/lit/ - Literature

For there is no more remembrance of the wise man than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dies the wise man? As the fool.

Ecclesiastes 2:16

>>2046768
EXACTLY. Fuck.

>Ignoring the fact that many authors have been long dead, yet they live on through their works.

Not that it matters to you when you're dead, but you know.

literally everything is the point, there are no things that aren't the point

>>2046759
read camus and stop wallowing. construct your own meaning, and try your best to live a meaningful life.

now that you know existential thoughts, you'll be able to better appreciate this curious place we're in.

godspeed, friend

Oh, existentialism. How appropriate.

Look, man, if you're thinking this way, I figure it's safe to assume you're not religious. That's one of the reasons man created God: To give people a reason to exist. Without an invisible Father in the sky to tell us all "why", there isn't much else for us as humans to go off of. The way I cope with the sheer vanity of it all is to try and make my life as enjoyable as possible, so that I don't suffer for nothing. Live your life first, then see what happens. That's all I have to say on the subject.

I can't believe how many of you angsty teens trot in here and divulge what should be an obvious starting premise as some sort of shocking epiphany.

Allow me to educate you. Everyone is aware of this. Everyone has had this thought. Your parents have had it. Your friends have had it. That really stupid dude on the school football team? Yeah, he's had it too. It simply isn't an interesting or novel thought, and for that matter, I think 'existential crisis' is the supreme hyperbole the way you people seem to use it.

Most people just shelve these thoughts and get on with the inevitable process of living. A few select, very clever, people grapple with the problem and try to work out some sort of system that either solves, or mitigates, it. unsuccessfully. Both these groups of people are more interesting than the third group - the group that just sits around being angsty, harboring the delusion that if only everyone else was equally perceptive, they too would sit around whinging.

Skip the Camus. Only works if you have a talent for bullshitting yourself.

http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/The_Last_Messiah

Whatever floats your boat.

>>2046788
It's easy to feel smart when you're talking down on people, bro.

Deep and Edgy posted this once, I found it quite interesting.

>>2046798

Well, you would know.

Pretty basic shit here, but the idea that there's an end goal to life is ridiculous and you need to throw it out the window.
You should instead focus on the idea that the pleasure of living in itself is the meaning of life, or rather, the reason for living. Upon attaining sentience it becomes obvious to the human being that all efforts towards stability in civilization and preservation of culture are futile, and only exist as the natural mechanism of biology towards survival, ultimately doomed against entropy.

Therefore, logically, the sentient creature should kill himself, realizing his life to be logically useless- So, one is faced with the choice to either decide why it is worth living or to commit suicide.

For me, the fulfillment I get from life, the unique joys, and the privilege of it all- To think, I get to THINK and EXPERIENCE and LIVE for this minuscule window in the scope of the universe before I return to the blackness that existed before I was born- This in itself is profoundly beautiful enough to encourage me to keep living, and I believe that this is what keeps anyone free from the delusions of afterlife and utopian futurism pushing towards the future.

The temporary nature of life is really incredibly interesting to me, actually. I'm still working on how to write it adequately into life.

I continue to live simply to produce dopamine.

Isn't this is the end goal of every other human being?

What's all this 'you'll be forgotten in a couple generations' bullshit?

Gilgamesh is still well known.

>>2046809

Oh hi Dawkins, how's it going?

>>2046796
Yeah?
Well Gandhi was a racist
Fuck Gandhi

>>2046777
>>2046777
This. Read Camus, OP. Lots and lots of Camus.

>>2046759

There is meaning to existence, you just have not found it, in order to find it, you must do some thing that no one has ever attempted.

lol go back to /pseudo/sci/

oh and do some psychedelic drugs

>>2046759

There is meaning to existence, it's just that no one has ever found it, so to find it, you must do things no one has ever done before.

>>2046817
Well, for instance, you're being racist right now, but that doesn't mean that you should go fuck yourself.

Instead of watching who say this or that you should care a little more about what they actually said. That's if you're interested enough in thinking about it, though.

I used to feel this way. Eventually I did come to the conclusion that life is about accumulating interesting, unique and pleasurable experiences. I'll cease to care whether I'm remembered or not after I'm dead anyway -- I'll be dead. I'm at least planning on having few regrets over things I wish I'd experienced.

I don't particularly care if I'm remembered (and I won't have children), though I'm planning on writing several books and I hope those at least survive for a little while after my death.

