Do you ever get the feeling, you just can't figure out how life seems to work? I think this happens just about everyday with me. Something as little as peeling an apple (I don't eat apples, they taste weird) can get you thinking, why am I doing what I'm doing?
As I've realized, analyzing our everyday actions even the slightest can throw us into a world of wonder we never even knew existed, but now that we're there, we can't get out. For instance, peeling an apple. What do you do after it? You eat the apple. Then the apple is gone, and what do you have to show for it? Nothing. Sure it gives you sustenance for an arbitrary amount of time, but what do you do with that "time of life" it gives you? Go to work? Go to school? Watch TV? Save a life? Feed the poor? (neither do I) So why do we go through the effort of peeling an apple, and expending the energy to eat the apple, when it is actually quite pointless?
I mean, I can understand why we take the effort to unwrap a chocolate bar, chocolate is pretty much heaven in wrapper, but why do we keep doing things we don't actually like? Is life supposed to be this much work? Why bother with it at all then?
I can see that some people say that you have to live your life in a moral way (which includes sometimes doing things we don't like) in order to reach a greater good (heaven). Now lets hypothesize for a second that a supreme being doesn't exist, (and even if one did, its not like it would give a shit about us) so something like heaven doesn't exist. Why should we put up with so much work just to live a life entailing more work?
Any good answers? Didn't think so.
Welcome to bittersweet, where things are more bitter and less sweet.
Many very intriguing points with perhaps just a hint of needed cynicism. To question the purpose of existence, or on a more personal level our every day actions, such as peeling fruit, is something that can bog down many. Often times I ask myself why people who consider these questions to themselves on a daily basis to the point where they are physically, mentally and emotionally affected, don't just off themselves all together. Quick fix, no mess (ideally) and there is no more labour filled life. But wait. This is to easy it would seem, and it is not so much that it is a frowned upon gesture today (although it quite obviously is) it is more a question of whether or not the ends justifies the means, and in my personal bias it does not. Do the consequences of being forced to participate in the slaveries of life worth life itself? Many would have a hard time saying that the chore of peeling an apple is worth there life, but why not? It would seem that a hardship is a hardship, labour is labour to whom ever it burdens. Why can't everything come up roses all the time? You could ask many who have endured more than yourself, but comparing is redundant if you are looking for some sort of self actualization, and would leave you no closer to a reasonable answer.
ReplyDeleteOf coarse it seems that on a daily basis why we do anything is to do something else that eventually leads to some sort of vain level of satisfaction, and I would have to say that most of humanity unfortunately just strides for these satisfactions. This is because I personally believe that no one is completely selfless; self preservation is something that you take care of innately, and is hardwired through no fault of our own, but we should be thankful for such a trait, or we would in fact see many people committing suicide at the drop of a match, however, as for the overall result to society after these such actions, I have no comment.
So I would like to think that I, or anyone else doesn't just work there whole lives for nothing, but that seems to be the case. You can do it to cure boredom, or for the more the obvious reason, to conform to the ideal of society and function as member of its cult like regime, but neither of these satisfy me (I realize my selfish irony). As far as turning to religion, I couldn't let myself become consumed in such a thing, but I do wonder sometimes, what it must be like to have at least some sort of path or rationale to cope with, that doesn't leave yourself sitting at a laptop in the middle of the night pondering these questions. I would say that any believer of a theistic ideal is an (as you so eloquently put) idiot, but I can't help but envy them in the slightest because of there sense of clarity all be it false by my opinion. So it would seem that it is indeed bitter sweet to take this perspective or side of the opinion, as you see yourself as the more intelligible person for having chosen the more educated path, but had you not chosen the other, would the ignorance not lead you to a bliss that would break you free of these dilemmas? Food for thought