Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the meaning of life is what we ascribe to it. Many people seek validation from an outside source. Some say we serve God’s purpose, a materialist political ideology, or this is one life in a cycle, but what difference does it make what some outside entity has in mind for us? All that really matters is what we think of it ourselves. The meaning we give our own lives. In other words, the meaning of life comes from living it. Moreover, the most natural actions theoretically, empirically, and historically lead to the most fulfilled lives. They may not be glamorous, fashionable, or are as ego-boosting as celebrity… but having a family, a job and the confidence that standing on your own two feet gives, is far more fulfilling. Because, a life lived human heartedly is a fulfilled life.
Many people seem to need some outside validation to give their lives meaning. They constantly seek it in religion, drugs and such. Chasing a mechanical rabbit around a track their whole lives, and when done, they look back and realize all they missed as they orbited that racecourse. Neither the amoeba nor the elephant seeks outside validation. Animals simply exist in a state of nature. In a state of nature there’s no need of outside validation to give life meaning. The daily fight for life is enough. It’s only when we have idle minds that external validation becomes paramount. Then we turn away from the things that give real meaning to life, to chase fairy lights. Phantasms that lead us into a swamp of despair and away from true meaning.
What do I mean by fairy lights and phantasms? Those foolish ideas that invade the zeitgeist and lead people astray. Examples abound but some of the more destructive are the trans movement, feminism and abortion as birth control. Why are these so destructive? Because they destroy the individual’s ability to have a meaningful and fulfilled life. These ideas and others like them harm at the personal level. Just as the gay lifestyle so beloved by the cultural elites comes with heavy baggage. Even as young boys are mesmerized by the gang lifestyle lasered into their eyes day and night by popular culture. These, and many others, are phantasms that promise external validation and meaning to life, but deliver internal suffering. Those are some of the ways we’re bilked out of a meaningful life.
Because meaning comes from within and establishes itself without, it cannot come without and establish itself within… unless it’s a demon. A capturing idea that harms. Just as feminism attacks the feminine, external validations corrode internal meaning. Like the metaphor of chasing a will-o’-the-whisp into a swamp. Passing one safe haven after another until we’re so lost it seems we’ll never get back. But that’s the trick, because validation is internal, it’s natural. Nature provides us with the means to inner meaning, validation, and fulfillment. The elephant eats, drinks, copulates, has kids, raises them, and dies surrounded by a herd that laments its death. That elephant didn’t need external validation to prove its life had meaning, it lived as though it did, and so it did.
To sum it up, chasing celebrity, diversion, or external validation must result in emptiness. Because the inner world can’t be filled or given meaning by hedonistic gratification. Ease, gluttony and laziness will never supply a person with meaning, nor will conforming to an ideal imposed by the political order validate your existence. Nature provides us with the answer to the desire for meaning in our lives. The elephant has no need of external validation. Go to a nursing home and talk to the residents there. Those who are happy will tell you about their families. The ones without families have only laments. For all his brilliance, Schopenhauer’s life lacked meaning, even as Billy Bob Armpit’s life, whose name is only known to his kin… did. Because real validation and meaning comes from within.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
