought. That's useful right there.

>>4530082
this seems a lot easier said than done

>>4530089
Yeah. It takes discipline to throw everything away into the three pits.

You can hone this in meditation.

How do you feel that you life is meaningless. Mine has meaning. I am a crusader of education in America, i will change the face of this country with effective education along side millions of new teachers.

>>4530102
Untill it all falls down.

>>4529990
I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

>>4530106
My job is to be part of the people who prevent it from falling until as a people we can find a solution. You can die trying or you can live and die for nothing.

Stand for something or fall for nothing. The founding fathers were right. If you are not willing to die for the people, you are not willing to live for the people.

>>4530086
you know what i mean you fat ugly nerd

>>4530008
No, it isn't. Meaning is not something inherent to things, it is a bond that is created. Nothing lasts forever and nothing embraces it all, but that doesn't mean in any way that my life is meaningless. Meaninglessness is a something you experience, as much as you experience a meaningful moment. And I don't have it with me. I look forward to things to do, people to see, things to know, things to feel, ideas that I need to get out, things I'm yet to meet and so on. There is a reason for me to do things, a reason for me to get up in the morning. It's not an eternal, universal, all encompassing reason that will grant me infinite meaningfulness, but the thing is, why would one expect it to be so? Our search for meaning is a way for one to guarantee that what we have is the real thing, that it will last, that this is all not just for nothing. It is, ultimately, a desire to live a real life. But while the discovery that it is all an illusion, that everything has an end might sound like a pessimistic one, we must try to understand why we ever expected this to be on a "macro scale". We look for some immortal meaningfulness, why we neglect the mortal but (because it is mortal) very much alive meaningful life we can experience today. It may sound contradictory at first, but it is the very realization of the ultimate meaninglessness that one comes to appreciate real meaningfulness. The real thing is here and now.

>>4529987

Meaningless to who faggot?

To you? That doesn't seem unbearable.

>>4530000
kill yourself butterfly

>>4529987
I just do things I like doing, really.
For me, the whole life being meaningless thing is a ''struggle'' I've dealth with when I was about 15-18.
Right now the thing that fucks me over is the feeling that I've wasted years of my life because I haven't lived up to the social norm, which for some inexplicable reason I care very deeply about.
Although I have decent reasons for not being the regular kid (depression followed by suicide, drug abuse (not me), failing school, etc.) and therefore not living up to the social norm, I've had amazing ammounts of fun during my so called ''wasted years'', but I still often feel it haunting me. Maybe it's because I'm finally studying at uni at age 22 while my classmates are mostly 17-19, so I always fear I have to explain why I'm older than the rest and my answer is always something along the lines of: ''high school took me forever''
This feeling only strikes me sometimes though.. Luckily..

Sorry for the diary post.

>>4530115
You can have these aspirations. But they will inevitably crumble. The key is to be able to survive and protect yourself from the inevitable end, and stay level headed.

>>4530166
You clearly do not understand the power of unity

Why would I have to deal with it?

>working at a library
>guy borrows a book on suicide
>he never returns it
asshole

Absurdism

>>4530115
>Stand for something or fall for nothing.

Yeah, you're the reason our education is so terrible.

>>4530236
What the fuck are you talking about?

you do not grasp the immensity of something great til it is looked at in it's entirety.

What works for me is that I look at the bigger picture. Look at the sky at night, the stars and the moon, and the currently invisible Sun. Now expand that view; you're in a huge galaxy, inside of a huge cluster of galaxies, and those are hovering in an empty space filled with absolutely nothing but meandering energy that lurks from the big bang. Now come back to Earth, and think, for instance, that you feel sad and depressed, and you feel like dying.

Will the Universe care if you die?
Will the starts come down from heaven to make you feel better?
Will the sun shine during the night just so you can stay awake a little bit longer and not cry yourself to sleep?

No. It won't.

We're small pieces of nothing, to paraphrase Alan Moore in Watchmen, we are "events so fast and so small you could barely say they happened at all". The whole planet could disappear tomorrow, and nothing and no one would care. God isn't real, so there is nothing you can do to stop death and to avoid the general meaninglessnes of life.

You are nothing. And as such, you must relish and embrace that you are nothing. We have so little time on this world, that we have nothing to do but appreciate it, and make it the best we can. We are all gonna die, so, the way I see it, we should make our brief existance as enjoyable and as free and as loving as we can.

By this I don't mean you have to be a hedonistic SOB, I'm saying that you must enjoy every single day, every single second, make peaces with everyone who once hurt you and whom you once hurt. Life is shit, but we have more than enough capacity to make it worthwhile.

