• quips@slrpnk.net
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    15 hours ago

    I am extremely grateful nothing cosmically matters. It means nothing matters more than the things that matter to us.

    Could you imagine if your life was dictated by some external purpose that you were forced into? If you couldn’t give this life and this world your own meaning? It would be horrible.

  • SystemDisc@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    I’m pro optimistic nihilism. Nothing has any inherent meaning, so I have the privilege of assigning my own meaning to things.

    • quips@slrpnk.net
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      15 hours ago

      Thank God the universe doesn’t care. I don’t want it telling me what to do.

    • banazir@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      We’re part of the universe and we care, therefore the universe cares through us.

      “We are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out.” -Delenn

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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      1 day ago

      Meaning only matters to minds, so it makes sense that minds is where meaning comes from.

  • GraniteM@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    And can we not consider that each of us can so arrange his own particular life so as to make it meaningful to himself and to those he influences? And in that case does not all of life and all the Universe come to have meaning to him?

    Surely it is those who find their own lives essentially meaningless who most strive to impose meaning on the Universe as a way of making up for the personal lack.

    –Isaac Asimov, Knock Plastic!, 1989

  • Kindness is Punk@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    All meaning is defined from within, the fact that there’s no one keeping score is what makes it matter.

    If you need a diety or the concept of karmic balance in order to do what you know to be right then I’m not sure you really believe in it.

    • xylol@leminal.space
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      1 day ago

      I was surprised a old coworker went to church one time he mentioned it as he seemed like not the type.

      I asked him why he goes and he told me he would probably kill someone if he didn’t go to church and learn what was right or wrong and it was super weird to me that some people have like no morales/empathy built in

  • tmyakal@infosec.pub
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    1 day ago

    This reminds me of my own thoughts on the peak year of cinema: 1999. We got:

    • the Matrix
    • American Beauty
    • Office Space
    • Fight Club
    • Being John Malkovich

    The inciting incident to all of these movies is basically, “I’m a bored white guy feeling existential dread.” They’re all great films, but if late-90s cinema is any indication, a huge swathe of Americans had virtually no problems back then.

    Or to put it another way: as of 2000, Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over

    • Naz@sh.itjust.works
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      14 hours ago

      1998-1999 had historically low oil prices and pretty fantastic economic prosperity. Not as good as the post-war recovery period, but shit was looking up in a hurry.

      One of the best times to be alive

  • Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    Look at a starry sky, see how many stars there are. Each one is a nearly unimaginable number of times larger than the planet you live on. Each one may potentially carry an entire history of civilizations far beyond what humans may ever achieve.

    You feel irrelevant? Each star is all of that and yet if you raise your hand to the sky you can completely cover several of them from your point of view. That’s how big you are.

  • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    Matches my thoughts on the whole “what if this is all just a simulation?” thing too. Until that has some tangible effect on us, or we find a way out, so what?

    And free will. We feel like we have it. That’s all that really matters as far as that debate goes unless you’re the kind of jackass trying to rob someone of their accomplishment or absolve yourself of terrible behavior.

    • Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      We might not even exist - we could be a simulation or even just the imagination of some higher plane being. The absolute only thing that we can be completely sure of is that something is real somewhere, at some level.

      • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        Same sort of thing. Sure, my entire existence could be the product of a delusion of some higher order being merely keeping the results of my senses consistent with what I consider “real life”. All my previous experiences could be complete fabrications done convincingly enough, including previous musings on this.

        So fucking what?

        Until any of that becomes provable or has direct impact on the experience I have as “real life”, it’s nothing more than extremely boring navel gazing.

        Non-falsifiable philosophical wankery dead-ends and a waste of energy to seriously consider. Better ways to spend what I pErCeIvE as time.

      • rnercle@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        The absolute only thing that we can be completely sure of is that something is real somewhere, at some level.

        is that a joke?