>>2046809
Also, although the people who have said it in this thread thus far have been bleeding standoffish cunts about it- Yes, 'existential crisis' is in fact a rather overwrought term for what is a basic part of the mental development of a lot of young people. The difference being that the weak and the ignorant hide from, obfuscate, or tuck away the problem of pointlessness (the two primary offenders being religious thinking and leaving 'what is the meaning of life' as a question impossible to answer), whereas the more adjusted among us embrace the absurdity of life and the meaninglessness of our actions- I consider the essence of this to be why we have art, sort of a defiance of this mechanical, doomed biology and instead a celebration of sentience itself. Art being exclusive to humans for a reason- It's born from that cerebral, strange defect that gives us our unique perceptions and thoughts, the place where we find self-image.

This is also my primary reason for my dislike of religion on principle. The concepts of afterlife and of divine creation ruin life itself, in my eyes. I was of the opinion that most nonreligious observers felt the same way, although I'm seeing more and more that to a large degree people don't think it through even to that basic level.

Holy information. I'll read through this tomorrow. Thanks for all the input guys, didn't expect so much from a slower board like /lit/.

>>2046815
I think it's a bit ridiculous to group together everyone who enjoys life through secular thinking with someone who very publicly hates religion to the point of blaming it for multiple unrelated social ills.

>>2046813

This, pretty much.

Existential crisis are a 1st world luxury.
Where else can you disregard how awesome your life is just because you won't matter after you die.

Marxism is a scientific religion. Join it.

>>2046843
Don't try and tell me I'm lucky. I know what the fuck I am.

Post existential crisis victim here: Examine every thing in your life of significance, those that have effected you emotionally and psychologically as opposed to general materialistic accomplishments like your first job or car, and there you'll begin to piece the dots of who you are and what your purpose in this life is. Explore the root of it, for example not just making art, but whatever it is that makes you want to make art... it can keep you more flexible.

Everyone has some unexplored passion, which I think accounts for like why so many people in even a post-industrialist society are chronically depressed, drunk, or both. Don't give up on yourself, just because materialistic things are meaningless doesn't mean life is, go do some soul searching.

>>2046817
He also was a child molester / fucker (but by child I mean 12-14 year old indian girls, which I guess is acceptable).

>>2046855
I'm sorry, but as soon as you said 'soul searching', I assumed you were a 40 year-old woman, and would have had to fight the urge to punch you in the face if this weren't the internet. Other than that, you have a fair point. I just don't need a reason to do what I do. I feel like it, and that is enough for me.

>>2046837

I'm sorry, I was just being glib - I recently re-read The God Delusion to reaffirm my opinion that it is a steaming pile, and your language and outlook was highly reminiscent of Dawkins on meaning through the beauty of science etc (incidentally the only part of the book that was OK).

>>2046855
>just because materialistic things are meaningless doesn't mean life is

lolwat

You are one of the many the loutish "cunts" - many pseudoscience, popscience reading zealot undergrad engineering students who suckle the very teet of the new atheism movement and mercilessly worships the god Richard Dawkins and his minions such as Sam Harris. You are the very 19-20 year engineering or science undergrad who sits on the bus with their old testemant, "The Selfish Gene" or "The God Delusion" trying to seek attention. You are a faggot with a book by some guy who wants to make money, a few different steps in life would of had you chanting "god is dead"

OP I love your trip. Like, LOVE it. Any chance of you giving it up? I want it bad.

>>2046868
>would of

Post disregarded.

everything is completely meaningless, yes. But I don't see why you think making a lasting impact on the world would be meaningful.

>>2046868

I love how this guy assumes I give a fuck about Dawkins.

>>2046848
Since when has this thread been about you?

That was a general statement that you felt you were personally being responded to which you
weren't. I know, because I typed it.

You need to work on your egotistical nature.

The first step is to stop being a tripfag.

>>2046878
see
>>2046887
Oops, I thought I had the trip on before I posted that.
Oh well.

Still isn't about you.

I think about it every night but in the context of "what should I do with my life?" Like you said, nothing is permanent so it seems an absolute waste of time to spend my life doing something I don't want to do so that I can accumulate wealth that will mean nothing to me once I'm dead. But I also want to be able to go through life as comfortably as possible, and that requires a stable income so that I can actually buy shit.

>>2046865
Cool story. Oh, that draws a question for you... why do you want to harm that which you dislike? It can't be that it's because you're secure with your own perspective.

>>2046862

Aah, I've never read it myself, so I wouldn't know about the language thing. From the little I've heard about Dawkins, that was the only part that made any sense to me (although I personally value artistic and creative beauty over the natural beauty of the universe).