Life is meaningless, but that only opens an oportunity to give it a meaning.

Read up some Camus, it'll cheer you up and make you think.

You devote your life to great works. This doesn't seem like it will help you, but it gives you structure and can strengthen the unique qualities of your character (which risk degrading in procrastination and reflection).

>>4530053
But the basics are correct, so-and-so.

>>4529987
>undeniable truth your life is meaningless
>undeniable

I deny it. Meaning is socially constructed. Most nihilism is predicated on socially constructed meaning somehow being meaningless. It's a confusion.

>>4529987
The desire for meaning itself is still part of a religious approach to life. When you're starting to accept Nihil Reich, the yearning for meaning, for a fixed approach, for a ready made reductionist world view (such as being a card carrying hedonist, for example) starts to fade, until after a while the idea of a meaning to life starts to look absurd to you.

The need for an answer stems from the stubborn habit of asking misguided questions, which is the aftermath of our cultural history.

>>4530086
Too bad life is not a sentence, innit?

>>4529987
but everything is hedonism in some form

>>4530621
Psychological hedonism is something wholly different from normative hedonism though. Even if the former is true, the latter isn't necessarily the answer. There's a good possibility that the direct search for pleasure and happiness doesn't actually maximise pleasure and happiness.

>>4530049
I care more when I'm high. Isn't that funny?

>>4530273
Can you talk more about the degradation that comes with procrastination and reflection? Have you had an experience with the above mentioned?

>>4530273
must not degrade the unique qualities of our characters! ought not!

>>4530591
This. The desire for meaning only comes when one is imbalanced. That is to say replacing necessary action with unnecessary reflection. It may have been a reactionary impulse to the non-thinking and non-reflecting common folk, or it may have been caused by something else. Who knows?

>>4529987
OP, are you still around?

>>4530065
poetry

>>4530055
This
>>4530067
>I thought it was at first, but even that gets old pretty fast.
If something is getting old, switch it up. Do for others. Study something. Travel. Doing something. Ethical-Hedonism, Epicureanism, isn't about indulging in the Seven Deadly Sins.
Suicide? That's committing to the inevitable end early. A very sad choice.
>>4530089
You're on a roller-coaster. You cannot get off of it till the end. It's as easy as sitting there till it's over.
>>4530130
Wasn't me Zeta. Other's know the truth.
>>4530167
He's just a fatalist. Mankind isn't finished yet.

>>4530122
If you're talking about meaning as something arising from the value judgments made by conscious observers, you're more avoiding the question posed by OP than answering it. You're just saying "shit makes me feel emotions, therefore meaning", which really isn't that different from the so-called "hedonistic approach" (which is really more of a broad variety of 'approaches). I get what you're driving at, but this isn't how you get through to neurotic existential faggots.

OP:
You're human. Shit is finite. Nothing really "matters" in any substantive universal way. Whatever. Do whatever you want. Some of us can get some sort of fulfillment through living our lives. Sometimes it takes willful blindness to make it that way, but unless you're the sort of guy who's disposed to off himself, that's pretty much the only way to live a decent life. Try and focus on and be grateful for what you have in the day-to-day, if you decide you want to live after all. It'll make your life a hell of a lot easier, at least. Maybe if you're young, you're having some trouble with this, or feeling depressed. For most people, it gets a lot easier. Reconcile your nature. Struggle. Or off yourself. It's fine. Most people won't care. If you think you'd break the hearts of those you believe you love if you killed yourself, I personally hope you don't do it.

There's plenty of art for you to enjoy, plenty of pretty girls for you to look at and touch, and plenty of interesting places and things for you to see and do. Take mushrooms, drop acid. If you decide you want to chill with the rest of us here in the human realm, try not to be a downer all the time, and try to do as much crazy shit as you can while maintaining some semblance of personal well-being.
The mute universe encompasses you and me, and everything else that we'll ever see and not see. Your status as a conscious observer isn't even certain. Nothing is really certain. Shit's fine.

Have a blast, kid. Maybe we'll meet on the street one day, maybe the dust that once comprised our bodies will mingle among the stardust when there's nobody left to mark the time. Maybe I'll see you in the smoke when there are no nostrils left to distinguish us. When that day comes, I'll show you some affection in whatever way I can, because I've had the thoughts you have, and for some reason, that makes me care about you.

Peace out.
<3

After the initial near-suicide phase I just stopped caring. I almost immediately came out of my depression, lost weight and have become a much less awkward person since.
I almost killed myself, so I'm not sure I'd recommend it for anyone, but it did me wonders.

