Meaning & Nothingness - Finding Motivation In The Void

we have evolved through the ranks of our ancestors outsmarting the Predators of the world developing systems of material and nutritional exchange creating health practices and building incomprehensible advanced technologies to facilitate longevity safety and efficiency we have reached the top of this world and yet a great many of us see nothing from it as our awareness has progressed alongside everything else we have found ourselves outgrowing more comfortable short-sighted narratives of life and moving into a realm in which there appears to be no clear narrative or reason at all but rather an absurdity and meaninglessness underpinning everything this is perhaps one of if not the greatest contemporary issues of humankind finding motivation and a sense of meaning in a period of time in which existence has revealed to be or at least reveal to appear to be meaningless arguably motivation to live and live meaningfully cannot be founded on the idea that life is a universally meaningful or ultimately resolvable thing if one finds that at its core it isn't motivation rather must go beneath the banal cliches of traditional ideals of happiness success and grand meaning and address the very real bleak nature of our reality there is in fact no one-size-fits-all prescription or cheat sheet or instruction manual to life and there is likely no ultimate circumstance or idea or thing that will make life's uncertainty pain and chaos go away realizing and accepting this is likely the first step only then can we consider what might actually be real and enduring in his novel breakfast of champions American author Kurt Vonnegut writes about an imaginary conversation between two yeast cells he writes they were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement because of their limited intelligence they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne in this little allegory Vonnegut alludes to the idea that with a limited intelligence like our own comes unlimited ability to see the larger picture of which we are truly a part of in this metaphor the yeast cells are making champagne something relatively insignificant but rather nice nonetheless which is perhaps a pleasant thought however by the same token it could just as easily be something not-so-nice the point is we are all in essence merely passengers to this thing and don't know what we are working towards or why or if it is even any good for us or about us we could all be aggressively and competitively working towards something worse than this or indifferent to us or perhaps not the only real honest conclusion is that we don't know at first this idea of not knowing what we're all doing might make things feel absurd and meaningless and that's fair however the following step is to perhaps realize that this permits us to no longer be subservient to some specific grand meaning or template of life that we don't have to nor should we expect to discover or join in on someone else's ultimate answer or way of living nor attend to some future ideal or after life but rather live based on what we can do and no right now to attempt to follow our own barometers of meaning and believe in the only thing we have any evidence to believe in at all our self and its relationship with this little sliver of time and space some of the greatest minds in history have believed and empirically found that we appear to all have layers or processes of the self that if circumstances are sufficient and effort is directed towards it can lead to a true or higher self a self realization of personal purpose and meaning this idea was proposed by popular psychologist Abraham Maslow and his pyramid of needs which is a five tier pyramid diagram that illustrates the order and balance of human needs starting at material and physiological needs like food water and safety and then moving into psychological needs like love and esteem and then finally into what Maslow coined as self actualization or living according to one's true self and their full potential somewhat similarly this was also alluded to by renowned psychologist Carl Jung with this concept of individuation which suggests that there is a ring of outer layers surrounding our true self consisting of our outward artificial social personas are unconscious hidden layers being what Jung referred to as our shadows and animus and anima and then a core true self buried underneath it all which when one goes through the process of uncovering and realizing into conscious expression a sense of completeness harmony and vitality is experi these concepts along with others unmentioned suggest that we each have a sort of core self and source of meaning and interest things we actually want and should do with our life the things we are motivated by therefore must not merely be to impress others nor achieve anything according to any societal ideals for everyone has their own unique complicated source of motivation that leads to distinctive outputs of meaning and feelings that feeling is worth feeling at all there are certainly shared common ideas and methods of life worth considering but one must attempt to take the input of information and consider critically how it might reflect on themselves before assuming in the mass of disillusioned individuals that are in circumstances that could permit them to perhaps be otherwise are likely not so because life is meaningless but because they willingly let themselves be pulled from their own distracted and tempted by the idea that somehow through enough surplus money and stuff and achievement of this and that according to other people's ideas and constructions life could be made completely happy and perfect and certain however no matter what one does no one can do this what one can seem to do however is follow discover and create a personal meaningfulness out of the absurdity and chaos that endures the fact that life can never be such a thing the acceptance and realization of one's self and the creation of personal meaning is unfathomably difficult to process and understand let alone do it is perhaps the true challenge of modern human existence however it is perhaps the only worthy possible one an arduous process one must work and fight for into the lights go out we are all incredibly strange scared and some amount dissolute even the kindest and most charismatic person in the world at a close enough distance and from a far enough distance none of us matter at all and so however cliche it may be we really are all in this thing together whatever it is we all need each other's words and music and art and ideas and hands of effort and eyes of honesty to help us through it not because life is some perfect happy easy winnable thing not because anyone knows what they're doing or what's going on but because it isn't and because we don't we are perhaps the only stop on this evolutionary train that is outside the tunnel of Darkness able to take the material of everything and make it into something beautiful or helpful or interesting to understand and create what meaning can even mean and to do so just because we can because the universe for some reason gave us a blank page to write on thanks so much for watching if you're interested in helping further support pursuit of Wonder and have the means you can do so over on the pursuit of wonder patreon page any and all contributions help sustain the channel its quality of resources and ability to grow and for that if you do choose to become a supporter it is wholeheartedly appreciated as a thank you any contribution three dollars or more comes with exclusive pursuit of wonder offerings all video content will remain free for all viewers here on YouTube so not to worry if you do not or cannot you can find the patreon page by clicking the link in the description or the icon on the left side of the screen thanks again for watching in general and see you next video

Channel: Pursuit of Wonder

Views: 387,088

Rating: 4.9654474 out of 5

Keywords: pursuit of wonder, meaning, happy, happiness, purpose, of life, in life, motivation, motivational video, find motivation, void, meaninglessness, hopelessness, doomer, exurb1a, meaning is a jumper that you have to knit yourself, school of life, shots of awe, academy of ideas, existence, existential, philosophy, consciousness, existentialism, universe, cosmos, self-actualization, how to, how to be, how to find, meaning and nothingness, rick and mory - finding meaning in life, philosophytube

Id: wsGg1zOqrCY

Length: 7min 20sec (440 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 22 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/SandwichMaster10]

"For everyone has their own unique complicated source of motivation that leads to distinctive outputs of meaning and feelings that feeling is worth feeling at all."