A Gay Interpretation of Human Life. (1729 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.57 on 63 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Lisa (View user info) at 2004-06-21 22:55:28 EDT
There's a theory proposed by S.E. Taylor and J.D. Brown that, in a paraphrased nutshell, suggests depressed people tend to make judgments more in sync with reality, and that happy people are so because they perpetually deceive themselves with exaggerated, optimistic perceptions of the world and their personal worth. I'd guess that a good many of you who've never heard the theory are presently wracking your brains for defenses against the argument. Why, because it's obviously untrue? No, because it hurts to think about it. It's uncomfortable to entertain the not-so-absurd idea that the people who best understand the world, who really get what's going on, are those who are utterly miserable. You have the instinctual urge to defy the concept because it's a square peg, and your safe depiction of the world, the view you have to hold in order to keep from going insane, is a round hole. Your impulse to resist the theory, then, almost seems to prove it.
Assuming the theory is true, it follows that if you're relatively happy, you overestimate your abilities and your importance in the world. Your parents may have told you that you were special and that you would make a difference in the world—the same things parents all over the continent were simultaneously telling their children. People everywhere, though probably many more in privileged countries, grow up believing that they have a sort of power to "make a difference." But how many people substantially impact the course of history? How many Ghandis, Jesus Christs, Aristotles, and Zhu Xis are there? Maybe you have the power, by offering a hug, to make a positive difference in the life of someone who makes a difference in the lives of people who ultimately make very little difference at all, and that's the extent of it. Taking into account the whole picture—the entire, colossal universe and all its history, known and unknown—you're a virtually invisible speck, and it's disturbingly likely that three-hundred years after your death, no one will know you existed in the first place.
I like to think about religion and the possibility that it's an enormous game developed and perpetuated by humans who, in their deluded self-importance, believe they might somehow be immortalized, and are naturally drawn to the idea that their choices hold profound significance. Maybe the billions of people who have throughout the centuries followed certain faiths are all merely victims of the same delusions. The optimistic notions that one or more supernatural beings hold worthy their actions or that they will live on past death are comfortable and desirable. For most, they're infinitely easier to swallow than the prospect that humans are alone in a world of other humans, that their actions mean only what they mean to other humans, and that all these humans will, after death, fade to memories and dust which in turn will also disintegrate.
If human life is as inconsequential as the pessimist might say, then, what is its purpose? If not to make a difference in a world of people who make no difference, then, what? Perhaps one's purpose is to make the most of his own life. To suck as much personal pleasure out of life as he's able, before it suddenly ends. Maybe greed, an element so dominant among humans, arises from the lurking parts of us that know the truth. The hidden parts that aren't fooled by optimistic delusion, that secretly understand our lack of importance, that realize our moral choices hold very little substance, that believe our lives will end with death, and that recognize the resulting need to take, take, take as much from life as possible while it lasts. Before we quickly disappear from a world of insignificant people who quickly disappear from an insignificant world.
You might say I'm being pessimistic, but perhaps it's just you being unrealistic.
User Reviews
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2008-05-06 16:01:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-01-03 15:45:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
wtf im not reading all that
also
it's spelled 'ghey'.
Submitted by Loren1 (user info) at 2005-01-03 15:42:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
This can be summed up with three words:
Ignorance is bliss.
Submitted by ChristPuncher (user info) at 2005-01-03 15:39:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow
I think your Socrates
Or andy Rooney
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2005-01-03 15:34:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Ummm... yeah!
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2005-01-03 15:34:05 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Donitsu2002 (user info) at 2005-01-03 15:33:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
oh yeah, this was that crazy, yet hot chick wasn't it?
why dont you bang her andy
Submitted by hidden101 (user info) at 2005-01-03 15:27:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
god, i miss you...
Submitted by RouteTwo (user info) at 2004-11-30 17:01:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Very interesting points istaros.
Submitted by Istaros (user info) at 2004-11-29 22:50:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
i liked this. not because i agree with it. i went through a similar phase, but then i realized i was making a critical flaw in my thinking: no person is an isolated event. there's more to it than that, and i could go on, but that's the basic aspect of it. the disillusionment(or depression, depending on where you stand) you feel is caused by a skewed vision of the world, in which 'you' are separate from everything else, that you are 'your own person,' unique and individual and free from the constraints of society and the universe.
