Thursday, December 18, 2008

Meaninglessness

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Meaningless, Meaningless, All Is Meaningless!

Said the writer of Ecclesiastes.

I think I understand where he was coming from.

Solomon and Sisyphus actually came to the same understanding of meaninglessness by way of experience:

Monotony finds no relief in adding variety or changing our attitude about it. Activity does not create meaning; it is the other way around.

If life, existentially speaking, has no meaning, then a change of attitude does not change the reality of meaninglessness. It only changes how we function in a meaningless world, which was exactly Jean Paul Sartre’s point in his book No Exit.

What difference does it make, when the boat is going down, if you stand on the deck and salute or just sit back down and play a last game of poker?

Dum vita est, spes est.
“While life is, hope is.”
Or
“While there is life, there is hope.”

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