You know, man doesn’t stand forever, his
nullification. Once, there will be a reaction, and I see
it setting in, you know, when I think of my patients, they all seek their own existence
and to assure their existence against that complete atomization into nothingness or into
meaninglessness. Man cannot stand a meaningless life. Carl Jung Why are we thrown into this world? What are we here to do? Could it be that we’re here for no particular
reason, and that life on Earth is nothing more than a beautiful yet meaningless coincidence? In times of religious decline, mankind is
faced with the possibility that its existence is inherently meaningless. For many, this is frightening. The idea that our lives don’t matter, can
be difficult to accept. To give our lives at least some significance,
even if it’s just on a terrestrial level, we started to create our own meaning. So, as the humans we are, we began to define
what it means to live a meaningful life. What’s worth living for, and what isn’t? What are the requirements? When we have decided what a meaningful life
entails, we continue grasping for it in an almost pathological manner. Because if we fail to give our lives meaning,
our lives truly don’t matter. As a consequence, many people feel that their
lives are worthless. They wake up, eat, engage in their 'meaningless' activities,
eat, go to sleep, repeat, repeat, and repeat, as opposed to those ‘lucky few’ who have
found meaning in their lives, albeit because of raising children, a so-called ‘meaningful’
job, and other activities that make their existence on this desolate tiny dot surrounded
by a suffocating blackness, a bit more bearable. This video explores the beauty and ugliness
of a meaningless life. The meaning of life has been discussed since
the dawn of time. Even though there are countless opinions on
this, there’s no clear evidence on what the meaning of life is, and if there is any. Religion, however, provides us with answers. Christianity, for example, states that the
meaning of life is to seek divine salvation through the grace of God, by adhering to certain
values and ethics that have been imposed on us by God. French-Algerian philosopher Albert Camus saw
religion as an attempt to solve the problem of not knowing the meaning of life, by embracing
a set of ready-made answers that are attributed to the divine. But by doing so, we hide from reality, as
we cover up the existential problem by adopting a narrative that lacks evidence. In the current age, we see that especially
in the West, religion is in decline. More and more people refer to themselves as
agnostic or atheistic, and have cast away the belief in God and the Bible. For a philosopher like Camus, it would probably
be a good thing when people liberate themselves from dogma, stop blinding themselves to the
abyss of the great unknown, and are now free to enjoy life in ways they please. Imagine that our existence is indeed meaningless,
that life on Earth is just a coincidence, and that humanity is nothing more than a cosmic
joke without any inherent significance beyond what our senses perceive. What do we do? Well, the possibilities are endless. We can travel around, enjoy nature, or hang
out with friends. In the current age, technology offers us access
to the whole world. We can easily learn other languages online,
talk to people from other countries, and have a wide choice of entertainment. There’s an almost infinite number of hobbies,
things to learn, or things to write and create videos about. In a meaningless universe, we’re free to
do anything we want. But, there’s also a dark side that comes
with this development. The rejection of religion, followed by the
conclusion that life is meaningless, can lead to an inability to cope with this conclusion. So, how come that we feel so desperate in
the face of such freedom? Well, first, let’s see what ‘meaning’
is. The book Existential Psychotherapy, written
by Irvin Yalom, distinguishes cosmic meaning and terrestrial meaning. Cosmic meaning concerns itself with the meaning
of life and the universe, which, according to Camus, doesn’t exist. So, trying to find it would be absurd. But terrestrial meaning concerns itself with
the relationship between ourselves and the world around us. Or, in short, the meaning of our own lives. With the absence of cosmic meaning, the emphasis
is now put on the meaning that we, ourselves, give to our lives. Hence, humans have created several ideas about
what’s meaningful and what’s not. This phenomenon creates problems, because
we’ve now created a distinction between things that are meaningful and not meaningful. A consequence of this, is that we run the
risk of failing to lead a meaningful life. And if that happens, chances are that we feel
that our existence is pointless and might even consider ending it. A traditional example of what people consider
as meaningful is starting a family and raising children. But these days, especially in Western civilization
and in Japan, this can be quite challenging. Relationships and the role of the family are
changing. Divorce rates are skyrocketing, marriage rates
are plummeting, and dating apps have transformed the way we meet and select potential partners. Japan’s population is in decline. Currently more than half of young adults in
the U.S. are single. And around one third of European households
comprise single adults without children. In Sweden, it’s more than half! The family, something that once was considered
sacred, has lost its significance. So, many people now experience the absence
of family as a source of meaning, and mourn over this, because what once seemed such an intrinsic part of life, has now become a shattered dream. “What meaning does my life have without
children?” one could ask. But also modern ideas of meaning that could
replace the traditional ones can be failed to achieve. In a world where everyone is looking for purpose,
so-called ‘meaningful work’, being part of something significant, something special,
not attaining these things can lead people to despair. Facing what Carl Jung called “that complete
atomization into nothingness or into meaninglessness”, we’re desperately searching for purpose
in a chaotic world where traditional ideas of meaning, including religious ones, have
faded. So, the very idea that life must have meaning,
and that this meaning is defined by certain characteristics, whether it’s being a parent
as opposed to being childless, having a meaningful career as opposed to having a meaningless
job, engaging in meaningful activities as opposed to watching Netflix and playing video
games, can be a source of great misery! Like with religion, we let others impose their
ideas of meaning on us, telling us what to do and how to live, simply because we believe
that we can’t live without meaning. As Albert Camus stated: I continue to believe that this world has
no ultimate meaning. But I know that something in it has a meaning
and that is man, because he is the only creature to insist on having one. End quote. When life is inherently meaningless, which
seems to be the case when looking at it from a cosmic point of view and with the knowledge
we have, then in what way is what we perceive as meaningful more meaningful than what we
perceive as meaningless? The beauty of living in a meaningless universe
is that all definitions of meaning are subjective. The search for meaning is, therefore, futile,
as we decide ourselves what’s meaningful and what’s not, and, thus, meaning is not
to be found elsewhere than in our own imagination. It’s a human experience. It happens in our minds. When life feels meaningless, it’s probably
not because of life itself, but because of the way we define ‘meaning’ in the first
place. A tree becomes special if we make it special,
and a stone becomes an idol if we attribute that meaning to it. And so, the most simple and mundane things
become meaningful if that’s what we decide them to become. Instead of participating in the ‘rat race
of meaning’, we might want to let go of these constructs of what’s meaningful and
what isn’t, and begin to decide that for ourselves. Or we could even go one step further, and
find meaning in the simple things of life, like taking a walk in the forest, watching
a dog playing with a stick, or having a chat with the neighbours. In the end, the need for a ‘special purpose’
is just another illusion created by our own minds to shield ourselves from the frightening
but plausible possibility that our lives are inherently pointless, and that there’s nothing
we can do to change that. Thank you for watching.