"People everywhere, though probably many more in privileged countries, grow up believing that they have a sort of power to 'make a difference.'"
that's true, but it's also natural. in a more privileged society, people don't have to worry about staying alive. with the body liberated, the mind becomes bored. with such boredom(liberation) comes a simultaneous desire to resolve it. in order to achieve this you need to change your situation -but to do that, you need to change the world.
Submitted by Degreeless_Capibara (user info) at 2004-11-29 22:49:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
How very punny of you.
Submitted by RouteTwo (user info) at 2004-11-29 22:39:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I don't know how this post surfaced again on recently-reviewed. I almost thought someone had plagiarized it from wherever I had seen this. Anyway, it's still sweet, I hope you DID write it yourself.
Submitted by Mitchell (user info) at 2004-11-29 22:28:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
that's my theory!!
damnit, first they take my black hole theroy, then my pre-big bang theory, now this! hah! but i still have my psychomaticy-probability theory...
Submitted by Jo_of_the_golden_P (user info) at 2004-11-29 22:07:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
+2 for using the phrase 'round hole'
-1 for calling it gay. That shit pisses me off.
Submitted by Scotsman (user info) at 2004-09-07 08:57:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I totally agree!
Submitted by Lily (user info) at 2004-09-07 08:33:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The logic in the post was flawless. I may even print this out and show it to some of my friends . . .
Nicely done.
Submitted by Lisa (user info) at 2004-07-03 11:49:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I used "gay" as a synonym for "cheerful" or "jolly." It's corny, it's directly polar to the tone of this post, and as soon as people see the word they get excited.
Submitted by Quetzallan (user info) at 2004-07-03 01:35:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
If we didnt delude ourselves, then we'd probably all commit suicide. It's something that human beings evolved
-1 cause I hate it when people use gay as an adjective to mean stupid
Submitted by K.M (user info) at 2004-06-23 22:04:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
When I die, I want to be in a fairly comfortable state of mind. I can't bear the thought of shedding every single perception I have of myself and this life, and riding death into the totality of existence, on a very negative vibe. That would be incredibly disapointing and tragic, not to mention disorienting and traumatizing.
If you haven't, maybe you should read the doors of perception by huxley. Sort of pretentious, but it kicks all kinds of ass.
Submitted by Random Joe at 2004-06-22 22:03:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
william_q_percy, good stuff. i like your thoughts. you should post something like this of your own, i want to hear more. seriously
Submitted by Dashel (user info) at 2004-06-22 19:12:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
So if our only purpose is too seek pleasure, don't we usually find more pleasure in happiness?
Submitted by Shay (user info) at 2004-06-22 16:21:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Agreesome, disagree some, but you always write well and mainly thought provoking stuff, so +2
Submitted by Random Jane at 2004-06-22 15:51:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The post was very interesting and the replies equally so. Lisa is awesome.
Submitted by mountainblood (user info) at 2004-06-22 13:19:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
To quote a song from the 70's, (or was it that 70's show) well anyway, to quote.... "what the world needs now, is love, sweet love, its the only thing, that there's just too little of, what the world needs now, is love sweet love, no not just for some, but for everyone"
Sorry to get lame on all of your asses but its the truth. Too much hate. Too many people calling other people names just because they are different. I think if we all just sat back and took a really good look at ourselves, we would find out that we are all exactly alike in many many ways.
I really get mad when I hear someone calling someone else a fag, or slurring racial remarks at people. That is why there is so much hate in this world. No one can just accept each other for who they are anymore. So yeah, that song is lame, but it speaks the truth.
so go ahead now all of you that have some stupid shit to say about my post, I can take it.
Submitted by William_Q_Percy (user info) at 2004-06-22 12:54:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Circe, I'm not labelling you, for its a self-imposed ignorance. Anytime you refuse to acknowledge a truth, you are being ignorant. Sure, it might be a mild ignorance the way you put it, but its ignorance none the less.
