The Nature of Choices #2 – Meaning
Meaning
The reason why most people are so crippled when they have to make a choice, especially if it’s an important one, is because they’re always trying to pick the best option, the one that will reward them the most, the most meaningful one. But, how important are your choices actually? Some would argue that nothing that we’re doing has any meaning, any purpose and that the end result is the same for everybody regardless of our choices.
Think about their argument, it kinda makes sense, just think about how crazy everything that we are doing it is, dressing fancy, going to work, acting fake just to impress people, buying useless shit with all of our money, everything that we’re doing is insane. Especially if we strap everything to the bone, we’re just a cluster of atoms on a planet that’s spinning around a globe of fire all day, that’s part of a solar system, part of a vast galaxy, surrounded by millions, even billions of these huge galaxies, and they are all part of this fucking universe that we don’t even know much about. We live in total uncertainty, but we act as we know everything.
As Russell Brand said: "An astronomer told me once… – And this is in his jurisdiction, – so we can trust him. He said, Russell You will never understand the vastness of the Milky Way, the galaxy that we live in. It’s too big to conceptualize in your little, little mind. So just imagine for a moment that the Milky Way was the size of Great Britain, then 30 times the size of Great Britain. If that was our solar system… Mars, Venus, us, you remember from school… would fit into a single teacup somewhere in Croydon. There are 400 million known galaxies in our universe. – Russell Brand, Messiah Complex"
If you view things this way, then nothing that we’re doing has any meaning since we’re so small. Then, how much does it matters that you decided to wear the white shirt instead of the black one at your fucking stupid dinner?
If you think at the macro level, what does it matter that you decided to follow a profession instead of another? Yes, your life might have evolved differently but, it doesn’t matter in the end. How much does it matter if you’re a homeless person or, a businessman when we’re all going to have the same faith?
It’s a pretty pessimistic way to view the world, and, for as far as we know, our life might have no meaning, we, as humans, don’t know shit. I’m not saying that you should view everything as meaningless, it might not be the healthiest way to lead your life but, you should take the things less seriously. Thinking about the world just a bit in a nihilistic way it’s great, liberating, it gives you freedom; freedom to make better choices since you don’t care as much about the outcomes.
But, even so, even if we’re just dust in the universe, and our choices might not impact anything at the macro level, they might not change the world; you can still impact your community, you can still help the people around you have a better life even with things as simple as sharing your truth unconditionally.
This article and the fact that you’re reading it, right now, instead of doing something else only matters if it impacts your life, if it gives you more freedom, if it’s helping you live a better and less stressful life, otherwise, it has no importance.
Your choices might not be meaningless but, they surely don’t matter as much as you think, so, next time you’re facing a vital choice take it slow, don’t worry yourself too much about it since we’re all going to die sooner or later.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://guyfawkes4-20.ml/the-nature-of-choices-2-meaning/
"[...] you should take the things less seriously" I agree with that. People like to give nihilism a bad name but there is a lot to be said for caring less. I see people getting all bent out of shape over every little thing and that is leading all sorts of meaningless outrage and unnecessary conflict. To me that more harmful that not caring enough.
As to the vast majority of the choices that we make, I think that they only really matter to the self but that is fine. You are the only one you have to answer to in the end, so why not do things that seem importent to you?
Yes, people are stressing over so many things that have no importance instead of having fun and feeling good. Caring less is truly a virtue sometimes considering the world we live in.
Agreed but people always seem to try to please others, to do what seems important to the crowd not to themselves only to get validation. And, that is fine but, only as long as you genuinely want to do so.
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this is very interesting topic. I thought about it a lot. Let's say that I'll give a homeless person 20$. After becoming happy a little bit he maybe will run to buy some food or maybe (unfortunately) drugs. But there's a chance that by doing so he might get hit by a car or a lot of other things might happen to him due to event triggered off by my action. So I can't know for sure what decision is better (actually I believe that in some really rare cases I can (for example if I have results of a reliable scientific research)). Also I remembered Jacque Fresco when he said that he saved a child. And people said what a good act he did. But he said that if this child will become Adolf Hitler then he would say that "Oh, what have I done?!".
I know about Eisenhower principle which states that the first things we should do are those that are important and urgent. After that we should do those that are important but aren't urgent. Then those that aren't important but urgent. Well, it seems to me that it might be a good principle to make choices (but I rare follow it).