Miscellany » Sethisms » Meaining of Life

Seth Price, early 2017

To be born, to reproduce, and to die. As sure as I am this’ll get me a gravely hilarious lashing, I stand by my statement.

Evolution. Before humans, there were hominids. Before hominids, there were fish. Before fish, there were protozoa. Et cetera. At what point did this chain of organisms become “human”? At what point did we acquire a soul? At what point were we no longer a meager animal?

Perhaps, however, we don’t have a soul. Perhaps we’re like a Sims game to an omnipotent being: the master clockmaker. Perhaps we’re meaningless. But where would we be without meaning? Now that humans can “think” and “be”, we have to assign ourselves a reason to live: a reason to ensure the survival of our species.

Meaning is assigned. Meaning is beseeched upon to each of us by ourselves and our indoctrination. Meaning is chosen.

Meaning isn’t universal.

Background: we were reading T.S. Elliot in English class, after which we were given a homework assignment: to explain the meaning of life in about half a page—and don’t be “generic”. Within the ten minutes before said class started (the end of fourth period), I put this dreck together, printed it out without reading through it, and made a single correction of a typo (the date). Ironically enough, it got me a better grade than some of the things of equivalent length I’ve taken about forty minutes to write.