>>4529987
>How do you deal with the undeniable truth that your life is meaningless?
By not giving a fuck. It's easy, just try it.

>>4530130
What?

>>4530704
"Am I really all the things that are outside of me
Will I complete myself without the things I like around?
Does the music that I make play on my awkward face?
Do you appreciate the subtleties of taste, bud?"

Bump cause hilarious

>>4530715
how so?

>>4529996
I really hate this chart's categorization and explanation of absurdism.

"Go kill an arab" makes me mad every time I see it.

>>4530724
>no fun allowed

>>4530737
Considering how the chart is meant to be a guide for beginners, it might really throw people off once they read The Stranger.

>>4530737
>being a retard
>fun
yea

>>4530012
Accurately describes the condition but I was never particularly convinced by his solution

>>4530763
I quite agree. The pleasures of Proper Literature do not come so easily.

>>4529987
'Will to Suicide' by Hieronymus von Dunklicht

Be happy and try not to make others unhappy while you're at it.

>>4530000

Truth is meaning, contradiction being the opposite. If what is true is what is true to some subject and not another then there is a contradiction, therefore what is true cannot be derived 'subjectively'.

In fact, we should ask first, where do you draw the line between subjective and objective? If we draw the line at the natural limitation, that what is subjective concerns some subject, then what is subjective is what may be described by some or many predicates while not itself providing an account of some other thing. So, it seems that a subject is a kind of substance.

If a subject is a kind of substance, then a human subject is a secondary substance, since it exists in the world and is different from it. The human substance in general then can be described by its predicates and those particular predicates used in exclusion of other animals. From this we may arrive at what is elemental to the human substance and what is its excellence. From the general human substance we then turn to some particular human subject, perhaps starting with one's own self. Then we ask: "Am I excellent?"

I don't have any books to recommend, but please dont kill yourself, okay? You'll find meaning, and if not, it's totally okay to just live. You don't know the impact you have on the people around you.

>>4531350
that's a pathetic reason to live. otherwise it'll make other people sad. boo hoo

>>4531355
Edgy, selfish and naive. Suicide due to emotional problems is never the answer.

I'm on Cormac McCarthy's side that even if there isn't a universal "point" to living there's no need to be miserable. I know, I know, someone's going to point out that this sounds out of place for McCarthy but I think he's right. Two things I'd urge you to read are

1. This is Water by David Foster Wallace. Given that this is 4Chan I assume you won't want to agree with most of what he says here but as an adult I think he's more or less spot on.

2. Suicide by Edouard Leve - You'll probably like this. This book is a fantastic meditation on suicide and after handing the book in to be printed the author killed himself.

You gotta make your own meaning out here though. I don't think any more pleading from some anonymous person online's going to change your mind but that's how it is. I think the root of finding meaning in one's life often lies in caring about something more than yourself and while one can always cynically say that something like really loving writing and creating a detailed work that one can get lost in tracing all the intertextual structures is ultimately meaningless over an infinite amount of time you have to come to terms with that. I can't find the quotation but I think Milan Kundera said that every great work comes out of a blind strive for immortality and I think he's right. If you worry about dying all the time you'll never really take any of the chances needed to be happy. Also this is one of the basic ideas in Fight Club that are absolutely right. "First you've gotta know, - not fear, know - that someday you're gonna die." Not that you have to be happy about it but you do have to get over it.

I often think this is the undeniable truth, but lately I 've been thinking I'm just trying to justify my lazyness an my own procrastination.
Does anyone feels the same?

>How do you deal with the undeniable truth that your life is meaningless?
You don't know that. You only feel you do.

>>4531366
Fuck off with that suicide is selfish tripe.

>>4531397
It's not debatable.

>>4531397
Spoiler: that poster is right.

>>4531401
nope

>>4531396
I should add as a postscript: I've found that reading and learning more as a means of quite possibly looking at the situation from a different way to be immensely more satisfactory to nihilistic despair.

Crack open the books, OP.

>>4530704
>If you're talking about meaning as something arising from the value judgments made by conscious observers, you're more avoiding the question posed by OP than answering it. You're just saying "shit makes me feel emotions, therefore meaning", which really isn't that different from the so-called "hedonistic approach" (which is really more of a broad variety of 'approaches). I get what you're driving at, but this isn't how you get through to neurotic existential faggots.
No, that's not really what I'm getting at. Meaningfulness is, by definition a relationship, not an object. What people seek when they search for meaning is a relationship, not a thing. It's not a "judgement" either. Values derive from it,not the other way around. And it's far, far from hedonism, which I condemn.