Only you can change that.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the time to yourself.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2004-06-22 12:42:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
William - you're speaking on a global scale. I'm speaking a much more personal one. For me, myself, in my home, in my life, with my family and the issues that we have, it makes absolutely no sense to dwell on the negatives, or I'll just go sob in a corner.
I choose to smile. I choose to laugh and say stupid annoying things like 'it could be worse.' I'm not saying there isn't crap in the world - there is. But unless you're actually going to go do something about it (and quite frankly, I don't have time - I have to paint my toenails tomorrow and when done right it can take all day) there is no point in being maudlin about it.
I'm not trying to invalidate your opinion. There's crap everywhere you look. If you feel that it bears being depressed over, knock yourself out. Just please, don't label people who choose not to feel the way that you do as ignorant.
Submitted by Uberfuck (user info) at 2004-06-22 12:35:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
My wife has a simpler version of that theory: Everybody needs to feel important. Some people get that importance through their jobs, some through their families. Others follow religion. A few crazy ones even climb up in clock towers and pop off innocent people with sniper rifles. And then there are those who post their thoughts on the Internet....
Nobody wants to feel insignificant or excluded. It's the worst thing in the world. If we are indeed a bunch of insignificants specks in the vast universe then people are going to find ways to make themselves feel like there is more to it. Delusions will become reality in time.
Anyway, I like your last idea, that being to suck the most of what we have left in life. Sell the house and piss away the proceeds on personal pleasure. As long as we're all going to die, why not go out with a bang.
Submitted by William_Q_Percy (user info) at 2004-06-22 12:33:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I understand where you're coming from, but don't you think that being duitfully optimistic is also refusing to acknowledge the evils that exist in the world? That makes you so vulnerable.
I try to appreciate things for what they are. If I see beauty, I strive to recognize it as such. If I see ugliness, I strive to do the same.
I just have the overwhleming sensation that a majority of the lives on this planet are dictated by the will of those who hold the values of ugliness higher than those of beauty. It is evident whereever I look... it makes me want to be a mountain hermit.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2004-06-22 12:31:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yes, but it hurts so much less when you try to tone down the bad stuff.
I'm not ignorant, I just hate pain.
Submitted by William_Q_Percy (user info) at 2004-06-22 12:27:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
It appears that we are calling eachother out on issues that neither one of us was defending.
What I am saying is, how can you not look at humanity and not see it for what it is? It contains both the most beautiful and the most terrible ... I am not a cynic I just accept life for what it is.
Right now, life is a hell of a lot more depressing than it is liberating.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2004-06-22 12:21:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Ahh.. fuck it. I retract the threat thing. The last line sounded threatening when read fast. Apologies.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2004-06-22 12:19:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I understand. I would also like you to understand that you have no idea who you're talking to. You have absolutely no concept of what my life is like, or the crap I've been through, or what I have to deal with every. Single. Fucking. Day. When I get annoyed at people who wallow in existential despair, it's because I fought hard not to be a self-pitying hopeless cynic, and it makes me furious to see that optimism is looked down on.
"Its hard not to be miserable if you understand even the simplest precepts of society."
Where the hell do you get off? You're saying that I'm not miserable, therefore I'm ignorant. And as for your little threats, screw that. Argue the topic or don't argue, but don't threaten a stranger on the internet. It weakens your position.
Submitted by William_Q_Percy (user info) at 2004-06-22 11:47:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
God, sorry, I typed that so fast I lost a bit of grammar and spelling.
I hope you see what I am trying to say.
Submitted by William_Q_Percy (user info) at 2004-06-22 11:45:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You know what, Circe?
I am sick of people who try to label others as trying to be trendy or popular based on what they do. I am who I am so fucking deal, alright?
I have always looked at the world a certain way. When I was young, I knew nothing, and loved everything. I grew a little and almost worried myself into ulcers because I would stay up at night thinking about bullshit. Now that I am a little older, I am starting to see how the world works, and it depresses me.
