• WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Existentialism is a response to essentialism though. It isn’t that life has no meaning but that people can be free to choose the meaning and path of their lives. An acorn can only become an oak tree but a person is not born with their future path preordained. The idea is existence before essence instead of essence before existence.

    • baines@lemmy.cafe
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      4 hours ago

      An acorn can only become an oak tree but a person is not born with their future path preordained

      modern people love thinking this but most people never move even 50 miles from where they were born and the single largest indictor of ‘success’ in life is your parents income

      for example being born in gaza or ukraine right now is pretty damn bleak

      if it were my choice to be born there or not, i’d pass

      • spankysalmon@fedinsfw.app
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        2 hours ago

        You’re both correct, but the underlying point is it’s not guaranteed if you’re a human in Ukraine vs an acorn in the forest. HUGE difference, and only a clown would pretend they’re equivalent.