Asklemmy

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Lemmy, what's the meaning, or point if you prefer, of life? I know 42, but I'm serious. Nothing lasts, everything is meaningless - are we just amusing ourselves until death? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Melatonin to c/[email protected]

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I'm not depressed (at the moment, well maybe a little), just feeling philosophical.

Edit: the idea of this came to me because I was pondering why people fight so hard to beat diseases and live a few more years. What are they planning to do? Why exert effort just to be here longer when you don't have a reason?

Just why?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago

Lots of interesting answers here. I figured I'll pitch in too.

IMHO there is no one true, universal meaning of life - just as there is no one meaning of any piece of art. I think the idea that everything around you must have a single meaning is a relatively modern one, which came from the requirements of efficient communication (which should indeed be precise and not open to interpretation).

As it stands, it is up to you to interpret the world around you and find different meanings for yourself, just as you should do with art. If you are struggling to start, consider those questions: What do you enjoy? What makes you happy? What do you think is "good", even if it makes you sad or uncomfortable? All those things are your personal interpretations of meaning of life. Or go ahead and make up something else, I'm not your dad.

I was pondering why people fight so hard to beat diseases and live a few more years. What are they planning to do? Why exert effort just to be here longer when you don’t have a reason?

As for this, I think when people realize the proximity of death and temporal nature of their life, they are much better at coming up with meanings. Maybe it is to see your partner or your children for a couple more years. Maybe it's another couple of gaming sessions with your pals. Whatever it is, when you realize you don't have much of it left, the importance of it typically rises dramatically from your perspective. If you're struggling to visualize something so dramatic, imagine that your favourite food will be completely banned and criminalized in your country in couple weeks. Wouldn't you want to enjoy it more before that happens?