So, no, no, that's not even slightly close to what I was trying to say. And I answered OP in a quite direct way, bro.

>>4531397
It almost always is.

>>4531514
Having children is selfish. Suicide is just balancing the books, provided you don't have offspring yourself.

>>4531514
Expecting someone to live for your enjoyment is a lot more selfish.

With my handy pal, autism, my life will never be meaningless.
Is a painting hung crooked? Fix it. Ahh, that felt good.

Find meaning in the act of OCD(And do not insulate yourself from the chaotic world outside) and you'll never run out of paintings crooked wall-hangings to fix, syllables to count, or odds to even up. Alternately you may have your autism focused on a "productive" task such as writing, fine art, music, cooking, or coding.

Can't keep satisfied with this minutia?
You need more autism.

pick ur nose

Strive to make your life art.

Nihilism isn't a bad thing. Embrace it. You got over the lack of Santa, you'll get over the lack of meaning as well.

I don't know why anyone cares that your life is meaningless all that brooding is just going to make you feel like shit.

the last messiah - peter wessel zapffe
http://s10742.chomikuj.pl/File.aspx?e=EMiu2hS1-o2Ue-yDwn5uErTN8sBcRs5W74kUfBaRAKqfp4SBKEmWIM9X7vUxGeYE1eisTgtOdN_e8WNqvrnKy9l8vwzuhjSxKVixHHVxixxH-s08nwduOHkvAtRFwuw-AbZj97Rz1L_jlNgOwk3EH6nRysuUYaz-YW1OhU8cJof1mj4IeQechahAdg7MpvQr&pv=2
great essay that i found strangely comforting and uplifting.
he argues that theres four repressional mechanisms: isolation, anchoring, distraction, and sublimation. once one has destroyed all four, one does not have any other choice but to kill oneself. He therefore argues that the notion of "suicidalness" as a sickness is wrong, its just an symtom of the humans overdeveloped brain.
great read, beautifully written and, in some weird way, very upliftning.

>>4532472
"The tragedy of a species becoming unfit for life by over-evolving one ability is not confined to humankind. Thus it is thought, for instance, that certain deer in paleontological times succumbed as they acquired overly-heavy horns. The mutations must be considered blind, they work, are thrown forth, without any contact of interest with their environment.

In depressive states, the mind may be seen in the image of such an antler, in all its fantastic splendour pinning its bearer to the ground."

>>4529987
videogames, in that world I am someone important.

Life is not meaningless. However the meaning it does hold is solely and entirely intrinsic.

>>4529987

>meaning
>exclusively human concept as far as can be surmised
>life
>meaningless
>because we can't find absolute manifestation of a concept
>life is meaningless because the reality of a concept in my owm mind isn't enough for me

No, I think you mean life has no purpose, OP.

Purpose is an intention of the act. Meaning can be drawn after the act.

>>4529987
Well, first my eyes dilate. I get sweaty palms. The hairs on my neck stand up. Then I slip into some kind of existential crisis panic attack and roll in the floor like a coked up panda.

But if you wanted a helpful answer, I can't help you man.

I feel generally detatched. Ive just become an observer. I still take part, but i dont even take my own actions seriously. Im also an observer of my own perspective. I know i cant ever be fully detatched. Even when i am passively watching myself i am taking on a role, so i still have a center. It is just a very neutral center.

>>4530614
but to continue living your life, you must act in some way to at least preserve yourself, and this acting has meaning.

>>4529996
Can you choose the DIY path and not "embrace your egoism and self-interest" and without living recklessly, as it suggests?

your life is infinitely meaningless or infinitely meaningful. there is no tangible evidence to say one way or the other for sure. maybe nothing matters. maybe every little thing in the world matters. me personally, i think your bored and this is the kind of shit you come up with to entertain yourself.

::shakes fist in air::

>>4533008
Why would it have meaning?

>>4533034
>DIY
>not per definition egoist

>>4533034
It seems kinda contradictory to enter diy morality without egoism. I suppose you are free to define your own morality as you chose, but it seems impossible to enter such a moral identity without accepting egoism.

I've thought about this a bunch. The conclusion that I came to was that I'm basically supposed to be a normalfag instead of dwelling on it. I was born into an upper middle class white midwestern family, am going to college etc. I have a gf, work out, just do normal stuff.

Basically I get enjoyment out of not thinking about large questions, and just live my life the way a normal person. In this way, I get to watch my own life play out like a movie. There are funny moments, sad ones, drama. When i'm alone and in my own mind I think about larger questions, but I don't try too hard.

