Essentialism: Greeks thought we got meaning from birth
Existentialism: Embrace the absurd. You create your own meaning because there IS no universal meaning.
Absurd: Looking for answers in an answerless world.
Jean-Paul Satre
Albert Camus
The literal meaning of life is whatever you’re doing that prevents you from killing yourself.
Ideologies imposed and rejected… All of them?
I’m fairly certain that by age 20 I’d pretty much rejected everything my parents and culture thought to impose on my psyche as expectations of behavior or thought.
• I hated school, but enjoy learning.
• I despise authority, but understand and value hierarchy regarding big tasks.
• I detested all religions, still do, but understand that for billions of weak-minded it serves as comfort and solace when the universe becomes overtly oppressive.
• I realized early on that science was a process not a result, but often felt compelled to point to scientific evidence as “proof” of something or other, and still do at times.
• I accepted, regardless of all the pressures to the opposite, that life is futile and the universe, is indeed, absurd (a recent phrase, yes, but the theme is backlogged to my formative years). Yet, as long as I could distract myself, and there are myriad distractions in the world, that even though my core tenet was “nothing really matters” and “heat death of the universe”, I could avoid infecting those around me with that ideology. And this was important as I knew that I had no right to taint other’s minds to such a nihilistic viewpoint. And in fact, I rather envy those who find and pursue purpose (even though I know none exists).
Maybe being a young Caucasian male in the 60’s/70’s afforded me the luxury of rejecting every ideology around me with few repercussions or ramifications?
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 
Essentialism: Greeks thought we got meaning from birth
Existentialism: Embrace the absurd. You create your own meaning because there IS no universal meaning.
Absurd: Looking for answers in an answerless world.
Jean-Paul Satre
Albert Camus
The literal meaning of life is whatever you’re doing that prevents you from killing yourself.
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Ideologies imposed and rejected… All of them?
I’m fairly certain that by age 20 I’d pretty much rejected everything my parents and culture thought to impose on my psyche as expectations of behavior or thought.
• I hated school, but enjoy learning.
• I despise authority, but understand and value hierarchy regarding big tasks.
• I detested all religions, still do, but understand that for billions of weak-minded it serves as comfort and solace when the universe becomes overtly oppressive.
• I realized early on that science was a process not a result, but often felt compelled to point to scientific evidence as “proof” of something or other, and still do at times.
• I accepted, regardless of all the pressures to the opposite, that life is futile and the universe, is indeed, absurd (a recent phrase, yes, but the theme is backlogged to my formative years). Yet, as long as I could distract myself, and there are myriad distractions in the world, that even though my core tenet was “nothing really matters” and “heat death of the universe”, I could avoid infecting those around me with that ideology. And this was important as I knew that I had no right to taint other’s minds to such a nihilistic viewpoint. And in fact, I rather envy those who find and pursue purpose (even though I know none exists).
Maybe being a young Caucasian male in the 60’s/70’s afforded me the luxury of rejecting every ideology around me with few repercussions or ramifications?
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