Nothing you do is ever going to matter

[Yureina]

I don't think about it. I worry about myself, and what affects the present me. The idea that "nothing matters" is only something that I'd get to in moments of extreme depression. Even then... not so much. What's important to *me* is what matters, and that is all I need to focus on, ultimately.

 

[TWRule]

So what?

At what level does success begin?

I feel like a broken record bringing up Absurdism so often. So I'll pretend I didn't.

You should bring it up. No one in my generation seems to have any conception of it unless they are a philosophy major like myself (even though I know a lot of people had to read some related literature in high school and brushed it off).

Well, I'm a bit worried about embarrassing myself in front of a philosophy major. So I guess I'll just post two links of relevance to the OP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism

I tend to ascribe to the absurdist views myself. I find the pointless, almost inexplicable ideas in line with how I see the universe.

However, you're the expert, so I'd be interested to see what you had to say.

I'd hardly call myself an expert on this particular philosophical movement; at least not more so than anyone else who has engaged some material by Camus and/or Kierkegaard.

But to boil it down for those unfamiliar with it; it essentially asks the question: "what ought to be the measure of human existence (particularly an individual human being)? Is a human being given definition through their situation, or how they act within that situation?"

So given our situation in this world (being thrown into this world not by choice, lacking any apparent meaning/purpose for ourselves, limited to our finite bodies and what they can do under "natural laws" surrounded by strange foreign entities, etc.) - do we simply succumb to nihilism or insanity?

An absurdist would say no. We ought to struggle against "fate", death, our situation - more properly, we ought to ultimately transcend the vicissitudes of the world, live well, and search for meaning in spite of possibly being doomed to inevitably meet the same fate.

This, among several other works by Camus, illustrates the idea more eloquently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_Sisyphus

 

[Ace of Spades]

Why is it that whether you 'matter' is always measured in longevity these days? Just because no one will remember my name or what I've done after I die doesn't mean that none of it mattered. I've made a lot of people smile, and I'm making a life for myself right where I am, and touching the lives of those around me. Perhaps you think that nothing I do will ever matter, but that's entirely dependent on your perspective, which varies drastically from person to person, and by my definition, I matter. You matter. In some small way, we all matter.

 

[guntotingtomcat]

What if you have children? And they have children? And them aswell, etc?

With the act of creating life, you can start a lineage. That's neither irrelevant, or unimpressive. There could potentially be millions of people in the future who could not have existed if not for you.

If you can't have children, then you could donate organs. Give blood. If you save or prolong even one life, your existence was worth it, as far as I'm concerned.

Just making yourself happy though? Isn't that what murderer's do? Enjoy themselves without considering the feelings of others?

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

On the one hand, given enough time, probably nobody will be "remembered" in a conventional sense.

On the other hand, your existence will always have an impact. Everything you do affects the universe and none of that can ever really be "undone". It might be a small amount, but it's effectively impossible to not affect the universe.

Now if you want the REAL "nothing you do is ever going to matter" mindfuck: if you believe in a mechanistic universe (meaning a deterministic universe), your choices are illusions. When you "choose" something, you're just doing the only thing you can do, because the atoms that constitute your body behave mechanistically, giving rise to mechanistic biology. When you say "Well, I could have chosen to walk through that door instead a few minutes ago", you're not making a choice in the way we tend to think. If you went back and all of the conditions, external to you and internal to you, were the same, of course you'd go through the same door. So then, does it "not matter" what you choose because there are no "choices" in the conventional sense? Can we even ask that question given that you behave mechanistically and have no option to not make "choices" of this sort?

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

I've come to accept that I influence a lot of people, whether I know it or not. Something about inadvertently starting a Christmas tie trend among the student body this past holiday season might have something to do with it.
In any case, I know that I won't make that big a difference in the world. But for those around me, I make all the difference in the world. /lolcorny
'Sides, I like staying reserved.

 

[TWRule]

I'd hardly call myself an expert on this particular philosophical movement; at least not more so than anyone else who has engaged some material by Camus and/or Kierkegaard.

But to boil it down for those unfamiliar with it; it essentially asks the question: "what ought to be the measure of human existence (particularly an individual human being)? Is a human being given definition through their situation, or how they act within that situation?"

So given our situation in this world (being thrown into this world not by choice, lacking any apparent meaning/purpose for ourselves, limited to our finite bodies and what they can do under "natural laws" surrounded by strange foreign entities, etc.) - do we simply succumb to nihilism or insanity?

An absurdist would say no. We ought to struggle against "fate", death, our situation - more properly, we ought to ultimately transcend the vicissitudes of the world, live well, and search for meaning in spite of possibly being doomed to inevitably meet the same fate.

This, among several other works by Camus, illustrates the idea more eloquently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_Sisyphus

That was an incredible read. I'll try to track down a translated version of that book. I'm not just saying that either, I'm genuinely grateful.

All I have left to say on the matter is that Videogame players seem to be innately/susceptible to Absurdist views. The vast majority of games rely on the "why not", "the thrill is in the hunt and not the capture" or the "because its fun" mentality.

I'd argue that TF2 is an absurdist game. Everything you do is erased instantly, it is all painfully obviously pointless and yet it is all designed to be played for funs sake.

Don't mention it. And I agree that the philosophical ground is probably quite fertile in the gaming generation for concepts such as this. It's a shame that so few come to know of them. It seems like few are willing to take a serious interest in philosophy until they are into their independent years (well into college at least), even though I'm sure everyone asks themselves such questions at some point.

 

[thylasos]

So... the unbearable lightness of being? It depends how your approach it, really.

Positive existentialism, anyone?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I can change the world. Just try and stop me!

*To the Doc-mobile!*

[sub]Yes, I'm not a pessimistic conformist.[/sub]