Poll of the Day > How do you deal with your existential angst that all life is inherently...

(+) Yeah! (+)

...meaningless?

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I heard a quote a long time ago that I've stuck by: "The meaning of life is to give life meaning."

There is no inherent meaning, so we create our own. Consciously creating meaning in the face of existential dread has helped significantly.

I embrace it, no meaning means you make your own meaning

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Just narrow your scope.

You are the universe to the microbiome that lives in you, and you are not even an atom compared to the universe... and maybe the universe is not even a mote compared to some multi-verse

Y'got the farsightedness

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I don't think about it because what's the point of thinking about it? You can't change it so just move on to more important things.

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I believe in God. I know that's out of fashion, but... *shrug*

Other things that help are taking care of my family, movies, music, etc.

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Realizing this hasn't changed the way I live or the things I value. Only edgelords embrace nihilism.

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I dont worry about things I cant control.

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I don't have that
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Realise that it is only apparently meaningless from our limited human perspective. Our very existence as opposed to non-existence suggests the possibility there could be some overarching meaning to reality which we are unaware of. The best we can do is to continue to study philosophy/science/religion/whatever and perhaps eventually we will make significant metaphysical discoveries.
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Muscles posted...

I embrace it

Pretty much. No need to resign yourself to "life is so pointless I'm sad" when you can instead say "life is pointless, so I'm going to stop taking it so seriously and have some fun with it."

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Jesus

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I find it oddly comforting if it is true, but Im not convinced that it is

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Im used to it by now.

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I find it liberating because if life has no inherent meaning, that means its not dictated by someone else and you can live however you want to live.

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I create and entrust in my own value. Life is what he make of it.

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Why does it need meaning?

Watch pRon

I just stress myself out by thinking that Im wasting my already limited time here worrying about shit I cant change.

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play Hollow Knight and vibe

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Meaning is less significance than duration anyway. And honestly, you don't even need meaning to find purpose anyway.

Of course, the realization that death is seemingly inevitable is more troubling. If we cured aging, death would still exist.

https://youtu.be/M6Kq3mu9734?t=29

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I didn't expect this topic to get as many posts as it did. There were a lot of interesting answers.

JigsawTDC posted...

I heard a quote a long time ago that I've stuck by: "The meaning of life is to give life meaning."

There is no inherent meaning, so we create our own. Consciously creating meaning in the face of existential dread has helped significantly.

That's basically how I try to live. I think we create our own meaning and it doesn't have to be confined to one or two things. I also believe that the meaning we give to it shifts as we get older.

trodi_911 posted...

I don't think about it because what's the point of thinking about it? You can't change it so just move on to more important things.

I like thinking about these things mostly because they are interesting, but I also think they can be important when people feel like they have lost direction in their lives.

Joelypoely posted...

Realise that it is only apparently meaningless from our limited human perspective. Our very existence as opposed to non-existence suggests the possibility there could be some overarching meaning to reality which we are unaware of. The best we can do is to continue to study philosophy/science/religion/whatever and perhaps eventually we will make significant metaphysical discoveries.

I agree that there is so much we don't understand. Even just using psychedelics makes you realize that there are things transcendent to the average human experience. It makes it more likely that there are higher truths that we are just incapable of reaching. Human beings have always tried to push the boundaries of human knowledge and experience. We will continue to do so.

PMarth2002 posted...

I find it liberating because if life has no inherent meaning, that means its not dictated by someone else and you can live however you want to live.

That's a good way of reframing it. It gives you a greater sense of freewill and responsibility.

Zeus posted...

Meaning is less significance than duration anyway. And honestly, you don't even need meaning to find purpose anyway.

Of course, the realization that death is seemingly inevitable is more troubling. If we cured aging, death would still exist.

https://youtu.be/M6Kq3mu9734?t=29

I honestly think the idea of eternal life can be potentially more terrifying than death. Maybe life can only have its meaning because it ends. At what point is living forever just a type of hell.

GunslingerGunsl posted...

I honestly think the idea of eternal life can be potentially more terrifying than death. Maybe life can only have its meaning because it ends. At what point is living forever just a type of hell.

Eh, just like shorter lifespans, eternal life would probably be what you make of it. The only issue might be if you were trapped somewhere for long durations, although even then

Otherwise I'm not sure I can agree with things lacking meaning due to permanence and, I should note, even if you were immortal, you'd still have moments with limited duration. Even within peoples' short lives they have tons of moments, many of which either directly contributed to the person they are today or from which they extracted some meaning. (I guess a comparable example would be somebody who has short romantic relationships vs long romantic relationships. The short relationships would have a direct change in partners (and the people themselves might change over time partly based on those relationships), whereas the longer relationship would see the nature of the relationship change over time. In the scope of things, arguably the longer relationship probably has more meaning since it continually evolved even though the shorter ones have more surface-level changes.)

And in the cosmic scale of things, I suspect that even if people lived forever, they'd constantly change, unless they were stuck in a setting that precludes change.

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Zeus posted...

