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""Life" - Life's greatest disappointment"

I mean, come on.

Get up, go to work, come back, eat, go to bed. Repeat to fade.

They didn't tell us it would be like this. Endless service, with little reward. Do this, do that. Can't say no, or you'll lose your job, and you're even worse off than before.

I remember finger painting in Primary school. Hard to think that finger painting is societies great way of preparing future generations for the workplace, and indeed, society as a whole.

Simple fact is, we aren't prepared for it. Not properly. Which is why life turns out to be such a disappointment for so many.

And those who have come before us who have carved their little níche via their great imaginations do us no great service either. We see movies about space exploration, we read books about great adventures in wonderous lands. Explorations we will never conduct, lands we will never see, adventures we can never have.

We are told wonderous stories of lives that have never happened, lives which are, ultimately, better lived than any we here can achieve. Life holds no magic, no great lore that can give us freedom over evils. We cannot slay our demons, we cannot fight the dark, we cannot save the world.

And so instead we make do by "blending in", becoming a part of the system, just like everyone else. Though we read of great and magnificent individuals, we ourselves become so much a part of the pack that our individuality is all but invisible. We are all victims of modern society. Droned into workhorses by those above us, and then given release by seeing the fruit of other people's imagination. Be it films, books, games, whatever.

Few people get to live their dreams. I know enough to accept that I am not one of those few. I will never be a filmstar, a singer, a leader, a warrior, an adventurer, a saviour. I am destined to be nothing, nobody.

As are most of you. You might as well start accepting it now. Your life is to be run by a combination of work ethics and commercialisation. A shallow, empty and meaningless existence. Destined to merely praise those people who live their dreams as you see the fruits of their work.

Dreams, once so vivid as a child. Dreams which once spoke to me, and told me one day I could be a hero, a celebrity or a king. Dreams once so full of promise and possibility, now only serve to drum in the disappointment of the reality of continued existence. What a crock.

Commitment keeps me going. Gives me the strength I need to ignore my dreams, and carry on the bland disappointment of life. Some do better than I do though. Earn more money, have more holidays, buy more happiness. But while money can buy you holidays, houses, security, and, yes, even love, it cannot bribe the truth, for truth never perishes.

The one truth that burns through the human soul like a disease of despite and depravity. A truth so fundamental, that the vast majority of people refuse to think about it, and indeed block it out by whatever means possible. So many people ignore the truth, and so avoid asking the question that preceeds it. A question so damaging that it has cost the lives of millions of people during human history. Because the answers to the question breed only hollow contempt for the lives we are meaninglessly forced to carry out.

The question so many avoid, and so many others lie to answer is this:

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What is it all for? What is the meaning of life?
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And the answer that breaks so manmy hearts, the killer of millions as those who refuse to believe try to mask the awesome power of the truth is this:

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Nothing. There is no meaning. There is no fundamental purpose for you, for your neighbour, for anyone. Life and death are but one and the same, and your existence is but a drop in the ocean of time; For a moment making some almost indiscernable ripples, but ultimately, ineffectual and meaningless.

All your struggles, all your pains, all your efforts mean nothing.
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Life is the greatest waste of time since time itself began.

IB

You think you're afraid of the water? I've had a phobia of it ever since I was a kid and saw Jaws every day for about 6 weeks.

I've never really got over it, but I'm learning to face it. Damn, I get into a swimming pool, and I STILL think that a shark could somehow come through the water filter and attack me. I recently passed a PADI Open Water Diver scuba course, and to pass, I had to do four dives in open water. Water in which there was fish. My heart was pumping like hell-wrought piston, and while 6 metres underwater in almost zero visibility, it was pretty scary.

In April, I'm going to the Red Sea, to dive in water where I know there are sharks. Some sharks that are known to attack humans. Huge shoals of hammerhead sharks, hundreds of them. Scorpion fish, octopus thingies, things that can hurt or even kill me. But I'm going to face it, face my fear, and overcome it.

I have a bit of a fear of the water. Maybe I will learn to swim one day. Its one of these bad traits I got from my mother. Like my poor mathematics abilities or my paranoia. My best quality, perseverance, comes from my father.

An obvious starting point is learning to swim. Everybody swims, it opens a world of interesting pastimes and, importantly, is a good all over body exercise that works plenty of muscles and will help build up your physical defecit.

Or fork out £200 on a cross trainer and sit it in your front room so you can run 5km every night while watching TV. Then you'd be more like me, and I'm excelent.

Well, if the ethics of Kant have taught me anything its that a rational being is a moral being. And a moral being is a meaningful being. They are an end in themselves not merely a means to an end. Therefore to kill myself I would merely be making myself a means (like you would use a farm animal for meat or a lightbulb for light) to a tolerable existance. This would make life truely pointless.

So I doubt I would ever kill myself. But I would be lying if I said I was even moderatly happy whenever I sit by myself and think, despite the fact that my quality of life and career prospects are infinatly superior to the majority of people on this planet. Indeed, for someone who had to go to speech therapy when they were 3 I have done pretty well for myself.

And at least I still have my health. For now.

Jesus Emperor Bob, that doesn't sound good at all. I know I said the life is meaningless in many ways, but I also realise that there are far deeper parts to it that mean a great deal - pleasant memories of happier times, the friends you make as you progress through life, family and personal achievements are but a few.

