Philosophy Now Forum

Hi there.
I have been banned from a web forum for posting the following text:


"The tragic ethos: There's no escape from life

Warning: This topic reflects a personal opinion. I am stating my beliefs, I'm not 'preaching' anything.

What's life?

A special variation of inorganic existence. A beautiful, great event, made purposeless by the fact that it will sooner or later have an end, as predictable and vain as its beginning. The greatest accident of all time. A disease, in the sense that it grows on us without our asking it, and forces us to react to it willing or not.

A source of endless pain and confusion, an unnecessary aspect of existence that deceives and troubles us vainly.

Why to live?

Because there is nothing else we can do. The instincts and drives that keep us alive are not under our control. We cannot get rid of them and we are not to blame for being incapable of doing so. We are slaves to life and we cannot escape it but through suicide, which is not a genuine escape, since there will be nothing after we do it. Given that a purpose, a meaning, a significance entails that we could choose/accept them or not, and that life, as a processs and as a fact, gives us no option at all but to accept and conform to it, we can safely assume that life is inherently purposeless, and that the purpose and meaning we 'give' to it are creations of our own minds, that do not exist outside our intellectual faculties.

There is no 'reason' to live. We don't live 'because life is worth living'. We live because there is nothing, absolutely nothing else that we can do.

Suicide is no option. It puts an end to everything. Even to the possibility of creating a fake 'purpose'. Suicide is also no way out. In fact, it represents an acceptance that there is no way out. Suicide is simply an act of resignation. It represents and entails a feeling of acceptance and submission to what's beyond us. It is the act of a man who looks at the empty universe he lives in and says: "I don't want you anymore. The game is over. All the others can (and will!) play it till the end for a long time to come. But I won't, and I don't really give a damn to what others will do. I am not one who refuses. I accept. I accept that I am an inherently fragile creature, and that there is nothing I can do to overcome my own fragility and stay a sensitive, genuinely sensitive human being after the process. Everybody else will refer to me as a loser, a coward and a 'weakling'. But I am the only one who understands that one cannot be a loser where there is nothing to lose. One cannot be a coward for rejecting life, for not strenght is require for us to accept it, only submission. I am a rebel in the sense that I do what everybody else refuses to do, but my rebellion lasts but a few moments. My 'redemption' comes as a last act of enraged acceptance. I leave my fellows shamelessly, because I could not do anything for them, and I had nothing to offer. I leave all my dreams untouched. I will always be remembered as a social and communal failure. And yet, during some moments, I won everything. I fought everything. I challenged existence as a whole and decided I didn't want it. No man could be so bold and stay alive for long."

How to react to our inevitable destiny?

But not all of us will realize the inherently futility of life, and everything, and react to it as bravely as the suicide does. In fact, most of us will have to find a way to conform. Conformity is the ultimate practical truth in this world, and no living human creature can avoid being a conformist. This is valid to the 'weak' and the 'strong' ones, the 'poor' and the 'rich', the 'intelligent' and the 'ignorant'. This is valid to the ones who smile at the human farce (society, civilization) and the ones who couldn't care less. This is valid to the conservatives and to the rebels, to the reactionaries and to the anti-establishment warriors. Conformity and submission are the keys to existence. Even the ones who pretend to fight this miasma end up by embracing and endorsing them. Once again they're not to be blamed: they have no other option.

I conclude that the only possible originality a man can find/create in his life is achieved through the invention of a reasonable, interesting way to conform and submit to life. Everybody must find their own ways, everybody must find their own 'purpose', their own 'way out'. The essential problem of human existence consists in finding out a manner of spending the time in a reasonably endurable manner, with the less possible amount of boredom and pain. The saddest part is that such way outs are nothing more than coping mechanisms. The funniest part is that this is a truth which applies to all men equally, which means that we are all justified in acting the way we do. As usual, such justification is only possible because there is nothing else we can do but to act the way we do.

There is no escape from life. There is no escape from conformism.

Find a way to deal with the meaninglessness of life and with the purposelessness of your own individual existence...and life is a problem that you have already solved. "

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According to the forum admin, I was banned for 'preaching that life is pointless and for encouraging/condoning suicide'...

It's not the banning itself that troubles me, but the fact that people, even adult people, are simply unable to deal with FREEDOM OF SPEECH whenever you're courageous enough to state those 'disturbing' things they don't like to think about.

You feel like you are forced to lie even when you're posting on web places which are supposed to defend your right to express yourself and defend your ideas. And the post/topic wasn't even really offensive to begin with...

I am forced to think that people do not want to force the truth that life is inherently meaningless. They label it as 'pessimism' or 'nihilism' and simply refuse to think about their own nothingness. This helps them to go through their lives and to believe that eveybody who does not share their easy contentment and manufactured 'happiness' is either lazy or insane.

