From the Charitable Misanthrope...
Our species has evolved the ability to form language and subsequently the ability to self-reflect. (This does not apply to some humans I realize, but if you are reading this I assume it does apply to you. You being a representative of most enculturated humans who have the capacity to learn and develop language).
With this background of evolution and big brains in mind, I propose a theory about the human condition and why it is suffering.
There are two broad categories to the human condition. The first has to do with our mere need to survive. We must work to survive in some form. (In Westernized industrial societies, this of course takes the form of production and consumption via money to secure physiological comfort and stasis).
The second broad category is the need to escape the emotional state of boredom. Our big brains cannot be completely satiated with just maintaining our physical well-being. We simply must have a goal of some form to keep our big brains occupied. After we perform the tasks of survival (in a societal context) we have a propensity to eventually get bored. This I propose is universal and cross-cultural for all human societies and individuals.
Our big brains, must formulate mini-goals and diversions to keep us occupied and entertained. These diversions usually lead to even more goals to escape from the negative baseline state of boredom. We try to cope with this seemingly unique human quality of world-weariness, but its always there laughing at us in some sense, forcing us to formulate a new goal to focus our time and attention on. We must place [insert any contrived goal] to give ourselves a meaning and direction. This could be any of the infinite activities we humans do to allay this baseline boredom (watching TV, telling stories, developing theories, dancing around the fire, mythology, religious expression and practice, art, sports, reading, planning on becoming a hermit, making furniture, starting a business, reflecting on the meaning of words, etc.. ANYTHING.)
"Well".. you might say (in a hint of pure cynicism), "I am an erudite middle-class person and am well versed in the kind of thoughts you are discussing. You are just reiterating trivial senseless existentialist thought, ala French (yuk!) philosophers. I am past this juvenile stage in my life. Besides, this stuff sounds more like typical 'teen angst' then any profound statement. Yes, yes you are describing stuff that has already been written about a million times. Yes yes, its like Albert Camus' book The Myth of Sisyphus. Embrace the absurdity of our attempt to find "meaning" in a universe that does not care about our need to find meaning, etc.. It has all been said before. Now shut-up and go back to your fantasy philosophy world you pseudo-intellectual wannabe beatnik and leave the blog world alone!"
But its not as easy as that you "oh so mature know-it-all middle-class contented person who is now beyond all speculation on existential thinking ;-)". The absurd that Camus discusses is just that…absurd, and the embracing of existential meaningless cannot be sustained for long. You cannot have read Camus and truly agreed with him that we can just find comfort in the absurd. You must have had some moments of world-weariness at some point in your contented life.
So to reiterate again. Concerning the human condition, existentially speaking, human life’s purpose is simply individual physiological survival on one end. (This is usually in a societal context.) On the other end is boredom. Both of these categories are negative in nature and make the human condition inherently that of suffering. Intertwined with these two major categories are all the little mini-goals involved in keeping our huge processing units…the brain, occupied and entertained...
This condition is one of suffering. We cannot "just be" we must continually strive for physiological survival and escape from the baseline boredom of existence. This may sound very Buddhist. Buddhism has great insight into the fact of life being suffering . It is only the mystical elements (taken from its predecessor religions Jainism and Hindu philosophy) that I have contention with. Concepts such as reincarnation, karma, and nirvana are unnecessary and do not provide a real solution to the suffering. The only way to truly end the suffering that is a priori inherent in the human condition is to not have children and perpetuate this suffering.
Please join the movement to end suffering and make a resolve to not have children
