User Profile

Well now, thing is, I have this philosophy, which runs roughly as follows... We're here, alive and physically and mentally able (as much as we'll ever be) for a very small amount of time. Even if we're very lucky (or at least possessing extreme longevity, which is not necessarily a category of felicitousness) we have, say, 100 years here, of which the first 10 (or more for the true luminaries, unhindered by social convention) are spent going from being unable to move, speak or have a one-piece skull to walking around, hitting siblings in the face with rocks and developing some level of logic, rationale and reasoning (albeit only so long as it results in you getting what you want immediately if not sooner), and the final 30 or so are spent doing exactly the same only in reverse. Ultimately, then, the number of years that are more than purely biologically and socially administrative are few, even if you live for a century. For the sake of argument (or at least principled but largely uninterested debate), let's say there are 50 such years. In this time it's unlikely that you'll impact the human world to the extent that people outside your generation will remember you, let alone care about who you were, what you did or thought, the fact that you died, and indeed that you were once alive. Supposing you devote your life to avoiding this eventuality and become renowned, a matter of public interest or fully famous for some reason, let's pretend it's a good reason, like saving the rainforests, solving world hunger and curing cancer, then teaching blind kids table-tennis at the weekend. Well, ace, your life adds up to something meaningful. But even then only in a limited sense. Does doing all that have any *cosmic* significance? Of course not. We're a by-product of the universe, of entropy, of all funny words what scientists say. What we're emphatically *not* is any kind of end result. We're also not important to the universe (a stupid anthropocentric idea that some people seem to hold without realising it), nor are we here for good. Ultimately, then, what we do is irrelevant. Now this is a bit of a blow to our collective ego, and if you look at it one way is pretty depressing. Crucial to my philosophy, though, is that you don't look at it in that way, but rather in a more enjoyable way. It seems to me that all things considered, you might as well just have a laugh. That's not to say that doing all those worthwhile things I mentioned earlier would be pointless, because of course we have to view pretty much everything in context, and in the context of the human society in which we all exist those things are immensely important. The funny thing is, though, that every animal save humans views everything in its life from a biological standpoint, they act instinctively and are honed by natural selection to survive and reproduce as best as possible at this stage in their evolution. Their raison d'etre, then, is strictly biological, and boils down to a fundamental axiom of genetics, which is that genes (to anthropomorphise them) want to be passed on. Humans, however, cannot be reduced to such a basis. We alone among animals can choose a life of celibacy, which is biologically idiotic (and no fun whatsoever). What is our purpose, then? Why are we here, if not solely to reproduce and pass on our genes to future generations? It is these questions, I think, that have led us to such bizarre constructs as religion and love, which are both uniquely human and, arguably, at least, biologically irrelevant. We have evolved a capacity for abstract thought which allows us to think outside the biological box, to impose meaning on randomness, order on chaos and to consider our lives in many different contexts. Some of these contexts are practical, some illusory, some useless, but nonetheless, we can rationalise things in very many different ways. Oh, incidentally, there is a point to all this, although not necessarily one that you will consider worthy of such a fiasco. So. Now, listen here. Yes! We can rationalise things in all these ways, right, an ability that has the power to change how we feel. If we view saving rainforests or curing diseases or hitting tiny balls in the direction of the blind in a cosmic sense, they seem tiny insignificances, and it induces a sort of apathy towards trying to do what we have labeled good. This sucks. If we view them from a social standpoint, though, they're ace things, supremely worthwhile and bearing of the highest gravitas. Conversely (as in contrarily rather than in the manner of the popular basketball shoe), if we view any hardship we may have from a social perspective it seems unpleasant and at times unbearable. However, if we realise that actually, in a few years we'll be dead and none of it will matter a jot to anyone or anything, it's somehow difficult to get worked up about things. So! Onto my philosophy - Nothing we do matters, a fact that is not depressing, but immensely liberating. If only I could stick to it all the time. Pithy or what?

Friends (9):

Mutual Friends (7):

Also Friend of (4):