We’re suffering through what some perceptive minds call a “crisis of meaning”.
The universe is just here. There’s no reason for it. It’s not heading towards any greater purpose.
You don’t exist for any reason. You’re here because of pitiless laws of nature that don’t care about you. Your sole “purpose”, if we can use that word, is to carry genes and spread them further.
Life and mind just happened. All the suffering means nothing. All the good parts are temporary. Oh, and the good parts? That’s just wiring in your brain that evolved by happenstance. There’s no “good” or “bad”, just what you experience.
Not bad enough?
Everything you build will turn to dust and fade out of memory. In a thousand years nobody will remember even the greatest achievements.
On a geological time-scale, not a single record of our species will survive the death of the sun.
That’s not exactly a motivational speech to get you pumped for the day.
It’s no wonder that people are checking out. If there’s no difference between the greatest heights of achievement and dying sick and drunk in the gutter, why fight the path of least resistance?
Why try anything?
It looks grim.
The reason we’re in this mess is 100% self-inflicted.
Life looks bleak because we’ve made our own interests… personal achievement, practical gain, accomplishment, and “success”… the central focus.
Living “your best life” with your “true authentic self”.
The highest and greatest value is the self.
Which sounds fine…
Until you realize that the individual is confused, inconsistent, a bubbling kettle of irrational appetites and feelings.
Society turned secular, got rid of God… and worshipped the self instead.
That’s the paradox of humanism.
By focusing exclusively on the happiness and well-being of human beings…
We’ve made it harder and harder to achieve happiness.
As a culture we’re so preoccupied with inner feelings…
And the external forces that cause our feelings…
That we can’t spare a second to think about the people and the happenings outside of us.
Here’s the other side of the paradox.
The best way to live a happy life?
Stop focusing on yourself. Quit worrying about how you feel. Get out of your head, drop the “mental health” brainwashing, stop blaming everything from your genes to generational trauma…
And live for a purpose besides your own satisfaction.
Searching for happiness by “finding your passion” or “living your true self” is a road to misery.
The moment you take attention off your narcissism and put it on a purpose outside yourself, that’s when it starts to shine.
Matt Perryman
https://matts.email