Inner Debate On Meaning Of Life

Nowadays, finding meaning and purpose doesn’t seem to be important anymore and a nihilistic point of view is dominant everywhere I go.

In today's mainstream worldview, the value of a human being has been reduced to how much he contributes to the economy and his worth only measured by his wealth — this viewpoint deprives life from any meaning since nothing external ever lasts.

Furthermore, the mindless consumption of material and entertainment habits imbedded in our culture is leeching off time from reflection on ethics and morality. Wasting our time on our phone, working at jobs we don’t enjoy, watching TV and playing games dominate our schedules. As a matter of fact, "killing time" is now part of our vocabulary which, to me, sounds insane when realizing that time is the most precious and limited resource anyone has.

Nearly two thousand years ago, Seneca said:

"It’s not that life is short, it’s that we waste a lot of it."

This could not be more true today.

… Now begs the question: If you waste most of your time, are you truly living a meaningful life?

Wouldn’t those activities be quite irrelevant on you deathbed? Aren’t they deprived of any meaning in face of death? And, since your whole life stands in face of death, aren’t these short-term bursts of "pleasure" unnecessary?

"Pleasure in itself cannot give our existence meaning; thus the lack of pleasure cannot take away meaning from life." - Viktor Frankl

"Nothing matters." I somewhat agree with that statement since, logically, we do not have any data to suggest that anything does. However, by that same logic, I would equally agree with this statement: “Everything matters”, since there is not enough data to suggests that nothing matters.

And finally, whether nothing or everything matters, isn’t it a relief? Isn’t that freedom to chose one’s own path? Is it not freedom to decide what matters to oneself?