If we come to the realization that there is no "higher power" no "great meaning" should we assign meaning to things and specifically our life even when keeping those in mind?

OR should we just except it as is, meaningless?

Cactus:
http://stripe.colorado.edu/~morristo/sisyphus.html

Myth of Sisyphus. The absurd. Read it. Live it. Love it.

Assign meaning to things, if it makes you feel better. Struggle against the heights, even though there is no use in the struggle. The struggle itself is worth it.

And yes, you will get tired of the struggle. I am. You will also get over being tired of the struggle, when you continue on.

You will also make friends who can share the struggle with you. You might even meet a man or woman worth sharing it with - and love them

Somtimes, they will return the feeling.

But when it all comes down to that, you are alone. You are your own master, you are the person who reacts and shapes your world.

Lonliness seems an integrel part of the absurd, that is true, but so is friendship and love. These things are good, but they shouldn't be sought for their own sake.


One does not discover the absurd without being tempted to write a manual of happiness. "What!--- by such narrow ways--?" There is but one world, however. Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable. It would be a mistake to say that happiness necessarily springs from the absurd. discover y. It happens as well that the felling of the absurd springs from happiness. "I conclude that all is well," says Edipus, and that remark is sacred. It echoes in the wild and limited universe of man. It teaches that all is not, has not been, exhausted. It drives out of this world a god who had come into it with dissatisfaction and a preference for futile suffering. It makes of fate a human matter, which must be settled among men.

All Sisyphus' silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him. His rock is a thing Likewise, the absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, silences all the idols. In the universe suddenly restored to its silence, the myriad wondering little voices of the earth rise up. Unconscious, secret calls, invitations from all the faces, they are the necessary reverse and price of victory. There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night. The absurd man says yes and his efforts will henceforth be unceasing. If there is a personal fate, there is no higher destiny, or at least there is, but one which he concludes is inevitable and despicable. For the rest, he knows himself to be the master of his days. At that subtle moment when man glances backward over his life, Sisyphus returning toward his rock, in that slight pivoting he contemplates that series of unrelated actions which become his fate, created by him, combined under his memory's eye and soon sealed by his death. Thus, convinced of the wholly human origin of all that is human, a blind man eage r to see who knows that the night has no end, he is still on the go. The rock is still rolling.

I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The strugg le itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Listen to Xev, she is wise.


I would argue that there is a meaning to life. What many people fail to realize when arguing this is that a meaning doesn't have to be decreed by a higher being. A meaning to your life can be named by you. Just like a meaning or reason for any action can be named by you.

The question is, what do you want your life to be?

"The question is, what do you want your life to be?"

I want to go to Harvard Law, become a Constitutional lawyer, beat the crap out of the fundies and conservs who try to attack my constitution, get filthy rich and drive wonderfull cars, and spend my weekends and holidays vacationing in Tahiti, Australia and Hawaii with either Him or Russel Crowe, I am not going to be picky. :p

There is no absoloute meaning of life so the only meaning it has is what you decide it to be.

I want to go to Harvard Law

No, dear god Xev......not there........we don't want to lose you to..... them.

Xev! Haven't you heard! Russel is fat now!

Tyler:
"Xev! Haven't you heard! Russel is fat now!"

Is not! :p

Cactus:
"No, dear god Xev"

I'm a god? KEWL!

But seriously, life is about struggle. People are great, to help you with that struggle, but never put your faith in them.

You'll always have yourself. And that's the most precious thing.

Xevy! Russel actually is overweight! He's had to hire a martial arts expert and nutritionist to help him get down to weight for his next movie where he plays a 'sauve navy captain'.

I'm not even joking!

Ha! That's great.

He was really good in a Beautiful Mind though.

"Xevy! Russel actually is overweight! He's had to hire a martial arts expert and nutritionist to help him get down to weight for his next movie where he plays a 'sauve navy captain'."

*Shrugs*

I don't follow Hollywood news anyway. He looks fine to me.

Besides, Hollywood standards of weight are over-idealistic anyway.

Ah!...if everyone has a different meaning...can the world function when meanings collide with each other....:confused:

"Ah!...if everyone has a different meaning...can the world function when meanings collide with each other...."

Yes, if we respect each other's rights.

If we:
"Go forth, and be excellent to one another. " --Bill and Ted

Yeah, unless the meanings turn into large unfounded religous organizations that kill kill kill, oh forget it.

Yes they can.

Be excellent to each other.


I LOVED how an entire society was based on them!!! CLASSICS!

Fine! If y'all are going to diss Russel, it turns out that Piazza is NOT GAY! Really. He says so.

I believe him. ;)

Cactus:
"Yeah, unless the meanings turn into large unfounded religous organizations that kill kill kill, oh forget it."

Indeed, that is one of the problems with the quest for meaning - should you find it, you risk becoming doctrinare.

I feel very flattered, in a kinda non-recognised way.... ;)

I think everybody should find meaning in their own life. I believe you are absolutely free in doing that (or not doing that). You just have to decide what is meaningful to you. For example: lots of money, a steady relationship,...

I think that's what God meant when saying in the Bible that man had to complete the creation.

From a more philosophical point of view, I think we are here to experience, and thus also create goals, and assigning meaning to them. It's like playing Morrowind! :)

I don't think this could endanger society, cause there should be a distinction between the private and the public life. That is what Hannah Arendt wrote about. The private life is like I described above. The public life should be aimed at attaining the highest good for the highest number of people. That way cohesion between all those different private choices is guaranteed. This notion also forms the boundary of that free choice: we can only choose up until the point where we hurt others.

Which is nothing more than the Golden Rule, found in Christianity and every other major religion: do not to others what you don't want them to do to you.

I love it how all things are connected! :)

Xev, if you come over here, you will be closer to me... and you wouldn't want that now would you???

Russel is a bad actor anyway, Galiadator sucked.

life is what you make it to be.