I enjoy the little things, and they give me solace every now and then, but it is so very temporary. How am I to truly enjoy life when I have to think about all the other bullshit that comes with it? Because I think about it, and look at it the way I do means that I refuse to accept it, and jsut "roll with the punches". I don't like the way the world is, so I am going to look at it under a fucking MICROSCOPE until I figure out exactly what it is that bothers me, and I will do for myself what I need to get rid of these problems of mine.
So keep looking through the rose tint, my friend. I've got news for you, the IS shit wrong with this world, and its going to get to you if you keep the attitude your pushing on me.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2004-06-22 11:26:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by William_Q_Percy (user info) at 2004-06-22 10:17:05 (#)
Ranking: 2
"the people who best understand the world, who really get what's going on, are those who are utterly miserable."
-------------
The world is quite a terrible place when you look at it. Its hard not to be miserable if you understand even the simplest precepts of society.
_______________________
God, that annoys me. It really fucking does. When did it become so popular, so ultra-fucking-fashionable, to be miserable and cynical? If you're not moping about the terrible state of the world and bitching about the idiocy of everyone in it you're not intelligent, right? Where the fuck did that come from? Jesus weeping christ. Grow out of it, please? It's utterly infuriating.
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2004-06-22 11:16:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Random Joe at 2004-06-22 00:48:23 (#)
Ranking: 0
Bigmike, you wrote:
"Happy people are happy because they find joy in life's situations. Not because they decieve themselves with inflated optimistic viewpoints. Miserable people see happy people as such and are miserable becasue they cannot find the same joy in little things."
------------------------------------------------------
I stopped reading your review right there. The first two sentences of your own review conflicted itself you stupid ignorant bitch. Optimists could DELUDE themselves into seeing a "joyful" side to anything. God people are fucking retarded. But hey, it's ok, 90% of the current population for the last 21 centuries have been deluded just as same as you, I guess I couldn't expect any more from you...
It's all perception. Try to think before you reply next time. It's all good though.
Submitted by runninginplace (user info) at 2004-06-22 10:43:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I agree with Bigmike's reply. Actually I thought it was a great reply, but your post did make me think and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Submitted by William_Q_Percy (user info) at 2004-06-22 10:17:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"the people who best understand the world, who really get what's going on, are those who are utterly miserable."
-------------
The world is quite a terrible place when you look at it. Its hard not to be miserable if you understand even the simplest precepts of society.
Submitted by hairsphincter2 (user info) at 2004-06-22 07:21:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Hot. I likee.
Submitted by Lucifer_Industries (user info) at 2004-06-22 03:37:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
This is what I call being rational.
Malone
Submitted by atz (user info) at 2004-06-22 02:42:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I don't know. There is both good and bad in the world. I would say there is much more bad than good, but some perceive things differently. I may see the glass as three quarters empty, while someone else might see it as three quarters full. Maybe we're both deceiving ourselves.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2004-06-22 02:24:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"For most, they're infinitely easier to swallow than the prospect that humans are alone in a world of other humans, that their actions mean only what they mean to other humans..."
Why do people think that's such a terrible thing? There doesn't have to be a higher power watching over me for me to be one of the unrealistic optimists you describe. The idea that this is all there is, this frantic brief flutter of pulse between birth and death, doesn't make me depressed, miserable, or cynical.
Put another way - if everything I do is only appreciated, or noticed, by the people around me, I don't find anything wrong with that.
Submitted by Lisa (user info) at 2004-06-22 01:38:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Which sucks, by the way.
Submitted by Lisa (user info) at 2004-06-22 01:36:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I don't think I made a whole lot of assertions here, did I? I don't feel like checking, but I don't recall stating what I do and do not believe. I'm just putting out hypothetical situations, toying with possibilities and theories in a haphazard way. I'm not necessarily illustrating my perception of the world.
Submitted by Sideburns (user info) at 2004-06-22 01:18:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Oops, that was Random Joe that had the smartass comment, not you.
My apologies Lisa.
Submitted by Sideburns (user info) at 2004-06-22 01:16:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Why bother disagreeing with you when you don't even take the time to read all of the review of someone who tries to disagree with you in a polite way--
You stopped reading after that last line.
Didn't you?
Submitted by Random Joe at 2004-06-22 01:04:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Now I'll leave you alone.