A good way out, though I recognize that there's not much that they could do about it...

It is reprehensible that you should be barred from expressing any given opinion.

If your own opinion were itself reprehensible then the appropriate response would be to eloquently deny it or, where this cannot be done, express personal disavowal.

This forum does not ban people for expressing their opinions, only if they spam or use the forum for severely unethical and illegal purposes.

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Regarding your views on life and suicide, you say a few things which lead to some ambiguity, at least in my understanding of them.

You seem to say that life is objectively meaningless and purposeless and also that you personally find no subjective meaning or purpose. I am wondering if you are convinced of the impossibility of you ever finding such a subjective meaning or purpose? Perhaps you might not like to use the terms meaning or purpose except in objective contexts, in which case I would ask, can you not find something gripping and desirable in life which would severely outweigh premature death on the balance of options?

Personally I think that it is eminently obvious that there are circumstances in which suicide is not only appropriate, but perhaps even necessary. The most obvious example is a person who is terminally and degeneratively ill, who has no prospect for living much longer and their standard of living during that period will be negligable to negative. The only reason that I can see for them to not commit suicide is if they have hope that in their short life some cure may rear its head, or at least something to alleviate their suffering. Either that, or if they have some unfinished business which they are grittily determined to finish. Though, once it is finished, or if it is not possible for them to do so, all that is then left is hope. If someone has such hope, I do not see how they can be criticised for clinging to it for as long as they are able. If someone does not have such hope, then on what grounds can others criticise them for abandoning their life? It is because they themselves hold such hope, and they are greedily determined to cling to it to such a degree that they will call another person's act greedy and unjust, when in truth it is a prime example of something done for the self quite justly.

Pulling this away, now, from the most extreme example, is a person who is not due to soon die, but is living in suffering. Their prospects for the end of their suffering are increased, and so people may think themselves more justified in interfering, either directly or by carping at them, though there is no greater justification for interference. For sure, the person is more likely to be hopeful and 'stay the course', but it is their gamble to make, not someone elses. Any living that might follow from submission to someone else's will that we should live would be somewhat hollow. Certainly, they will obtain a deep responsibility toward the person who has so submitted to them.

Aside from incurable diseases there are innumerable other reasons why a person may be living in suffering and seek the 'way out' (which as you say is no way out since the self does not go anywhere, it simply ceases to be). Buddhism states that 'Being is suffering' and this may well be true, but whether it is suffering enough to warrant the immanentisation of death is another matter. The World is over-populated. We might, then, think that those who choose to reduce this population, with no harm to others, are to be commended. The opposite is true though. Why?

Quite often with someone who is suffering the prospect of ending that suffering is somewhat like Baron von Munchausen pulling himself from the swamp by his own hair. They cannot see the path to their salvation, can probably not even see what their salvation is, or that there is one. Even if they see the route, they may not have the means, or the mental energy to go through with it. Before we can scorn the people who might choose the way out, we must first attempt to alleviate their suffering, provide them with the means to do so. Otherwise we are scorning people for being in a Catch-22 situation which we ourselves perpetuate, we are scorning because hate and contempt are the easy things to do. It is because it is hard to accept that the way of life that we are committed to may actually be causing people harm to such a degree that they would prefer death above the way of life that we have, for people to accept this is impossible, and so those who would choose death must be dismissed as contemptible abberations.

I do not know whether there is some solution to your suffering, do not know if there is a solution for any persons suffering, am unsure about the route out of those parts of my life that cause my own suffering. I would prefer that you not choose death, and if you instead tried for some time longer to see if you can be filled in the ways that you are currently not, if you can become thrilled at the pleasures and joys that you may have developed a learned helplessness in regard to, and so rejected as possibilities or as even desirable, but I know that this preference on my part is wholly selfish, because I would like to believe in hope for both you and myself, and will not criticise you for making whatever choice is your own.

[EDIT: I forgot to mention another form of suicide, the suicide as protest. One of my personal heroes is Thích Quảng Ðức, the Buddhist monk who famously self-immolated during the Vietnam war. In the face of immovable oppression the only hope may be to submit, give in and die. If one can make this death hold bearing on the lives of other people then, even if we are not around to enjoy the fruits of our actions, we may as well add such effects rather than not]

I wanted to say something more on this..

It seems that whenever something doesn't go someone's way they will tend to cry foul, claim an injustice and berate other people to rectify the situation in their favor.

They are playing on the fact that reasonable people will tend to give consideration to such complaints and, especially if they have a connection to that person, will be unwilling to believe that a person can truly barefacedly make a claim at injustice even when they know that it is far from the case that there is one.

This also relates to the way that outside parties can be used to effect control over another person, by playing on their tendency to associate with established parties and assume that 'there is no smoke without fire'.

