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Meaning of life?
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There absolutely is no meaning to life. There is meaning to conciousness which; A) Life can get on without and
Might be able to get on without life.
In fact there can be no meaning to anything prior to and apart from consciousness. Hence in the absence of some kind of God character acting as a conscious prime mover, there is definitively no meaning to the creation event or the macro universe in general.
Of all atheistic philosophers and writers I know of, only Nietzsche addressed this nihilistic insight with seriousness
"I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilism's] arrival. I believe it is one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes master of this crisis, is a question of his strength!" Neitzsche0 -
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It's because we've evolved out of our caveman stage that we seek to assert ourselves over others.
If we where truly evolved we would not seek to impose ourselves on others and control them, it is simply the herd instinct. We want to dominate and lead.
How do we do that? How do you keep on top of everyone else who also want their shot at power? Either a democratic system as in the west, so you get everyone flinging sh*te at you until they have managed to remove you from power or you get the middle stage countries like Russia and China where the state has so much might, no one can take them on, or you get the truly chaotic countries, where a bloody coup every few years will ensure power transition to whatever tinpot dictator has managed to gather the most weapons and followers.
Terry Pratchett once said that any person who wants power, should never be allowed to wield it.
Switching to utopian Star Trek mode
In a truly advanced civilsation, people would work together because it is for the good of all people. People would lead because they want to organise, not because they want to impose their will onto others. Instead of doing your own little bit because with that you get money and can buy more stuff, we would do something because it is greater than our own little self.
There are people like that, but they are not the majority. We need a few more millennia for that.
We are still on the step where it is decided if we will terminate ourselves by our own greed, stupidity and lust for power and then we can move on to the next step, where we can move towards being able to survive external threats. Asteroids are nature's way of saying "How's that space program coming along?"
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If we where truly evolved we would not seek to impose ourselves on others and control them, it is simply the herd instinct. We want to dominate and lead.
Agree with you that this is a noble and essential aim for humanity. But it is our evolution that causes the bind. The 'herd instinct' is simply the will of the individual hidden in the chaos of numbers.How do we do that? How do you keep on top of everyone else who also want their shot at power? Either a democratic system as in the west, so you get everyone flinging sh*te at you until they have managed to remove you from power or you get the middle stage countries like Russia and China where the state has so much might, no one can take them on, or you get the truly chaotic countries, where a bloody coup every few years will ensure power transition to whatever tinpot dictator has managed to gather the most weapons and followers.
The one thing that is common among all these systems of power is (wo)man's urge to be lead, rather than to lead. Leaders are more often than not disposed of when we are done with them. But in their place comes the next promise of salvation. And without fail, we put our faith in the new promise. We cannot stand alone. It's all too much!Terry Pratchett once said that any person who wants power, should never be allowed to wield it.
Wise words. But leaders have power pushed upon them as much as vice versa. All groups move to this system, regardless of the inherent qualities of the individuals within it. We are simply incapable of existing in a system where there is no one to look to/blame/scapegoat/lead etc.Switching to utopian Star Trek mode
In a truly advanced civilsation, people would work together because it is for the good of all people. People would lead because they want to organise, not because they want to impose their will onto others. Instead of doing your own little bit because with that you get money and can buy more stuff, we would do something because it is greater than our own little self.
There are people like that, but they are not the majority. We need a few more millennia for that.
We are still on the step where it is decided if we will terminate ourselves by our own greed, stupidity and lust for power and then we can move on to the next step, where we can move towards being able to survive external threats. Asteroids are nature's way of saying "How's that space program coming along?"
Ah, Utopia! Here's hoping!!0 -
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I read a really interesting analysis of money recently.
But it pointed out something interesting that I had never really considered.
Money was first thought to be represented by amulets and charms. Pieces of superstitious trinketry that would protect us from this or that. We would visit a priest/shaman/spirit man who would provide us with the protective charm in exchange for some 'stuff'.
Gradually the mana imbued charms came to be made/represented in Gold and Silver. They represented life itself, and protection from evil.
This idea is ingrained in us. It's an ancient idea, but one that persists.
That is, we want money, and want it so much that people will give their goods away to attain it.
Not, we want goods, and so will give our money away to attain it.
Perhaps the representation of 'mana' has switched from the charm/trinket/coin to the commodity, but it is an ancient tendency and one that will be difficult to change
That is an interesting thought. i'm not sure how much i agree with the latter part, regarding money today and the main issue with it.