>>4533284
Fuck off normie.

>>4533284
The unexamined life is not worth living, fuccboi.

>>4533290
Sorry brah. Is there a term for this kind of philosophy? I'm not religious or an atheist or an agnostic. Am I just nothing?

>>4533306
It's called being ignorant.

>>4529987

>the undeniable truth that your life is meaningless?

If you find an undeniable truth, then you find a meaning.
If you find no meaning, there are no truths, not even undeniable ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_contradiction

I make my own meaning, and logic just blasted yours.

>>4533312
That's true, but is there a catchier label with which to identify?

If all philosophies are equally meaningless, then that includes hedonism and nihilism and suicidal despair. It's kind of hard for me to see the depressing things as any more dominating than just doing stuff an having a life. It's optimism vs pessimism. Is there no right answer to life, or no wrong answer?

If your childhood or genetics or some traumatic experience left you a pessimist, sucks to be you.

>>4533328
This is what I'm saying. I have a great life, so I'm better off being a normalfag over some edgy autist. Not that you guys are edgy autists, but I very well could have been.

>>4533329

>Not that you guys are edgy autists, but I very well could have been.

Your thoughts are pristine, despite your effort to hide them in your thoughtless writing.

"You must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on."

We continuing living because we must.

>>4533320
Conformism.

>>4529987
I accept it since I can't change it.

Become an antinatalist and seek the extinction of man.

>>4529987
>How do you deal with the undeniable truth that your life is meaningless?
Creating a meaning

>>4533284
No one 'decides' to be normal. You're intellectually inadequate and therefore found a clever way to accept your otherwise unacceptable retardation. If you had the capacity, you would lack the ability to stem the flow of thought.

I ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

>>4529987
Construct your own ecclesiastical framework from the ground upwards.

I pretty much obey my biological overlord, meaning that even though everything means nothing etc. etc. nobody can afford to live 'as if' they meant nothing -- we're all bound by sensation, emotion, physical laws, societal systems, etc. that enforce our living as if it meant something. People are like circus monkeys made to entertain at a carnival. No animal wants to do that but the alternative is to be punished.

>>4533388
11/10

>>4533384
Jelly of the normalfag life?

>>4533349
With everyone trying so hard to be edgy nowadays, maybe the most edgy thing to do is to be completely conformist.

...I'm actually listening to Drake right now lol

>>4533336
What do you mean?

Why would I have to deal with meaninglessness? I've just stopped assuming my life needs meaning to be lived. If anything, meaninglessness helps a lot: It's fucking confusing and painful to go through life searching for a meaning that would justify your existence, without finding one, which would mean you FAILED to live a meaningful life, unless you lived meaningfully by sheer accident. Besides, about death: I've been "dead," as in non-existing, for some 13 billion years already, and it's no heavy weight on my shoulders. I doubt spending the rest of time in a non-state of non-existence would be anymore difficult than the time I've already not done.

>>4533407
>With everyone trying so hard to be edgy nowadays, maybe the most edgy thing to do is to be completely conformist.
Actually, most people aren't trying to be edgy at all any more. The way 'edgy' is used mockingly is a posture of 'look at me being mature i'm not a silly tryhard kid like you' which comes with the whole good education good job girlfriend and nice things ideal. Being 'edgy' isn't a popular ideal any more. We've come full circle, confirmism is conformist again.

>>4533407
>Jelly of the normalfag life?

I think everything about that post actually suggested the opposite sentiment.

>>4533429
Don't forget that you're in denial if you think you aren't.

>>4533434
That's a fallacy though, because it suggests genuine negatory affirmations are themselves products of denial, and that there can be no real negative answers.

>>4533407
>>4533336
>>4533329

I mean, you think there's some of those you speak to, that are "edgy autists".

>>4533442
Your attempts at logic bores me.

>>4533451
go listen to drake

>>4533451
A complete normalfag response. "I'm going to imply I'm too smart for this so I don't have to prove it" You really are proving >>4533384's point to be correct.

just because you fucking die like a bitch and are forever erased from this world doesn't make your life meaningless

>>4533460
I'm going to forgive you for ruining the joke, since you are obviously autistic and thus can't help it.

>>4533465
just because you're born like a bitch and are temporary existent doesn't make your life meaningful.

>>4533384
Somewhat tied to Zapffe that was already mentioned in here, I'm not sure I'd agree with that.