Submitted by Random Joe at 2004-06-22 01:03:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
As you yourself said, "You might say I'm being pessimistic, but perhaps it's just you being unrealistic."
Submitted by Random Joe at 2004-06-22 01:01:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Fair enough, I guess I'm pretty much angry in general. Bigmike is no different from anyone else, like I said. Probably no different from me. But it's that edge of walking the fine line between reality and making yourself happy that's so hard to walk. You can't have both. As people, we naturally delude ourselves to bring happiness. When I get old and I look back on the life I led--I hope I never see a shallow, fake life I led like an ignorant little ant cunt marching along like the rest. I'm not saying make a difference in the world--it means nothing. I'm naturally not always a fan of shakespear, but I remember from Hamlet something to the effect of, "If it were not for the fear of life after death, the unknown, who would these fardels bear..." That's the truest shit I've ever heard. Religeon WAS created out of fear. Who would bear all the trivialities and meaningless troubles of life if we didn't genuinely fear the unknown life after death. Life is bullshit, but rather than suicide we can realize, as you said Lisa, life is all about greed. Pleasure yourself. In three hundred years, no one will know any of us even existed. Take advantage of the situation while you still have time.
Submitted by bart (user info) at 2004-06-22 01:01:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
There was an old Italian man named Frank who lived up the street from my parents. He was a janitor at my high school and even though he had been in the US for twenty years, he still had such a strong accent that you could barely understand him when he talked.
One day I was walking around the block and stopped to talk to him. At some point in the conversation as we were talking about college and jobs and all, he said to me:
"Can no everybody be doctor, lawyer. You gotta have a maintenance man like me."
Focus. If you want to change the world, you can start by taking out the trash. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
Submitted by Lisa (user info) at 2004-06-22 00:50:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
BigMike is my dude, don't talk to him like that.
Submitted by Random Joe at 2004-06-22 00:48:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Bigmike, you wrote:
"Happy people are happy because they find joy in life's situations. Not because they decieve themselves with inflated optimistic viewpoints. Miserable people see happy people as such and are miserable becasue they cannot find the same joy in little things."
------------------------------------------------------
I stopped reading your review right there. The first two sentences of your own review conflicted itself you stupid ignorant bitch. Optimists could DELUDE themselves into seeing a "joyful" side to anything. God people are fucking retarded. But hey, it's ok, 90% of the current population for the last 21 centuries have been deluded just as same as you, I guess I couldn't expect any more from you...
Submitted by QueenAshlee (user info) at 2004-06-22 00:44:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Random Joe at 2004-06-22 00:40:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
holy fucking shit. no joke, this post is my bible. i've been working on a similar post for days, but i can't write very well...you said every single thing i've been thinking since i was a teenager. too bad for me that back then i thought i was alone in these thoughts. take, take, take. it's true people--i couldn't have said it better myself.
Submitted by ParlorTrick (user info) at 2004-06-22 00:31:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The toybox is perferred over the laundry basket - so it seems.
Submitted by Durae (user info) at 2004-06-22 00:04:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
There are also theories that say pessimists are the ones with the flawed perspectives. Big deal. Until anyone can measure the "value" of a person, it's all subjective. Pessimists will seek to justify and rationalize themselves, as will optimists. How about, no one is More accurate, we're all stupid, but optimists are happier.
Submitted by Socialist_Joe (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:58:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I dissagree to a great extent
but i cant argue it in a forum it just isnt the same
so for writing it well you get a plus 1
and for probably being right you get another plus 1
Submitted by tlozoot (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:45:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Uh, and? It doesn't sound like this thought is developed beyond the intellectual capacity of a seventh grader, although the writing is pretty good.
Submitted by dakingisdead (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:31:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I would suggest that S.E. Taylor and J.D. Brown were trying to justify their own pessimism.
I believe in God and I am a christian. I don't believe that heaven will be anything like earth and it certainly won't be somewhere you are valued for earthly values. So that is probably the difference between my religion say and a Muslim. You see they see their reward in earhtly values. As a martyr you get to have x number of virgins blah blah. SO where do all these virgins come from I ask myself.
