Serious Thinking

The Purpose of Life

I can never be sure of things. Not entirely. I am cursed with the unfortunate burden of doubt, and he will never fly from my shoulders. Not for a moment. Not even with death will I find the peace of true decision.

Many of my life's choices are dictated based on the meaning of life, but as someone who is increasingly indecisive with each new iota of information I learn, defining that meaning can be difficult; ravaging. It eats away at me in the late hours.

Socrates was spoken of highly by a revered oracle of his time. The oracle claimed he was the wisest man in his area because he admitted he did not know everything. Poor Socrates must have been similarly ravaged by a whirlwind of doubt and unwelcome thoughts, overwhelming him when all others slept, blanketed in the blissful shroud of their ignorance.

I can't do that. I ponder things that rely on the meaning of life- they all involve self-interest, things like "what should I do?" "What do I want?" "How should I treat others?" "Do I want to be around people at all?"

What should I do? Well, what do I want to do? It is incredibly difficult to pinpoint exactly what I desire. As for people... People are difficult; they require attention and energy. These are things I don't want to spend my life giving out without reason.

Ben Shapiro said that this generation is taught to derive its own meaning. Vague quote, pending verification: "The meaning of life is that you find your own meaning- Well humans are notoriously bad at finding their own meanings!"

And he's right. Mr. Shapiro phrases things in packaged ways that I could not yet, not without a pen and paper, or alternative writing implement.

So we know I am supposed to find my own meaning - but, someone is telling me I must. What if, by opening up my options, they are actually slowing my journey to the answer? What if humans are here to reproduce, and the false promise of freedom of choice is something we pretend to have, wasting our lives chasing these dreams that will never fulfill us?

In The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith, his character broke down the meaning of life quote nicely- you may have guessed. It's the pursuit of happiness. However, his character also points out that perhaps happiness is only something to be pursued, never secured.

Once we find happiness, if it were permanent, what would it mean? Hedonic adaptation would engage and we would become bored enough to stimulate ourselves with sadness. We do it. Constantly. I can be happy for a day, and I will purposefully find some negative aspect to focus on and put myself in a sour mood.

It isn't only me. You do it. Everyone you know does it, unless you know many non-humans personally.

An experiment was conducted (citation pending) in which volunteers and a small box were put into a room. They were asked to push the button on the box and describe their reaction. The button, when pressed, delivered a small, but discomforting shock to the volunteer. None of them liked it.

They were then asked to wait in that room for the next phase of testing. Little did they know, the waiting was the next phase. Every single one of them delivered another shock to themselves, multiple times- because being happy without stimulus is boring to humankind.

So... what is our stimulus? Is the trick to life (Hoosiers pun not intended) to stay happy but space it out with some stimuli? Alright, so I could live in the mountains alone, and I'd be fine.

Maybe? I don't know. People who are alone, I don't know if they're happy. If they're sad when re-immersed into society, I suppose they could have been happy through the other days? There was a spiritual woman who followed an eastern religion- she stayed underground for 40 years (citation pending). She seemed different than others, but... happiness level seemed the same. In fact, considering how thrilled she was to emerge, perhaps she hadn't been doing too well down there.

We are born crying, all of us. We are introduced into a life of constant change with no respite. The only thing we seem to have is family, and some of us are not even granted that. Therefore, we must be expected by universal law to continue our own, unbroken; the sole condition of life through biological systems is that we continue it onward as best we can, to account for losses due to natural causes.

So logically, we need to produce children, and to maintain emotional wellness, we must stay happy, providing ourselves with enough contrasting sadness to remind ourselves what happiness means, and to never cease our appreciation for its existence.