Being able to distract yourself from deeper thoughts like these, or ignoring them, is a valid way to deal with them, and the ability to do so is not necessary dependent on intellect - obsessive/persistent tendencies to solve problems is what determined whether you will be able to pass these thoughts.

There are in fact many very intelligent people, who know that there is no answer, and have simply conditioned themselves to ignore these thoughts. Perhaps the more intelligent, the more simple at heart you need to be, but even amongst the smartest people there are many who successfully choose to ignore existence questions very often.

>>4533472
then meaningfulness would have no use to me. it's a nonentity.

>>4533471
It was a shitty joke and I don't feel bad for attacking the principles through it. Whether they were made in supa subtle ironic jest or genuine belief, they were dumb and I was embarrassed to read it.

>>4533485
Das it mane.

Why do you have to deal with this? Why is it an issue?

>>4533504
People feel the need to justify their existence.

>>4533496
Not exactly, pal, because meaningfulness is still useful and practical. My life has meaning where i choose to apply it that's why we have the word.

>>4533451
this post isn't me
>>4533407
>>4533329
>>4533284
these are

Now you are became the trolled.

>>4533488

>>4533523
adhom is a bad habit anon
>>4533522
How does that contradict any observation I've made? Saying normalfriends are lazy rhetoricians and bad critical thinkers doesn't rely on me consistently replying to the same normalfriend.

>>4533526
That's not what ad hominem is.

>>4530102
Man I think this is what I hate most about the human race, I bet almost everyone I see walking around has this ridiculous exaggerated ego and perception of themselves. It really bothers me, and if I didn't have an inferiority complex I'd be right there with them, fuck that's disgusting.

>>4533530
>I hate these people who are just like me
>I'd hate myself if I was like them as well
You are them, anon.

>>4533530
apparently you do have a ridiculous exaggerated ego and perception of yourself, you even provided us with evidence by considering yourself apart from the human race. nice.

>>4533529
Posting an adhom comic is almost always adhom. Nothing about the reply did anything in contribution to the debate topic and only attacked the opposition arguer by implying their ideas were just negative shouting to seek validation. That is adhom. What other use is there for this comic?

>>4533530
Oh the ironing.

>>4533538
Reread the comic and rethink your argument, I'll wait for you.

My forgetting it. By immersing myself in anything that helps distract me from my impending death. It's why I first started reading; I wished to detach myself from the misery that was reality at the time, and now it's expanded. Now I've almost completely disassociated and have weeks and months at a time where I completely forget who I am, who my friends are, who my family are and what my goals are/were. It's not a pleasant existence by any means, but it's not unpleasant either.

>>4533540
I've seen it before, even for arguments I like. I still think it's dishonest attack of opposition character, or expectations, in any interpretation. The only other interpretation is a super-literal genuine concession of right, but that's unbelievable given the contest.

>>4533539
>>4533537
>>4533534

I know what you're think, and I constantly am afraid that you're right. But my inferiority complex is so severe it's crippling my life. I pretty much feel worthless all the time, and there's really no point at which I could have an inflated ego.

i don't deal with it
i have regular panic attacks and depression
i take shit care of myself hoping that i'll die faster
it's a pretty nice life

>>4533552
Like I said: Autism. A loaded word for some, but I don't put any value judgments into it, just a throwaway observation of how many signs of it you exhibit.
>>4533556
Being so caught up in yourself, your misery, your place in the world, and the actions of others, IS having an inflated ego. Inflated ego doesn't imply being on top of the world with a head full of coke.

>>4533562
adhom is a bad habit, anon.

>>4533566
>implying I've even once attacked anyone's character while disregarding their arguments
The fact that I never implied I had an argument for them to counter tells most of the story.

>>4533573
>implying I've even once attacked anyone's character while disregarding their arguments
>>4533562

lol, ok

>>4533562
>just a throwaway observation of how many signs of it you exhibit

The ignorance.

>>4533558
taking shit care of yourself will only make you die more horribly, it won't be faster.

>>4533581
Are you implying someone who exercises and eats healthily won't live longer than someone who does neither of those things?

>>4533588
He was saying, not implying, that dying from natural causes is generally messier the older you get.

>>4533591
>it won't be faster

I think he was saying that it won't be faster.

>>4533591
>>4533581

the OP was clearly saying the he doesn't want to live as long, not 'I hope the process that causes my death is quick'.

>>4533581
i know
at least trying makes me feel a bit better

>>4533521
I choose just to disregard the world altogether, works a lot better for me. It means no worries. For the rest of your days. Problem free likes.

>>4533644
*the word

>>4533644
well then i hope you're king of the white people because otherwise everyone else is going to continue using it and you're just going to be alone thinking meaningless thoughts in your meaningless life and probably listening to metal.

