Comment by o1bf2k25n8g5
8 months ago
> ...you are here to do the required work to understand yourself, your circumstances, stand on the shoulder of giants and study the great minds that came before you.
Just to offer a counterpoint:
“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
The more I experience, the more I think maybe that's a pretty good point, too.
It's like the nihilist denying any meaning to the world. It's because they choose to see it that way even if they aren't aware of it.
If you choose to fart around, whatever that means, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since there's no salvation, farts are also meaningless, and at the same time totally meaningful given the circumstances.
Vonnegut sounds closer to an epicurist.
A nihilist would say fart or don't fart it's all pointless.
As a nihilist my sense of meaning seams to be compatible to yours. I don't deny that we can come up with all sorts of meanings but the point is that there is no intrinsically higher meaning to everything, it's all made up. In fact, the awareness of this is the basis of my nihilism. That doesn't mean, that I don't like some meanings more than others, otherwise I had no reason to act whatsoever.
There are certainly universal truths. For example, you exist. Therefore there is something to believe in
12 replies →
> Since there's no salvation, farts are also meaningless
That's begging the question. I'd argue that all meaning is in how we fart around.
Meaning is what you want it to be.
If you don’t know what it is and don’t know what you want, you either fart around or resign.
I think you might be confusing nihilism with absurdism in this case.
I love Vonnegut. I don't agree with him on everything; semicolons are fine.
I don't believe Vonnegut beleived that for a minute.
> Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind."
Some babies hear that and just "nope" out? What was the narrative before seasons, science and over population?
Hunter gatherer societies we like to imagine as constantly being on the edge of starvation, but in reality during summer months, they could hunt and forage a whole day's worth of food in a few hours, and then spend the rest of the time farting around.
One is not counter to the other.