I recently nearly got into trouble on a chat room because I used the word shit (as part of one of my poems). One of the moderators told me off for swearing. I re-checked the chat rules, and there was no rule against swearing. I disputed their claim and asked them to clarify what words they considered to be barred, as I cannot abide by nebulously defined rules, especially since people have varying definitions of 'swear word'. The moderator got annoyed at me for asking for consistent rules and they got more heated, with another couple of moderators then entering in, one of them telling me that 'things could be done the hard way' &c. Eventually the head moderator popped in, relayed the rules (don't swear at people) and determined that I was not in breach. The moderator was then reprimanded. It was very close to being a situation in which just because I had questioned someone's abuse of their power, I would then be subject to further abuse of their power, and in which they had (up unto a point) managed to artfully use the social dynamic to their advantage.

What concerns me about such situations is that while I am enough of a stubborn ass to not simply comply, there are many people who are not, who will be easily swayed by the bullshit demands and claims of injustice that other people throw their way.

How can one be sure that there would be nothing after the suicide ?
There might be.
You cannot tell.
None of us has been to this nothingness and returned.
So we wait and see.
Lots of people have told stories of their souls (or minds for the atheists among us) detaching themselves and then coming back to the bodies. I have no such story to tell myself, but this does not mean that they are not true.

A lack of nothingness would only be consequential if it involved a greater suffering than that which came before, in which case we may want to stave it off.

Since there is nothing to suggest that there is such a greater suffering awaiting us after death then it doesn't really have a bearing on our decision making. If the suffering is infinite then after a few millenia it wouldn't really concern us that we had not staved it off a few more years, if the suffering is finite then we get to a true end-point more rapidly if we start it sooner.

The only matter would be if the suicide itself caused the suffering; but the assertion that it would is nothing more than the cruel attempt to control others with 'what ifs'.

What if 'being' dead is worse than suffering? What if our idea of suffering is laughable compared to what lies beyond death? What if the irony is that when we die...our mind's eye is finally open to the fact that we have never even known what 'despair' was? What if (when we die) we beg plead and bargain with the universe to send us back to earth as anything....blind, crippled...tortured...just in order to have a reprieve from the cold and factual knowledge of a hell that despair can't even begin to touch?

If this is the case...then it certainly would be ironic that 'they' pulled the plug on Terri Shaivo to end her pain! Talk about a cruel attempt to control others! In the case of Terri...they only succeeded in ending their own pain not hers...because they couldn't stand to look upon her 'ugliness' crippled from being in a vegetative state. Had she been laying there beautiful...like sleeping beauty under glass....they would not have been so quick to kill her off. Because the sight of her would have given them "pleasure."

By 'Them'...I mean all of us...

I would like to categorically state that if I ever fall into a persistent vegetative state I would like to be killed, even though I will no doubt look dashingly handsome.

Further, if anyone feels like putting a bullet in my head they can feel free, just so long as they do it quickly and skillfully enough as to catch me entirely unawares.

LMAO!!

Well, ya got me there psy...I think you are the ONLY person who could pull off 'persistent vegatative state' and still be devastatingly handsome.

Using the full extent of my many ninja-like skills, of which I have aquired through various e-books and threads on the internet I am sure I can grant your wish of a death without being aware of it Psychonaut.

Of course, in saying this, you will most likely now be extremly wary of little men in black outfits carrying swords. >.>

Yes, telling me to expect death does somewhat detract from my desire for an unexpected death...

This is my 'surprise' birthday party all over again

I'll presume that you're not an insomniac, although what you're doing up at this hour may void that statement, with this presumption I also wonder what I am doing up at this hour.

Anyway, with my newly aquired assumption I imagine you do sleep, with this thought I can also presume you are "unaware" when you sleep. So a bullet to the brain at that point, or any kind of heavy blunt instrument, should catch you off guard.

I am generally aware only of things inside my head while I am asleep...

However, I am aware before I sleep, and so may be aware of my potential impending doom.

Thankyou, for ruining christmas.

I didn't want to be the one that snubbed Santa from your mind or informed you of Rudolph's not so shiny red nose, but it appears I am indeed, the grinch on this occasion.

Perhaps I could make up for it by leaving you an enviable amount of cookies under the christmas tree for you to devour, all infused with a favourable herbal substance.

This may not only lower your awareness, although perhaps raise paranoia, but also give you the feeling of ease, thus taking your mind off of your impending doom.

Luckily I'm not truthfully likely to be jumpy about your threat, because I don't take it seriously.

Thank god for scepticism, as it means that I will reap the full benefits, whether I am wrong or not.

Were you jumpy about it, I would have achieved something I did not wish to.

Thank the mighty one for the blessing we call perception, for it delivers us all into our own ignorant bliss.

Anyways, I think we are in need of a topic, I'm slowly running out of things to say, as impossible as it may seem.


P.S. - "The mighty one"... That is not Psychonaut. >.>