Re: The Seeking
In response to this post, but quoting the relevant part in case the link goes dead: https://unstory.eu/xlr/
“The internet was never that useful. No random scrolling, no news, no platforms. The internet goes quiet. The computer is idle. Shut down the computer and there is nothing waiting. The screen just filled that empty space cheaply. No risk. No failure.
Cleaned the house and only time stays.
Time for what?
Replaced Battlefield with a feed reader and IRC with a static site. Same search. Different costume. The hunger just moves. Online, offline, it doesn't matter. Offline the hunger finds a mortgage, a relationship, a career. Real wreckage.
It's futile.”
People are reinventing nihilism from first principles on the internet these days. The sentiment is everywhere once you start looking for it. I saw someone on HackerNews complaining that they “wasted” an entire day playing chess. If you like chess enough to play it all day, can you really call that a waste?
“Dopamine addiction” falls into the same category. You do things you like? Because they’re fun? No, it’s an addiction.
Needing to monetize your hobbies because if it doesn’t generate money, what’s the point?
There’s just this everpresent ennui now, radiating in the background of everything. How did we get here?
The problem with humans is that we can’t just live, we have to live FOR something. There has to be a goal, there has to be meaning. Doing things just for the sake of it isn’t enough. That’s why we have religion. All actions are inherently meaningless, we’re all going to die, it doesn’t actually matter if you decide to spend all your time helping people, or hurting people, or doing nothing. The universe doesn’t care. You’re just a speck of dust in a fleeting moment compared to the size and duration of the universe. Religion promises eternity. More importantly, it gives you a goal. It says “what you do matters”.
But people aren’t religious anymore. Everyone’s atheist or agnostic or “””spiritual””” (read: they do yoga) or this sort of apathetic christian where they tick the box on surveys but don’t think about God ever.
Everyone wants to have secular versions of religious practices. Mindfulness instead of prayer. Therapy instead of confession. Celebrities instead of prophets. Retiring at 40 instead of heaven. And they wonder why it feels so empty. It’s like taking the engine out of your car and wondering why it’s not moving.
People say “I’m not religious” and then they worship money. But money isn’t sentient. It doesn’t care what you do. It’s not watching over you. It can’t protect you. It didn’t create you. And then they wonder why they don’t feel fulfilled. It’s like looking at a picture of a steak and wondering why you’re still hungry.
If you don’t want to be religious: fine. But then actually be not religious. Actually accept that this is all there is, and nothing matters. You probably can’t. It’s too depressing. We weren’t made to think this way. There are some people I’ve seen who do it though. Who can see how insignificant they are, and how meaningless everything else is, and decide that that’s okay and they’re just going to enjoy life as it is. If you don’t want to be religious, then at least be like that.