Meaning of Life

 

What is the meaning of life? Ultimately. What is it that threatens? Is it climate change, the oil industry, capitalism, humanity?

We know we need to change and yet those in positions of power and responsibility are still making rules that mostly benefit them as well as risk their future.

Take war for example. Beliefs change according to how it benefits those who we look to for leadership. Lawyers, politicians, police, medicine, all have duties to perform, yet currently we are in a time that threatens the knowledge of leaders.

What we are trained to believe doesn't cover planetary collapse which appears to make us humans redundant. If all the training and education we have received does not offer a way through, we look for a way out.

What is a way out here? Certainly we won't find support for the majority of our peers. We humans have created a system that we managed to update as we go along. But we have no sure answers. Mainly because we created systems that gave us opportunities to abuse.

When we learned agriculture we looked for leaders to advise. So a hierarchy was established which remains today as a threat. Children are trained to admire and follow the rulers. Adults are trained to keep their opinions to themselves if they believe those in charge are not capable of saving us.

Beliefs became entrenched in law, habits and orthodoxies. Prisons built to put away those we thought were dangerous. (I know this is too easy to be true but most of us are not scientists or trained philosophers and this is not meant to be an academic submission - I write this because I want to think about it).

Various centuries have demanded various beliefs and these beliefs can either save or harm us. Take for example the witch hunts. They were charged with creating spells, power over us. The result was not just thousands of women who were murdered but the habit of making sure women did not have any power. Women became the possessions of men, husbands, sons, kings but rarely queens. It was a tiring campaign but the result was half the population had no voice. And yet there was always fear. The more a group of people are silenced the more they become dangerous in our imaginations. 

Even today the biggest threat to authoritarian societies are those we fear not just those who are not like us. This is huge in the realm of social imagination. 

We suffer no matter what. Mostly because our bodies are vulnerable to bleed and break, and even if we live for 80 years, our brain has a vague memory of what we are afraid of. I am not talking of trauma here because there are others trained in that field who are best at explaining that. Yes we have to deal with trauma but I am not the one to write about it.

Our own well being is not the greatest concern. We can see how those we love are also at risk. Young helpless babies, children, aged parents and all kin. With the daily news we hear of strangers with knives and guns. We learn of sociopaths in positions of great power. We are aware that the things we need most can be taken away, we can be starving, poor and homeless. 

The more power we have the bigger our losses. The greater our sensitivity the greater our fears. The more intelligence we posses the larger the threats dance in our minds, keeping us awake, causing emotional sickness and mental illness. It's exhausting. Where and when will it all end?

There are no solutions. There are many theories and arguments but no pills or insurance policies that offer 100% protection. We stand a better chance when we don't cause suffering which magnifies every fear and threat.

Even those who invest in guns and bombs in the hope it will keep their circle safe from inquiring minds - are investing in chaos. Theories of control are the fantasies we have relied on to keep going. Religion which we look to for wisdom makes all who are not adhering to that particular faith a danger if we cannot see the strength of having different beliefs, the comfort of inquiry and the self discipline to not engage in judgements based on our own ignorance.

Is the meaning of life really a balance where we learn as much as we can, comfort as many as we can, love all we can, feed and shelter all we can, for as long as we can?