• Philosophy and Spirituality
    Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Threads of Note Socialize
  • P&S Moderators: JackARoe | Cheshire_Kat

Dealing with Existential Frustration?

Cosmic Trigger said:
I just realized I've already posted in this thread to the OP. lol Blame it on senility.
Click to expand...

I have done this one more then a few occasions haha.

I just wanted to come back to this thread. Much of what has been said here resonates with me and as I re-read over some of the replies the words shared offer a renewed perspective. As time goes on this seems to bother me less. I don't believe it will ever cease as long as i'm alive and circumstances may easily throw me back into the depths of that existential despair but it seems through been forced to acknowledge the absolute insignificance of my existence and been forced to sit with that for many years.. I have come to appreciate more in life. I care less.. but I care deeply. There's a detachment from the noise but a focus on the music.

I think this may of come about from pure exhaustion. I can no longer fight against the void. I no longer believe in my own story.
 
Very good. Good for you I mean. You have that as part of the mix now. The mix of feelings and emotions that seem to ebb and flow throughout the chaos of our little dramas that take on such epic proportions most of the time. I wish you well brother, I hope your feeling lasts long. If you are anything like me and you seem to be you'll be back in the fight against the void one day, against your will or not. It can't be helped. We are human and this is how it is for our species.
 
Cosmic Trigger said:
If we stop and just sit with it we find ourselves with just this malaise you describe. There is no cure but death for it so best to keep up with the distractions. If one looks too long or deeply into the abyss one may find it looking back at you. That is pure hell from my experience.
Click to expand...

For me, it was pure release.
 
I really understand where you're coming from, Malakaix.

malakaix said:
And it's this perpetual free-fall that makes me want to just give up on giving a damn, as soon as I get to serious about anything in life it falls apart somehow.. almost as though to exemplify the transience of life.
Click to expand...

Yep. I've observed the same thing. It feels like I'm being taught a lesson of sorts by a higher power.

Regardless, the answer IS to stop giving a damn. We're so terrified to let go of our hopes and ambitions, our sense of self-importance, and the idea that life has to be meaningful. Once you gather the courage to really give up -- which is tremendously difficult, as if to pull the trigger on a gun to your head -- you'll realize there was nothing to be afraid of. We were meant to live that way. Spontaneous, carefree. *Click*... the bullet was a blank. Life goes on, ever the more vibrantly and, yes, meaningfully.
 
I don't think I've ever met a single person in my 63 years who didn't give a damn. I sure have heard it talked about a lot however. Nice idea but maybe a little difficult to implement. Of course one can move in that direction. I have seen that.
 
I think that humans can be naturally content and carefree once all of their basic needs are met - and these days, our basic needs are so much more numerous and in many cases quite abstract, than they were when we were basically living like animals, pre-civilization (which was a very, very long time compared to our recent history, ie, the past 5-7 thousand years when large and organized civilizations began forming). Back then, if you had food, water, shelter, clothing, and some other people you were bonded with, you were good and could just sit and enjoy the fire, or whatever. Nowadays, our lives are incredibly more nuanced and complex, and we also have societal expectations to contend with, when those expectations do not jive with who we are.
 
Last edited:
Xorkoth said:
I think that humans can be naturally content and carefree once all of their basic needs are met - and these days, our basic needs are so much more numerous and in many cases quite abstract, than they were when we were basically living like animals, pre-civilization (which was a very, very long time compared to our recent history, ie, the past 5-7 thousands year when large and organized civilizations began forming). Back then, if you had food, water, shelter, clothing, and some other people you were bonded with, you good and could just sit and enjoy the fire, or whatever. Nowadays, our lives are incredibly more nuanced and complex, and we also have societal expectations to content with, when those expectations do not jive with who we are.
Click to expand...

You're right, and for me it's an interesting phenomenon. It is certainly not in our genes to want such luxury, is it? The human genome hasn't changed significantly in such a relatively short period of time (5k years for a "slow" organism like humans is not a lot, in terms of evolution). So how come we want so much more? I'm sure a modern baby, if it were placed in a primitive environment (a la some uncivilized tribe), it would grow up to be just like them and never know the so-called problems we face (like slow internet or how many likes one's selfie gets). I find it quite interesting, at least.

But it also begs the question: can we ever be fully satisfied? Or is it just human (but not necessarily exclusively human) nature to want more and more?
 
Yeah I wonder about that too. We seem to really have a "grass is greener" complex, we always want to push over the next horizon. It shows even back to our origins, when humans left their birthplace in Africa and spread to literally every corner of the planet. It may in fact be part of our nature. And the thing is, I don't feel entirely bad about that. It has its good and bad sides, but I like striving for new experiences and new understandings, it helps make life interesting and exciting. On the other hand it has led to a whole lot of problems as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top