The other flaw in S.E. Taylor and J.D. Brown's argument is that there is pessimism, optimism and realism. It is very convenient for their hypothesis to discount realists. Is a realist an optimist with some pessimism or is he a pessimist with some optimism. You see most people fall into the realist category and to argue in black and white is a distortion of the truth.
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:29:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There's a theory proposed by S.E. Taylor and J.D. Brown that, in a paraphrased nutshell, suggests depressed people tend to make judgments more in sync with reality, and that happy people are so because they perpetually deceive themselves with exaggerated, optimistic perceptions of the world and their personal worth."
Happy people are happy because they find joy in life's situations. Not because they decieve themselves with inflated optimistic viewpoints. Miserable people see happy people as such and are miserable becasue they cannot find the same joy in little things.
"No, because it hurts to think about it."
Since when does it hurt to think about anything that, on the surface is not as deep as you intended it to be?
"It's uncomfortable to entertain the not-so-absurd idea that the people who best understand the world, who really get what's going on, are those who are utterly miserable. You have the instinctual urge to defy the concept because it's a square peg, and your safe depiction of the world, the view you have to hold in order to keep from going insane, is a round hole. Your impulse to resist the theory, then, almost seems to prove it."
You are trying to justify your own minimalistic view of self. Better yet, you are trying to justify your own minimalistic view of self referencing theories written by others.
"Assuming the theory is true, it follows that if you're relatively happy, you overestimate your abilities and your importance in the world. Your parents may have told you that you were special and that you would make a difference in the world—the same things parents all over the continent were simultaneously telling their children. People everywhere, though probably many more in privileged countries, grow up believing that they have a sort of power to "make a difference." But how many people substantially impact the course of history? How many Ghandis, Jesus Christs, Aristotles, and Zhu Xis are there?"
You don't have to substantially change the course of history to make a difference. There was only one Ghandi, one Jesus, one Aristotle, one Zhu Xi, one Lisa, one BigMike. To make a difference one only has to act upon another.
"Maybe you have the power, by offering a hug, to make a positive difference in the life of someone who makes a difference in the lives of people who ultimately make very little difference at all, and that's the extent of it. Taking into account the whole picture—the entire, colossal universe and all its history, known and unknown—you're a virtually invisible speck, and it's disturbingly likely that three-hundred years after your death, no one will know you existed in the first place."
All those you mentioned were also mere specks. Some specks are larger than others. Don't believe me? Look under your bed.
"I like to think about religion and the possibility that it's an enormous game developed and perpetuated by humans who, in their deluded self-importance, believe they might somehow be immortalized, and are naturally drawn to the idea that their choices hold profound significance. Maybe the billions of people who have throughout the centuries followed certain faiths are all merely victims of the same delusions. The optimistic notions that one or more supernatural beings hold worthy their actions or that they will live on past death are comfortable and desirable. For most, they're infinitely easier to swallow than the prospect that humans are alone in a world of other humans, that their actions mean only what they mean to other humans, and that all these humans will, after death, fade to memories and dust which in turn will also disintegrate."
Religion was created out of fear, dear Lisa. What keeps us going is that we can ignore our eventual future of dust. Only an idiot wants to live forever. Humans are alone on THIS earth. There are many million lives of some form or another out in the universe. It is ignorant and arrogant to think there is not.
"If human life is as inconsequential as the pessimist might say, then, what is its purpose? If not to make a difference in a world of people who make no difference, then, what? Perhaps one's purpose is to make the most of his own life. To suck as much personal pleasure out of life as he's able, before it suddenly ends. Maybe greed, an element so dominant among humans, arises from the lurking parts of us that know the truth. The hidden parts that aren't fooled by optimistic delusion, that secretly understand our lack of importance, that realize our moral choices hold very little substance, that believe our lives will end with death, and that recognize the resulting need to take, take, take as much from life as possible while it lasts. Before we quickly disappear from a world of insignificant people who quickly disappear from an insignificant world."
If you tried giving in ways other than the obvious, you wouldn't think like this. Purpose is relative to each individual. What is your purpose for posting this Lisa? Is it to quell the demons inside of your head that are screaming of your incosequential and meager existence? Somehow I think not, but I may be close.