>>4533597
>>4533606
My bad, I misread. What it looked like to me:
>taking care of yourself
Time to go to bed.

>>4533695
Why would it bother me if other people don't do what I do?

>>4533735
you're the one who made the fucking thread soliciting opinions and responses.

>>4532935
I had a reaction like this the other night. Getting an overwhelming realization that my existence is finite and that I simply will not live forever. Realizing that my own existence is such a small portion of the big picture and that once my consciousness, or awareness, is gone, it'll be gone for good.

>>4534155
>>4532935

I get that feeling when I think about how space exists and how by default nothing should exist, and then I try and picture nothing existing but then I don't understand how a point for nothing to become something could exist and how 'nothing' should actually be nothing with no way of becoming something.

Unless you're a sociopath, there will always be things you care about. You'll find something to live for.

The idea of life being meaningless is something people who spend much of their time living for others come to conclude. This is because all meaning is personal, and those who live for themselves more have no shortage of meaning. Those who live for others find little, because others aren't worth living for.

>>4534155
That's assuming that whatever force created the universe works on random access memory and when it's gone, it's gone. The real terror comes when you anticipate some sort of backup drive.

Stoicism is the answer.

>>4534197
Sociopaths care about things, what the fuck are you talking about. What could possibly posses someone to make such an informed ignorant comment.

>>4532363
THANK YOU YOU GET IT

Expecting someone to suffer through a life that they would rather kill them-self than live for your sake is the pinnacle of selfishness.

>>4529987

>How do you deal with the undeniable truth that your life is meaningless?

But I don't believe this. At all.

You want to know what I believe?

I believe that I am you.
I believe that you are me.

I believe that I am my laptop.
I am my house.
I am my planet.

I believe that I was all people and all beings throughout recorded history. I believe you were too.

I believe this because I believe that all things subsist within the ever-changing singular gesture of creation. Time is merely balance in between new becomings of myself.

I am the first fruit to blossom in the harvest. I am a mother clutching her children and running out of Rome as it burns. I am the fire.

I am an old man waiting down the road from my house for his bus to arrive. He is every atom and I am every star.

I am not a mere solipsist. I am possibility itself.

This is my meaning in life.

>>4529987
>How do you deal with the undeniable truth that your life is meaningless?
I really don't understand these questions, what's the point in asking them when there's no single 'truth' in life, nothing is 'undeniable' nor 'deniable', and our definition of meaningless is something our brain can't ever begin to understand.
Do yourself a favour, it's better to realize that these questions are meaningsless if you're trying to find a definite answer. There are none and there will probably never be, not that a being with our genetics can grasp in any cases. Define 'life' according to yourself, define 'meaning' according to yourself, and there you'll have the answer, and in case you can't do define them, but still feel you need a definition, take a shortcut and read how other humans have define them before you and you'll surely find something to start with.

>>4534285
it may very well be the answer for the OP

>>4530281
I'm with this guy.

>>4534190
That, anon, is the feel of all feels.

You have two choices in life. You can murder as man brain cells as possible to stop you from having to suffer, or you can push your brain to its limits to suffer pointlessly. I suffer pointlessly and that's all there is to it. I'm obsessed with stimulation and that will be my life.

>>4534502

get /fit/ and leave humanity behind

Wait, guys, life is meaningless? Why did nobody tell me?

>>4534285
Stoicism requires all kinds of religious convictions though. You might as well prescribe Christianity.

>>4533759
I didn't though. Where do you get all this shit?

>>4533270
>>4533243
Maybe I'm misunderstanding egoism? Being self-centered and thinking I am the most important?

>>4535113
DIY morality is inherently self-centred.

>>4532388
I lol'd. Good attitude to take, well done.

>>4534310
Reading observations of an experience and experiencing it oneself are quite different. I doubt anon has done either.

>>4530270

If you can't improve the universe, then improve the world. If you can't improve the world, then improve society. If you can't improve society, then improve yourself. And If you can't improve yourself, then you're not trying hard enough.

>>4531425

>meaningfulness is a relationship, not an object

Thus, the only meaning life has is intrinsic.

I don't really know why we're still even talking about this.

>>4533290
>>4533312

It's called being an unnecessary asshole. Let him be. The world needs normal filler, or else it would be once massive tear-lubed circlejerk like /lit/. Not to mention, we need a point-of-reference.

