-
@ Karnage
2025-02-25 03:32:51
There is no purpose. The universe doesn’t come with instructions to “do this because that’s how it’s supposed to be”. It’s an entirely made up concept by us alone.
You have your biological imperative to reproduce and nature will select for those that do, but beyond that it’s entirely up to you to figure out what to do or how to get to the point of reproduction or whether you even want to.
Naturally, humans sat around asking questions. Why am I here? What is the point? Why me? The mind wandered and came up with the answer. Ah, but of course, purpose! This is what I was MEANT to do… it’s preordained!
Throw away this concept for a moment and look at the basics: you have a physical body and a mind and stuff around you. You need to do something …so you eat, you build a shelter to not die, you take care of yourself because you’re trying to survive. What is your purpose then? Go back to primitive humans - what is their purpose? It’s whatever their mind decides. I don’t know what they thought of as purposeful but I imagine it’s not the same as what we think about now. Different needs, different actions.
Fast forward to today and you have your basic needs taken care of, you have plenty to occupy your intellect and pleasure. What has changed fundamentally? You’re probably more intelligent and able to formulate more ideas and concepts thanks to language, society, technology etc…These are all external things that happened along the way, the body is mostly the same - evolved a bit to adapt to times but “purpose” is a product of intellect - human intellect, it is not something that is intrinsic as a matter of fact.
But it’s here nonetheless - purpose - so we must decide if we care about it or not. After all, it’s what some other human decided we should ponder. But why should one human care about what the other human values? Why should they even agree to this idea of purpose?
This is part of the point. We can’t ignore that “purpose” is useful in fostering values - sometimes good ones, other times not so great depending on which side of those values you find yourself on. But really it’s just your values and some idealized life. Which is fine! Nothing wrong with having goals and values and living in a way that you find meaningful. Lots of good can come from that. And if others like how you conduct your life, they will join maybe and that’s great! What I find bothersome is when this construct is used to shame, control or pressure people who don’t see eye to eye, or who may not even acknowledge the very concept of purpose. Not everyone needs a revelation to carry out their lives in whatever way they see fit. The concept of a wasted life is a human concept - it assumes one action is more important in the grand scheme of existence than another. It’s virtue signaling and ego boosting at the expense of others. I see a lot of this kind of judgmental attitude among bitcoiners which is a bit ironic and hypocritical considering they often talk about freedom and the ability to do as you please.