"You might say I'm being pessimistic, but perhaps it's just you being unrealistic."
Perhaps both, there is no paradox here. It can be both. It could also be that we are optimistic and you are realistic. Do you believe in anything? Do you believe in yourself? Do you believe that inherently the world is evil or good? Do you believe?
Let's talk about making a difference shall we? Brandon Clawson was a pitcher for the NY Yankees. They brought him up to much hype and he pitched pretty well for a short time. The Yankees traded him to the Cincinnati Reds for Aaron Boone. Aaron Boone hit a game winning home run to catapult the Yankees into the World Series. Aaron Boone injured himself at the beginning of this year and the Yankees went out and got the best player in baseball, Alex Rodriguez.
So Alex Rodriguez is playing on the Yankees because they decided to bring up a minor league pitcher and let him pitch a few games. Brandon Clawson made a difference and nobody knows who he is.
6 degrees of separation. Maybe less. That's all it takes.
I believe in fate. That's what I believe in.
Submitted by Fabish (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:16:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yeah, but I doubt Andy gets a boner watching the History Channel. They had a flick about Stalin a few months ago - probably wasn't a wise decision to start eating hot-wings like a glutton while children are getting eaten alive on TV. Looking back though, my only regret is not having enough barbeque sauce.
Submitted by Lisa (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:13:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
You're so weird, Andrew. I've never met anyone who finds scathing verbal abuse and dry, depressing, nerdular philosophies arousing.
Submitted by Fabish (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:11:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
A couple things I'd like to type, while I'm still cognitively conscious. From the months of Jan-Aug of 2003 I was, as it is most easily termed, depressed. Now it wasn't as I see most people being depressed, but more so me not being happy (or rather NOT finding happiness) that forced me into seeing how pitiful my life was. I tried many a way to try and divert my attention from the realities that is life, just so I could go through the day without wondering, Why God? Why?
It was at that time when I realized that diversion might be the easiest way to pass through life, and if not, I certainly don't serve a purpose in some sort of larger scheme. Of this I was, and still am, sure. Now I still believe that finding happiness is really the only goal of mine throughout life, which may or may not sound pathetic, but happiness can come in any way, shape, or form for me. In which case it will probably come in small bundles, but anything to get me through.
It was around October of last year when I started wondering what is life, and more so, why do I bother with it, if I know that in the end I'll die and be forgotten, not having bettered the world, or myself in any way at all? Well, I started thinking about the phrase: Live your life to the fullest. And Coincidentally, a Futurama cartoon was on at 2:00 a.m. and helped me view things in another manner. You mentioned how people could suck all the can from life before they die, and in the Futurama episode, Bender the robot becomes a human, and in one week lives his life more than any other human had throughout there entire life. Sure he gained 300 pounds and was about to die, and in fact, did die after only being a human for eight days, but I started thinking that maybe living your life to the fullest isn't just about doing whatever you want whenever you want.
Living my life to the fullest is as easy as just passing through. Pessimism at it's finest.
Submitted by hidden101 (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:09:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i'm a unique snowflake. i don't know what you're talking about.
man, i'm all turned on now.
Submitted by I_Have_a_Kristen_Fetish (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:05:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I don't actually agree. But...
Submitted by Creepy_guy (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:05:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellent post... I've always wondered why a lot of people I know cling to religion. I always wondered if its because they truly believe it, or if they're afraid of no longer existing after they die. Personally, I'm fine with being a tiny speck in the universe. If I were any more, people might start to expect something from me.
Submitted by Lisa (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:04:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Watch, yesterday's post got five billion reviews, and this one will get, like, thirteen.
Submitted by misanthrope (user info) at 2004-06-21 23:04:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Pretty much sums up my philosophy.
Submitted by Lisa (user info) at 2004-06-21 22:58:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Gandhi.
Submitted by PatheticCapitalistFuck (user info) at 2004-06-21 22:58:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
***deafening applause***
Goddamit you're BRILLIANT.
I want you to be the mother of my children.
Or be your bitch...