I really do wish the militant internet atheists would read a bit more into that, the reasonable and actually valuable end of the thought he tells people about and not the HURR HURR CHRISTIANITY CAUSED DA DARK AGES, WE'D BE LIVIN ON DA MOON BY NOW IF NOT FOR DEM BACKWORDS CHRISTIAN SCUM, I HAVE STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT HOW USELESS AND STUPID THEY ARE EVEN THOUGH I DON'T WORK TO IMPROVE MYSELF AT ALL AND SPEND ALL DAY ON REDDIT AND THE XBOX

They're giving the rest of us a bad name, really. I can't explain for thirty seconds to someone that my appreciation of life stems primarily from my lack of belief in afterlife or divine purpose without having to give myself the very uncool label of "person who shares beliefs with Dawkins and his cultlike followers". Can I get some sort of special label for people like myself established, so I can form together with everyone else who agrees with that one section of atheist thought but is otherwise moderate/agnostic/not concerned with theological semantics? We'll be the Trotskyites to his Stalin, in a way...

Similar situation OP.

Just finished reading Crime and Punishment. I feel like utter shit. Not that nothing matters (by that logic I shouldn't care that nothing matters), but that I'll never be able to transcend the limits of my humanity.
I also basically shifted from hardcore libertarian to socialist in about 1 day. That's another story, involving my thoughts on Huxley.

>>2046918
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brights_movement
maybe

>>2046927
It is interesting, though not very promising.

I suppose I'll just call myself nonreligious and describe my beliefs as Humanist, then, because even using the words 'atheist' or 'agnostic' has taken on a thick alternate meaning the likes of which I don't care to burden myself with.

I'll go ahead and politely sage since I'm massively off-topic at this point.

Life has no meaning, it has no reason to have a meaning. Life have meaning? Life is not even meaning apt. Yes, all will die and be forgotten and not even the earth abideth forever. There are no moral truths, no point to existence, no meaning in life. Life is an ongoing chemical reaction. The universe a fluctuation that will end in a complete heat death. When you die it is over, you are over. You will not transcend to something else. Everything that makes you you are chemical processes, even consciousness and sentience. There are no reasons to believe in souls, gods, or life after death. They are only comforts, things that people who don't know any better believe and things that people who do know better to force themselves to believe and hope in..

So maybe you should just live and not think about it much, because it won't help too, and won't matter how hard you hold on. You won't come by any real revelations.. you may fool yourself, but that's all. Maybe it's good to be fooled, maybe it will make you happy.

None of this is revolutionary, and it's not secret. And all hope is false hope, but even false hope feels good sometimes.

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/browne/thomas/hydriotaphia/#chapter5

>>2046918

I feel your pain. What I'm most sick of is all the people who automatically assume that if you disagree with Dawkins you must be an avid Christian.

>>2046927

Nope. Dawkins endorses that shit in his crappy books, and even if he didn't, fuck calling yourself a "bright" on the basis that you don't believe in God. The arrogance is appalling, and unfounded given how many militant atheists are anything but bright.

Unser atheisten sind fromme leute.

Seriously. Dawkins is the second coming of Bruno Bauer.

>>2046777
>implying Camus ever even addresses it besides acknowledging the problem and saying everyone should acknowledge it.

The point of life is to experience it of course.

bamp before i'm out for the day

>>2046803

Wow, there's SO MUCH BULLSHIT on that picture...!

>I'm having an existential crisis.
see a therapist

It's happiness which doesn't mean squat.

Virtue is where it's at.

>>2046803
here, I'll simplify:

>there are two types of people in the world
> Existential fuck-ups
> normal people
>notice a trend here? That's right, existential fuck-ups are existential!
'course it is hilariously true that rich white people who tons of spare time are existential.

Also OP, everything is completely insignificant. But if you want to do it, it has value to you even if arbitrary. Don't pretend you don't want or need something, I really doubt that

you don't have an existential crisis.

you have an emotional crisis.
seek mental help and leave philosophy to people who actually know what they're doing

live in the moment and not for the future. asking what is the meaning of life is wrong IMO, its impossible to answer. instead ask yourself, what do i want to do before i die ??

Congratulations. You've just experienced the same existential crisis that every teenager on the planet has.

My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.

"Si la vie n'est qu'un passage, sur ce passage au moins semons des fleurs"
-Montaigne.

Proust:
"We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes. The situation that we hoped to change because it was intolerable becomes unimportant. We have not managed to surmount the obstacle, as we were absolutely determined to do, but life has taken us round it, led us past it, and then if we turn round to gaze at the remote past, we can barely catch sight of it, so imperceptible has it become."

>>2046791
Why did you post this? I wasn't having an existential crisis, but now I want to kill myself.

>>2047610

>there are two types of people in the world
> Existential fuck-ups
> normal people
>notice a trend here? That's right, existential fuck-ups are existential!
>'course it is hilariously true that rich white people who tons of spare time are existential.

You didn't quite simplify that properly