It is similar in that money has no intrinsic value(as it is no longer based on gold or silver reserves held). Those promises in money is similar to those of the shaman alright.
Our need for money i don't see quite the same as the need for protection or any spiritual/religious/superstitious part of our consciousness. Ok maybe protection via securing land and food etc.
With money today they create it and sell it to banks on the condition that the banks pay them back the same money later, with interest on top.
That is the crux of the issue. Because the money can never be paid back with interest as the interest did not exist....
It is impossible, without giving up something else to match the perceived value of that money. So instead they take our land as payment.
That is the simple analogy.
In reality the market is flooded with money soit appears to be possible to pay this interest.
What is happening is the moneyis just taken from someone else or they lose their land. On the grand scale the analogy is still taking place, most just do not think about it or see it.
If the shamans were taking peoples land as well, then I would consider them to be the root of the issue. Much like the priests in Egyptian times taking power by using superstition and hoarding knowledge.
On the Douglas adams quote posted
I don't think money has helped the issue at all lolThis planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
And I can't blame those who are victims of recession either.
Consider if you wanted to stop using this scam monetary system( it is most definetly a scam, the biggest scam I have witnessed).
You would be homeless and unable to even aquire food. You might be arrested if you walked out into the countryside to try grow a little food, because you would need money to buy the land.
You could try live beside one of those canals around the country and maybe grow on a small patch by the water, but you would soon be moved on or arrested.
There is nowhere to go... you will die on the steets or in a cell maybe.
I know that money is not the only factor here. Another is that we have grown in population size and land is becoming more rare to own as time goes by.
I do think the industrial age has brought a lot of things, but the price may have been too high. Too much was created in too short a time and someone got really fat hoarding all the resources.
I think it could be run much better, but unfortunately i alsothink thatthe people taking power most frequently through other people and links are psychopaths and sociopaths who only care for their club memebers and are happy to crush and enslave the rest of the population of the planet. Sonot much has changed overal. Just the bonds are getting tighter around our necks and on a much larger scale.
It is possible now for the rich and powerfull across the ocean in america to buy up our debts here in Ireland at a discounted rate. Take the land through shell companies and corporations and sell it on or just hoard it for later.
A far stretch I think from the days of the shaman.
Regarding the victims or players in this game who lose out ( the 99%),
They do enable their own imprisonment and I see that superstitious mechanic to an extent. However I would say that there are many reasons for this ignorance on the whole.
One being education and mass media.
The money makers own the governments that run our schools, our colleges get funding from them, our media outlets get funding from them and news!
They have their hands in everything, pulling the strings.
Lets call it my own personal theory. I've been researching this as a sort of hobby since around 2010 or so. And I don't have a complied list of links and info unfortunately.
i would prefer if money was at the very least brough back to be based on something real. This would prevent the money makers from creating outrageous amounts of debt on something thatdoes not even exist. Without a benchmark there are no limits or worth.
At any time theycan insist on repayment and we lose land and resources as a result. A global recession in many cases.
We are on the tail end of the last one and there most likely is another coming soon.
The banks need to pay the man. So they must pull the rug out from us and grab what they can while they can, in order to stay afloat.
If they dont they will close down and most likely a government will back that debt(like here in Ireland) and another bank will pop up in it's place, with the ability to aquire new amounts of debt from citizens to pay off the interest to the moneymakers(for creating the funding to start said bank).
To attempt to get closer to topic
I think our purpose as humans has been subverted quite a lot with the advent of money(not backed by anything at all) and industrialization(progress).
Taking an overview of things and considering progress and industrialization as building a tower up into the sky(lol searching for god? babel :P ) I would see it as wise to build out the foundations wider before going too high.
The current mode of thought seems to be build up and up and up as fast as possible. I think we are going to topple over due to this spirit of "progress".
A wiser group would build out much wider and slowly go up. So as to stay up.
The anarchist in me says maybe it is good they build up so fast. Maybe it will fall down faster and allow for a more experienced building next time.
It is a questionof time and energy maybe. If the tower does not destroy us when it falls, it may have been worth making all these massive mistakes, to learn how to do it right the next time.
For that reason it might be ok that psychopaths run everything.
It maybe an important lesson we need to learn the hard way.
That empathy and love is the highest form of intelligence(something animals know about too apparently), or something along those lines haha.0 -
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