So you haven't got a girlfriend - neither have I and haven't for a very long time, and I'm 25 next month. I don't let this get me down, concentrate on achieving things in your life, making yourself happy by pursuing interests you feel strongly about. Finding someone is something that will take a back seat and before you know it you'll find her without even looking.

Working out ways to kill yourself is not a good sign. The main reason not to commit suicide is that it is cowardly. People don't always know what is meant by this. It is simple - Suicide is passing on the intense pain you have to those who love you, rather than facing it.

The things you mentioned really do not qualify as reasons to end your life, although I have to agree with you about family members dying. It is something I think about far too often, and I am convinced it is the only thing that could really hurt me. That and close friends dying. There is no possible way to prepare for such an event, and you wonder if thinking about it is just drawing it all out and punishing yourself. I cannot help it sometimes though, death is my nemesis.

Anyway, you sound like you have a lot going for you, all that you need to improve upon is your confidence. Confidence is a very attractive quality.

How dare you ressurect this thread!? Its ancient. The only reason I continue to live is;
It would not be fair on my family to take my own life. I may get lucky and gets lots of money, which would help. My life may turn out to be a success 10 years down the line. I am too weak and cowardly to take my own life. My life isn't so bad thats its not a least worth living out to see what happens.

Maybe I will get a girlfriend but I really don't honestly see how thats ever going to happen; this is the main thing that depresses me. I don't really have any real qualities as a person whatsoever. I am moderatly intelligent since I got to one of the best universities in the country but physically I am average at best and my conversations are mediocre and I really don't have any real hobbies to talk about. I can't swim. For whats thats worth. I don't feel sorry for myself as such, I just recognise that I am evidence for the theory of natural selection. Especially when I see other popular people or stare at myself hard in the mirror. If anything would make me take my own life it would be this. If I don't have a girlfriend by the time I am 21 then I may get much more seriously depressed. I probably wouldn't kill myself, though if my parents or brother also died at the same time it may topple me. I would probably jump infront of a train, which is very cowardly since it screws up the train drivers but as I said before I am a coward. I still have a sense of moral purpose at the moment though and maybe luck will give me a nice turn. Come on luck, its been 18 damn years. Give me some of the good stuff. Bet I will get ran over tomorrow now.

Er, so I guess life is worth living. Kind of.

A heavy post IB, but one I have thought about in my more introspective moments on many occasions.

Life is meaningless in many ways.
Some try to find meaning through religion. They like to believe that they, and their kindred are at the centre of the universe, that they will be rewarded when they die for their loyal service to the rules laid out by their 'Deitys'. This to me is a crock. I don't lose respect for these people as a result, each is entitled to their own beliefs, but deep down I think it is just a crutch for those who cannot accept the truth. This is why the old and those who have limited time left seek out religion more actively, than those who are young and still unaware of such feelings of insignificance, in my opinion.

I find beauty in the truth though. The fact that we are as insignificant and pointless as we are in the cosmos has it's own appeal. In a hundred million years, who is going to care what we did today, or will there even be anyone to care at all? Most probably not. So you have to view our time here as an amazingly unique coincidence, one that may NEVER EVER happen again. So in this way we are completely unique. Each and every one of us is an amazing culmination of genetic and atmospheric elements that will never happen again.

As for the lifestyle. Yes, the world is turning into one large commercial machine. I very often watch programmes such as Ray Mears, where he visits native people, living from the land, hundreds of miles from 'civilization', and envy them. Their only worries in life are survival and the continuation of their people. Everything they do in their life has meaning, not only to theirselves, but to the rest of their community. Almost no-one is insignificant. Our society has become devoid of a soul. Art, Music, Theatre and Film are the only places we can see a glimmer of our former glory these days.

But it is up to you to find what your soul needs. Me, I believe that travelling the world, seeing many of its breathtaking sights, and experiencing as many different things as possible would make me happy, as do a lot of others. Unless you find a job doing this, you are going to struggle to quench this thirst. That is why we envy the rich, like you say - they can buy more happiness.

Money does buy us happiness, mainly because since we were very young, we have been taught it, but also because of the way our society is geared. I envy those who do not need money to enjoy their lives, but it is a rare thing - even if people say they CAN, deep down they always hunger for more. For money allows us to pursue our dreams, and anything that can do that is bound to be desirable.

I guess you have to believe that one day you will be able to pursue these dreams. If I began to believe that would never happen, if there would never be a day when things would all fall into place, I'd probably top myself. Hope is what matters, but the REAL hope, the hope you tempered yourself, through your beliefs and experiences. Not fake hope offered by others, like Religion I mentioned earlier.

Being Insignificant in the eyes of the world as a whole is not so bad, provided you are still able to accomplish the things that matter to you most in your life, no matter how pointless they may seem to others. If you can accomplish something that others find inspiring for years to come, that's just a bonus.

And work, well they say if you get a job you love, you never work another day in your life. That is another of my goals, I would be happy to be paid less to work in a job that I looked forward to every morning. Of course, the position of test driver for ferrari is currently taken .....

It's all true, though what you want to believe depends greatly on your outlook.

It's all a matter of perspective.

A heavyweight post, and it is difficult not to nod one's head in bleak agreement.
But then I read some of the replies and found myself nodding in agreement with those, especially the non-religious positive ones.
In fact, I'm nodding so much at the moment I think I'm growing multi-coloured clothes.

*pop*

Any new thoughts on this?