>>4533547

>distract me from my impending death

You should embrace the inevitable, or else it just becomes a mugger in the shadows ready to pounce at any moment to steal not your petty cash, but your dignity as a living, breathing whole. To deflect death and all its cargo is to belittle life and its finite being. So, please, reattach my friend, because as a human, your nature is to be social. Let society examine you. Let the flow of reality catch your inner-tube and take you on the cosmos' lazy river into whatever it is the future holds. Despair not, not even in despair. Look yourself in the mirror and say your name so others may do it too. Validate yourself, big timer.

>>4535176
Why?

>>4531332

Fuck off, Aristotle.

Do what you love. Even if you're shit at it and don't get paid well, you will lead an ultimately fulfilling life. Remember, practice will make a person good at almost anything.

If you don't have a passion in life, well, shit, time to order a helium tank.

>>4535518
Because you have decided that your own morality is the one you follow.

>>4535577
Right, but I'm not forcing it on anyone else. What if my morality is working to make the lives of others better and always being compassionate because that's what I believe is most important?

>>4530270
I love this, thanks.

I tend to ignore the meaningless and futility of everything; if I focused on that I'd never enjoy anything. I suppose you could say I am hedonistic, but not in the 'yolo' way. I just seek pleasure and avoid pain. I just do whatever makes me happy; being compassionate makes me happy so I find enjoyment in focusing on that. Not that it makes a jot of difference what my personal morality is, but I like to think it helps people.

>>4535105
Stoicism's convictions are much more intuitive, at least to me.

>>4535105
It depends on the philosopher. Epictetus, for example, was only really interested in the ethical side of stoicism -- how to live the "good life" and achieve eudaimonia.

Moral nihilism is the only reality. Nothing means anything. I wish it weren't true but it is, unfortunately.

>>4535584
It's still literally self-centred. Made by you, for you.

>>4535780
Yes, Epictetus is by far the coolest Stoic. Almost like a Cynic, but more prudish and civilised. But at least not a bullshitter.

>>4535982
Normalfag here from earlier on. So if nothing means anything, why shouldn't I just choose to believe that life has meaning and live happily ever after?

Moral nihilism is a choice, just the same way that living a moral life is. They are equally pointless, so choose the path of most enjoyment.

>>4535982
Care to back up that claim?

>>4536336
If you can keep up with it relatively stress free it's probably a good route to take, hedonistically speaking.

The problem is that it isn't as easy as that. In most cases you will live a life of frustration and cognitive dissonance and the futility of your chosen meaning will keep gnawing at you in the background. Generally speaking, the only people who can keep up the meaning game are the ones who never really arrived at nihilism in the first place. Once you've gazed in the abyss it's nearly impossible to construct any stable form of meaning for yourself that will be strong and naive enough to actually lead to great happiness.

Therefore the most sensible way to go is to accept nihilism and make your peace with it and live your life firmly grounded in nothingness instead of a shaky makeshift sense of meaningfulness. If anything, shit won't come crashing down.

24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

>>4536461

This.

I guess the basis of that is any significant emotional investment in your "meaning" seems silly, because you know it is arbitrary and that you just made up a game for yourself. So you cant return to ignorance just by accepting some value system or grand narrative. You already have the knowledge it is made up.

I just kind of live like that. Mostly detatched, but i still enjoy exploring reality. I will participate in the world, but i cant take it seriously. Im an observer of myself and the world.

>>4536512
I actually feel less detached and more 'in the world' since I don't try to drape spooks over it anymore. That raw worldness. Gridless.

>>4530751
it isn't meant to be a guide for beginners, it's meant to be a one-off post on an imageboard.

>How do you deal with the undeniable truth that your life is meaningless?
Most people who experience it either grow out of it or intellectualise it away. Me, I've chosen to wear a hat at a jaunty angle. Call that a vote for HEDONISM!

Seriously you're talking about the 18-25 analogue of "Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I think I'll go and eat worms".

>>4536896
>Me, I've chosen to wear a hat at a jaunty angle. Call that a vote for HEDONISM!
this gave me the best cancer yet

>>4529987
copious amounts of drugs

>>4530065
regardless of whether or not I am alive, the rice paddies will continue to be harvested, the sun will still rise. what does it matter if i care for the farmer or the cosmos?

>>4536896
>Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I think I'll go and eat worms

>>4533284
I can understand this. But do you really want to live your whole life without figuring out what you were to live for?

Charlatans will forever tell you "your life is this, your life is for that". Ignore these fools. Every human must search for their own reason, its no ones burden but your own. Don't die without tackling your toughest questions.

>>4537588
>what you were to live for
>Every human must search for their own reason

le spiritual self-help face