Eh, just like shorter lifespans, eternal life would probably be what you make of it. The only issue might be if you were trapped somewhere for long durations, although even then

Otherwise I'm not sure I can agree with things lacking meaning due to permanence and, I should note, even if you were immortal, you'd still have moments with limited duration. Even within peoples' short lives they have tons of moments, many of which either directly contributed to the person they are today or from which they extracted some meaning. (I guess a comparable example would be somebody who has short romantic relationships vs long romantic relationships. The short relationships would have a direct change in partners (and the people themselves might change over time partly based on those relationships), whereas the longer relationship would see the nature of the relationship change over time. In the scope of things, arguably the longer relationship probably has more meaning since it continually evolved even though the shorter ones have more surface-level changes.)

And in the cosmic scale of things, I suspect that even if people lived forever, they'd constantly change, unless they were stuck in a setting that precludes change.

That's a good way of looking at it. It seems that even if life happened to be eternal, it wouldn't change the fact that we would still create our own meaning or purpose in it. Although, I guess part of my original fear was the idea of living so long that everything around you eventually crumbles and you are all that is left floating in a void of nothingness. Though that is a more specific problem of living eternally as a human in a finite world.

If anything it kinda gives me relief knowing that I won't be alive forever. It puts any struggles I'm going through into perspective.

MabinogiFan posted...

If anything it kinda gives me relief knowing that I won't be alive forever. It puts any struggles I'm going through into perspective.

Conversely over a long span of time, any struggle you face will be put into perspective anyway. Usually people attach more significance to things in their childhood and teens because that's all they've experienced to that point. So something that you might have considered "the end of the world" at one point may later seem like a minor set-back. (Granted, it's often experiential rather than just physical aging... which is kind of an issue with things like age-based laws, since age doesn't always confer experience)

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Well I really am a carefree dude

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CarefreeDude posted...

Well I really am a carefree dude

You really are!

Im very okay with it. Ive fully embraced apathy a longgg...time ago!

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I'm a bit more angsty about the fact that it's short.

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The circumstances of ones birth do not matter. It is what you do with the gift of life that is important.

Go out and do something meaningful. Keep striving towards the future. Every little drop causes bigger and bigger ripples until a mighty wave grows. Don't ever think of yourself as meaningless. So long as you matter to one person you can change history and have meaning in even a small way.

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Kotenks posted...

If that's how the world is, what will angsting do about it other than make you uncomfortable? Accept that fact and do what you want with your life. It doesn't matter either way.

True, but it's not so easy for some people to just accept. It's like telling someone with anxiety to just stop feeling anxious. I don't have this problem, I just like to hear other perspectives on it. I think talking about it can help people get to the point where they can have some sort of acceptance though.

Unbridled9 posted...

The circumstances of ones birth do not matter. It is what you do with the gift of life that is important.

Go out and do something meaningful. Keep striving towards the future. Every little drop causes bigger and bigger ripples until a mighty wave grows. Don't ever think of yourself as meaningless. So long as you matter to one person you can change history and have meaning in even a small way.

Thanks, Mewtwo.

a) the few other people that I enjoy

b) music (organizing sound/frequency)

c) other living animals like birds + mammals. lizards are decent too, but we have less in common!

I feel like I understand and focus on the negative forces of society a lot, but I will still always find so much joy in the few things I find fascinating and wholesome.

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GunslingerGunsl posted...

Thanks, Mewtwo.

Lmao

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I have death anxiety. Mostly my own death if I think about it too much. However the meaning of life is different for everyone. I've yet to find my own personal meaning but maybe I don't need to. Maybe just enjoying life the best I can is enough until I cease to exist again.

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wwinterj25 posted...

I have death anxiety. Mostly my own death if I think about it too much. However the meaning of life is different for everyone. I've yet to find my own personal meaning but maybe I don't need to. Maybe just enjoying life the best I can is enough until I cease to exist again.

I think if you can say that you are enjoying your life as it is, there might not be any need to understand some greater "Meaning". Though, maybe if you really took the time to identify what exactly it is that makes your life enjoyable, that might be some clue to what meaning you've created for yourself.

wwinterj25 posted...

I have death anxiety. Mostly my own death if I think about it too much. However the meaning of life is different for everyone. I've yet to find my own personal meaning but maybe I don't need to. Maybe just enjoying life the best I can is enough until I cease to exist again.

You should try to be more accepting of other people and not such a dickhole. That might help.

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EvilMegas posted...

You should try to be more accepting of other people and not such a dickhole. That might help.

I doubt that'll change anything. I do what I enjoy in life, accept who I want in my life and some folk are simply not worth accepting as they offer nothing of value to me. They won't improve my life in any meaningful way or my enjoyment of it. There is a good chance these people are ruining other peoples lives too.

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That's stupid.

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I don't know, I have been dealing with this for a long time.
I can't just turn off my anxieties and *ahem* vibe.

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EvilMegas posted...

That's stupid.

It leads to a much more peaceful and drama free life. You should try it.

https://i.imgur.com/1eSjW9R.mp4

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Just let go.

