More thoughts from a brain that has no business being awake at this time.

Where was I last time? Oh yeah, the issue about the afterlife. Ok, this is gonna be bad, so hang on.

If an afterlife were to exist, it would have serious implications on what life as we currently experience it would mean. If this life we know is only a part of some eternal existence, what then does it matter what we do in this little bit of it? Placed in the context of this life, what does it matter over over the next twenty years if I spend the next 5 minutes on this blog or not? Similarly, if there is some form of eternal existence for the soul, then whatever we do in this part of it can hardly be significant in the face of such a concept of eternity. If so, then whatever meaning can be conjectured for our existence on this plane, or earth or whatever you may like to call it, becomes minute and insignificant, of practically no relevance in the long run.

On the other hand, if there were no afterlife, if this is all there is, if our existence is limited to the time spent in these poorly designed bags of flesh, there can be no meaning whatsoever in living. Sweeping statement, time to back it up. If life ends at the moment of death, then there can be no meaning in attempting to extend the influence of the actions in our lives beyond their span. After all, what can it matter if others are affected by ourselves if we no longer exist for it to mean anything to us? If there is no such thing as a continued awareness, there is no point in saying memories allow people to live on, as memories will fade or terminate with the end of others' lives. Again, at that point, it will hardly matter, as the dead person will not exist to care. Extending this further, in the longer run, nobody will remember anything anyway, as the human race will eventually cease to exist altogether. In the context of the time of the universe, our conceptions are tiny. Plato may have had his ideas propagated for 2000 or however many years, but considering the planet is billions of years old, and the universe is a touch beyond that, Plato is not really a very important figure at all. Noting the cheers of the multitudes of oppressed u of c students here.

This all leads to my general approach to life. You see, I get to my point eventually, even over multiple posts. Anyway, since there is no meaning in life, and any attempt to imbue it with meaning is a pointless exercise, why take it seriously at all? I plan to make a great deal of money and spend it in an extremely enjoyable fashion. Meaningless? Yup. Who cares? Problem with this cavalier attitude towards the conduct of life is that it raises questions of interest. As in what truly interests me. At any particular point in time, you wonder what there is to do. If life has no real direction, things get old fast. Getting absolutely smashed was fun as an eighteen year old allowed to enter zouk for the first time, but it gets old. When the pleasures available to you become uninteresting and bland, what then is there to direct your energies towards? It is possible to revisit old pleasures, so there is something of a rotational cycle of diversions, but eventually one gets tired of doing the same things over and over. Even as one becomes older and richer, the enjoyments essentially remain the same in structure if not in form. Drinking a $10000 bottle of wine as a rich forty year old is no different in essence to an eighteen year old knocking back his first whisky.

This is what I mean when I say Life is boring. Note the capital L in Life. Of course, if you avoid using your brain at all in such matters and simply allow yourself to become immersed in physical pleasures, things would be much simpler. Unfortunately, I can't turn my brain off. Something for next time though. Gotta get back to assaulting Sahlins as part of my quest to become really rich.