The age old question, "individual chemical imbalance or natural consequence of alienated social conditions"
Well, I mean, even if things were going well for me career and money wise, I'd still be depressed because the world is literally ending. That money and job won't mean much soon.
Bo Burnham's latest special is basically dealing with that. One of the last songs has the line "everyone's worrying about the end of the world, but the world's already ended".
I felt this way at one point in my life, but I don't anymore. What purpose does a tree have when it grows? What purpose is there to dancing? I don't think life has a meaning, or needs one. My cat doesn't. I don't either.
"The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves."
Solar death always good for some perspective, innit
And kind of on the flip side, I think about how the earth used to be “just a rock” and then life happened. From an Alan Watts lecture: the earth peopled like an apple tree apples.
Life is beautiful / But also full of sharp rocks / Ow ow ow ow ow
Nice haiku comrade/
Life is indeed beautiful pain/
Hopefully this fits
A little bit - it's a difficult feeling but I get a bit soothed by the idea that life doesn't really need a purpose or meaning by itself - I mean it's important to feel like you're doing something in the world but ultimately the idea that human consciousness is a quirk of evolution is pretty amazing.
In terms of just placing yourself in society outside of the existential angle, To me, it's a matter of understanding that as an individual I'm fundamentally kinda powerless to effect any real large scale change (as it takes place with collective action) and so in that sense "having a direction" isn't too meaningful to me beyond just avoiding some suffering, getting enjoyment out of life, and being satisfied with the idea that I'm empowered to help others do those things and then doing those things that help.But that feeling might be low-grade depression if it's a recurring thing or you show other signs of it (sleeping a lot, irritability, etc).
I'm doing well and lack of inherent purpose doesn't really bother me. The main reason for this is probably cause there are things I do and things I plan on doing that feel meaningful/fulfilling to me.
Slightly glib perhaps, but no one's life has any meaning. You should feel free to do as you like because of it. Wanna help people, fuck yeah. Wanna learn stuff, shit yeah. Wanna create things, hella yeah. Wanna, just rest or hide? Also, hell yeah.
I feel sad because my work keeps me from the things that give my life purpose and meaning like spending time with family and friends. How the fuck am I supposed to do this shit 45 hours a week, and have any time left to enjoy myself when the rest of my free time is spent on various household chores?