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I'm going to upload my consciousness and become immortal, so this is a temporary issue

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GunslingerGunsl posted...

How do you deal with your existential angst that all life is inherently meaningless?

What existential angst?

For me, the idea that life DID have meaning would be the utterly terrifying thing. Because you'd never be entirely sure if you were actually doing what you were supposed to, living up to your potential, or otherwise achieving or furthering that meaning. It would be like if all existence was an MMO and you're the asshole AFK in the corner trying to figure out what the buttons do while the rest of your team is trying to pick up the slack and screaming at you in team chat.

Believing life is ultimately meaningless is incredibly freeing. It's very comforting knowing that I'll eventually be dead, and literally nothing I did in life will ever really matter, because on a long enough time scale everything ends. The greatest fuck-ups, assholes, and villains in all of human history will eventually be forgotten, humanity itself will die, the stars will all burn out, Earth will either be a cold cinder floating in an infinite void for all eternity or be torn apart on the subatomic level and dispersed across infinite space, and there will be no one and nothing left to observer, remember, or judge.

And for most of us, we won't even have to wait for the inevitable end to be forgotten - most humans will have their own individual personal impact on the world/universe smoothed out to zero within only a few generations, or maybe a couple dozen or so at most. Even if you have tons of kids and they have tons of kids, eventually those kids will lose track of you in the weeds of the family tree and forget you ever were. And the rest of the world certainly will.

But if literally nothing you do matters, then paradoxically, the only thing that matters is what you choose to do. Live a life you enjoy living, and stop worrying about what you leave behind or whether you "mattered".

Like I posted in another topic recently, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may be dead. Que sera sera. Dum vivimus vivamus."
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

But if literally nothing you do matters, then paradoxically, the only thing that matters is what you choose to do. Live a life you enjoy living, and stop worrying about what you leave behind or whether you "mattered".

Like I posted in another topic recently, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may be dead. Que sera sera. Dum vivimus vivamus."

This is the TLDR version but the rest is still worth the read

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

What existential angst?

For me, the idea that life DID have meaning would be the utterly terrifying thing. Because you'd never be entirely sure if you were actually doing what you were supposed to, living up to your potential, or otherwise achieving or furthering that meaning. It would be like if all existence was an MMO and you're the a****** AFK in the corner trying to figure out what the buttons do while the rest of your team is trying to pick up the slack and screaming at you in team chat.

Assuming that life did have some inherent meaning that we didn't decide for ourselves, I don't think it would matter much anyway if we weren't able to know what it was. It would leave us with the same questions we have when life has no inherent meaning: what should we be doing and why should we be doing it? The only difference is that there would be some transcendent truth to the matter that we could never connect with. If some God or other were to come out of the heavens and tell us what our purpose was, then I pretty much agree with you that it would be horrible to feel this pressure to live up to some ideal given to you by this omnipotent being.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Believing life is ultimately meaningless is incredibly freeing. It's very comforting knowing that I'll eventually be dead, and literally nothing I did in life will ever really matter, because on a long enough time scale everything ends. The greatest f***-ups, a******s, and villains in all of human history will eventually be forgotten, humanity itself will die, the stars will all burn out, Earth will either be a cold cinder floating in an infinite void for all eternity or be torn apart on the subatomic level and dispersed across infinite space, and there will be no one and nothing left to observer, remember, or judge.

I can't say I feel comfort in knowing I'll be dead someday. It's more-so acceptance that it is an inescapable truth. It helps me to value the time I have and remember not to take it for granted. I guess in a way it does help during times of suffering to know that pain is temporary. The book, Man's Search for Meaning really goes deep into the idea that man can find meaning even in the face of great suffering. It was one of those books that really inspires me to change the way I think because perspective makes all the difference in the world when it comes to finding happiness.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

And for most of us, we won't even have to wait for the inevitable end to be forgotten - most humans will have their own individual personal impact on the world/universe smoothed out to zero within only a few generations, or maybe a couple dozen or so at most. Even if you have tons of kids and they have tons of kids, eventually those kids will lose track of you in the weeds of the family tree and forget you ever were. And the rest of the world certainly will.

But if literally nothing you do matters, then paradoxically, the only thing that matters is what you choose to do. Live a life you enjoy living, and stop worrying about what you leave behind or whether you "mattered".

Like I posted in another topic recently, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may be dead. Que sera sera. Dum vivimus vivamus."

I really agree with the first part of the bolded text, only partly with the second half... but we might actually be thinking the same thing. I don't think it's wrong to worry about what we leave behind or about whether we mattered. I think both of those things could be part of what someone finds meaningful about their life. I want to impart values onto my kids and know that I've made a difference in people's lives before I die, even if it ultimately only accounts for a spec of human experience in the greater scope of time and existence. It matters to me because people and my relationships are what I think makes my life meaningful. I don't really think there needs to be any transcendent purpose for us to feel like we are leading meaningful lives. I just find the topic interesting to discuss.