I already know the meaning of life. I’ve never found it to be that vexing a question, or even a question at all. Quite simply, there is no universal “meaning” that can provide an answer other than biology, which actually provides a quite meaningful answer.
But yesterday I was walking up the stairs of the jo-tel toting a handful of heavy groceries when I had sort of a rejuvenating epiphany regarding the meaning of life. It become wonderfully illustrated that we, as humans, are simply piles of carbon-based stuff that have managed to develop brains out of necessity to survive. If we were some blessed creatures intended to inhabit the Earth, then why would the creator make it so that we had to eat three meals a day to fully function? But I don’t want to get off track and make this another “why there is no God” post. To be honest, that entire inquiry and area of argumentation has become decidedly boring to me. I am unlike Hip E., who makes it his goal to read every atheism book out there, in additional to scrupulously arguing the point to anyone who even shows signs of vacillating regarding whether there might not be a God. It seems to me that smart dudes like Dawkins spent all the time they would have spent writing atheism books doing actual science. To inappropriately borrow the motto from my Catholic elementary school: “actions not words”.
But the point about life is that we feed ourselves and keep ourselves alive so that we can be a window to the world around us, the Earth: an astronomically fortuitous happenstance. Lifeless planets in our solar system are different from the Earth in degree, not kind. That they probably lack life that is able to view the world around them means nothing cosmically. We mean nothing cosmically. Each of us is fleeting (life-span) and our species is fleeting (like the dinosaurs) and our planet and solar system are fleeting (shooting stars). Oh ephemeral lightness! You give us grand perspective!
Our brains are important for survival but can hinder our ability to accurately perceive our place in the world, the mind tending to imply the centrality of our own persona. Kantian metaphysics dealt with this in excruciating and unhelpful detail. Our senses are biologically subjective and, therefore, cannot know with certainty that what we observe is actually before us. We cannot know the thing-in-itself. Specious Kantian deduction that the latter was God aside, haven’t you ever wondered stuff like, “what if everyone else was a robot designed and placed before me as part of an elaborate experiment? have I ever SEEN the inside of a human, in person?”
But we must ignore these subjective impulses. Our learned objectivity informs us that we are just animals. When we die our survival technique (brains) will not help us to live on in any way, just like the skunk’s survival technique (stinky farts) will not enable it to live on. This is the ultimate unifier: the ephemeral life, the slate-wiping reality of death — everything that outlives you is beyond you. John Kennedy Toole was no better that Confederacy of Dunces won the Pulitzer after he died. And don’t forget that those groceries you’re toting up the stairs (or, if you’re Hip E., that pizza) are only in your hands to keep you alive as a window to the world. What you decide to put in that window becomes the meaning of life.
-Shark
15 responses so far ↓
M. Bock // Oct 9, 2007 at 3:13 pm
If you choose to see yourself as a biological automatom whose meaning is defined by his cellular/molecular/physiological structure, I suppose that is quite reasonable.
However, unlike all other forms of matter we know of, humans have a conscious WILL. Rather than meandering along your predestined biological route, choose your path and purpose, and make it so. It need not be grand, just fulfilling to you.
No God. No Kings. Only Man.
**Also, the “I can’t be sure of my surrounding argument”, while interesting when drunk, is essentially a form of mental masturbation. It reached its “climax” with the awesome “It’s overwhelmingly likely that we are living in a computer simulation” hypothesis by someone whose name I can’t remember.
Jeffrey Dahmer // Oct 9, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Other people are Definitely not robots!
M. Bock // Oct 9, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Always! drill into their brains just to make sure! Plus, you can festoon your bedposts with entrails.
Shark needs to be oppressed by the heavy weight of religion: living free as a bird in communist San Francisco immunizes one to what it’s actually like to deal with religious folk, policies, and beliefs. If he was beaten down a bit more, he’d probably be more like Hippy in his proselytizing of rational thought.
Hip E. // Oct 9, 2007 at 3:43 pm
While humans are obviously extremely different from other forms of life we know about, I think the uniqueness of our self-consciousness is probably exagerated. The size and structure of our nervous systems differ from those of apes in degree, not kind. Not to mention dolphins. No I’m not saying this means we should start making ash trays out of people hands. But it could mean that eventually we start giving other large-brained sentient animals more of the protections of our human laws. On the other hand, there are a ton of humans who are not getting the protections of our laws.
M. Bock // Oct 9, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Animals that pass basic tests of self-awareness (i.e., are sentient) should, in general, be afforded the same basic protections as cognitively deficient humans. Since we don’t have a United States of Earth … yet … we can’t do too much internationally, but we could at least stop allowing the butchering of whales in U.S. waters.
Zac // Oct 9, 2007 at 10:44 pm
i used to lie in bed awake as a child and wonder if my life were merely an alien experiment, that i was one of the alien children, and my life on earth was merely an education on the species of mammals on this distant planet that we would one day go to take over. essentially, my entire life that i would live would merely be a computerized fantasy impregnated in my mind in order to educate me on the meaning of human life, and that when that program ended, i would merely wake up into another life on another alien world. i guess that doesn’t seem very realistic now that i am older.
but seriously, i will never look at my groceries the same way again.
pattttttt // Oct 10, 2007 at 11:35 am
All this philosophical mumbo jumbo makes me tired. Give Big Cat some Super Smash Brothers melee and a case of Natural Light and Big Cat is content.
Big Cat out. War Hope Solo telling it like it is.
Patttttt (the real Big Cat) // Oct 10, 2007 at 4:03 pm
My favorite part of this blog is the Big Cat impersonators. Can someone check the IP and let me know who this is? It’s vexing, as the impersonation is spot on re Super Smash Brothers Melee yet so far off re Natural Light.
Patttttt (the real Big Cat) // Oct 10, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Oh, and nice work Shark. Way to throw the Jo-Tel on your back and say “follow me” for the last twelve months.
And congrats on getting engaged and what not.
Pattttttt (the real Big Cat) // Oct 10, 2007 at 4:52 pm
On second thought, I have moved away from Tanqueray and begun drinking lots of macro-lagers … but not Natural Light! It’s all about the Michelob Ultra pomegranate at the moment.
Good, good stuff.
War Kirby>Pikachu, and Bill “Hoodie” Belichick being allowed to make his own fashion statement.
Patttttt (the real Big Cat) // Oct 10, 2007 at 5:49 pm
The horror.
Shark // Oct 10, 2007 at 8:23 pm
IP address of impostor Patttttt:
209.76.234.10
Patttttt (the real Big Cat) // Oct 11, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Laguna Hills. Who is that? I also got a disturbing email yesterday from originalbigcat@yahoo.com. The stalking must come to an end (unless, of course, Andres Gallaragha is staking his claim).
Hip E. // Oct 11, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Andres Galaraga is reading The Jo-tel? I can now stop blogging and die in peace.
Hip E. // Oct 11, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Oh wait, I haven’t posted anything in three months.
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