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Are you a waste of space?
silverpower: Is humanity even worth saving?
starglider: As opposed to what?
silverpower: ...hmm.
— #sl4
If you ever asked yourself if you are just a waste of space the simple truth is NO.
First of all, there is enough space for everyone. Furthermore, there isn’t always a third option, sometimes not even a second one. There is no choice but to choose life. Any other option is effectively a non-option because it doesn’t change anything for you. The least happiness is better than none at all. And don't forget that things can always change unexpectedly.
More important is the fallacy at the basis of all such thoughts, i.e. to be a waste, it's an error in reasoning. You are asking a wrong question. You never asked to be born into the world. You haven’t signed any contract. The world has chosen you, not vice versa. You are without responsibility, you are under no obligation. You are not held accountable for the world, only your own well-being by means of happiness versus sorrow. Your own existence is not about usefulness. Usefulness only makes sense in reference to goals stated in advance. You have to create your own goals. And if you decide to make the world a better place, make other people happy, it’s the world that does owe you a debt of gratitude for your generosity. In the first place it is yourself who you should be careful about, for that you are the birthplace of meaning. Without you, what will be gone isn’t a waste but meaning and value itself. You imprint reality with a pattern of volition. You give meaning and value to things that, on their own, are naturally void of meaning. You are the conveyor of meaning and value, which is the most important occupation in all of reality.
How is that? A rainbow without conscious reflection is just a rainbow. Actually not even that, or who is it that calls it a rainbow in the first place? Introspection is used to find and convey meaning. Life is never pointless. There is no meaning out there, it’s in there, within us.
starglider: As opposed to what?
silverpower: ...hmm.
— #sl4
If you ever asked yourself if you are just a waste of space the simple truth is NO.
First of all, there is enough space for everyone. Furthermore, there isn’t always a third option, sometimes not even a second one. There is no choice but to choose life. Any other option is effectively a non-option because it doesn’t change anything for you. The least happiness is better than none at all. And don't forget that things can always change unexpectedly.
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death — however mutable man may be able to make them — our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
— Stanley Kubrick
More important is the fallacy at the basis of all such thoughts, i.e. to be a waste, it's an error in reasoning. You are asking a wrong question. You never asked to be born into the world. You haven’t signed any contract. The world has chosen you, not vice versa. You are without responsibility, you are under no obligation. You are not held accountable for the world, only your own well-being by means of happiness versus sorrow. Your own existence is not about usefulness. Usefulness only makes sense in reference to goals stated in advance. You have to create your own goals. And if you decide to make the world a better place, make other people happy, it’s the world that does owe you a debt of gratitude for your generosity. In the first place it is yourself who you should be careful about, for that you are the birthplace of meaning. Without you, what will be gone isn’t a waste but meaning and value itself. You imprint reality with a pattern of volition. You give meaning and value to things that, on their own, are naturally void of meaning. You are the conveyor of meaning and value, which is the most important occupation in all of reality.
What can we make of someone who says that materialism implies meaninglessness? I can only conclude that if I took them to see Seurat’s painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," they would earnestly ask me what on earth the purpose of all the little dots was.
— The scourge of perverse-mindedness
How is that? A rainbow without conscious reflection is just a rainbow. Actually not even that, or who is it that calls it a rainbow in the first place? Introspection is used to find and convey meaning. Life is never pointless. There is no meaning out there, it’s in there, within us.
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