“So, yes, death. When you’re young, you think about it… Well, you don’t really think about it, you know – you have the intelligence of raspberry jam, you’re not thinking about anything. But it’s there, as a motive force – making you do things. Go and get a job. Go and find a flat. Find somebody else. Put them in the flat. Make them stay. Get a toaster. Go to work. Get on the bus. Look at your boss. Say, “fuck”. Sit down. Pick up the thing. Go blank. Scream internally. Go home. Listen to the radio. Look at the other person. Think, “WHY? Why did this happen?”. Go to bed. Lie awake! At night! Get up. Feel groggy. Put the things on – your clothes – whatever they’re called. Go out the door, into work – same thing! Same people, again. It’s real, it is happening to you. Go home again! Sit. Radio. Dinner – mmm. GARDENING, GARDENING, GARDENING, death.” – Dylan Moran (What It Is)
As every person on this little pale blue dot has oft pondered, what is the meaning of life? Why are we here? Is there something more? Surely this cant be all there is to life?
The short answer is simply “We don’t know”. We do not have the faintest idea of what our lives need to be or even how to live. Most people go through their boring little existence not even knowing themselves. As a collective species, we have reached the point where we don’t need to fight for the right to breed, eat or even live. We have a gift that transcends mere animistic urges, and yet people still cling to the beast within themselves. This is the age of enlightenment where knowledge is at your finger tips, things we thought impossible are now every day occurrences, and where we are more globally aware than in any time of our history.
Yet still people assume you must conform to ideas and ideals founded over 2,000 years ago. The one idea that stands out for me is the idea of marriage. The whole thought process outlined above. Find the only other person in the world who can fathom any kind of feelings for you and stay with them until you both die from boredom. I am not encouraging everyone to be single and engage in copious amounts of sex, for the ever chasing of sex is what leads many people away from life. When saying to someone that you wish to remain single and childless, they react with horror. You are going against society norms and therefore not one of them, an outcast.
And yet, getting married, having offspring and eventually dying or remaining single and childless are pretty much the only choices we have in life. Everything else is pre-dictated to you. Get an education, get a job, work to pay bills. That seems to be life.
No one said life wasn’t depressing. Hell, life is the number one cause of death.
(Side Note: This post is still very much a work in progress as many of the ideas expressed with in have incomplete thought arcs. I am aware of this, and will work on it.)
1 Comment
Evan Russell · July 15, 2012 at 09:27
Society ingrains in us these ideals and philosophies that if we go against it . . . it's a cardinal sin. We the people have forgotten the teachings of old by the free-thinkers. People today, can not and will not think for themselves. They are the lukewarm cattle being led to the slaughter that is society and our daily form of government. Government in my opinion is a control formed of utter chaos.
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