what is the meaning of life?

Okay guys, so this post is really just me going out on a whim and having a rant, so I'm not sure on what kind of feedback I'm going to get from you guys but this is a topic that I feel like I just need to get off my chest. Recently I've been having complicated thoughts about the meaning of life and whatnot, and I feel pretty rational in my way of thinking. I haven't written this because I'm feeling unsatisfied with my life or anything, but instead because I simply don't understand it and what better way to share my confusion than blogging?

~~~ Update: I think that I initially decided to write this post to feel a little more understanding of life, but in retrospect I think I was just mulling over my thoughts and ideas, and wanted to hear what you guys think ~~~

lessons

Do you ever wonder if people are placed into your life specifically so you can learn something from them, if everyone has a significant meaning to you? I was wondering this at about 2am a few nights ago (go figure), and I've come to realise that pretty much anyone who's ever played a part in my life has given me a lesson to think about. I don't want to call them "mistakes" that other people have made, but it's certainly taught me what not to do with my life.

For example, both my brothers had high expectations for their lives. The oldest didn't reach his dreams simply because someone - a teacher, no less - told him that he wasn't good enough, and so he gave up trying. A similar thing happened to my younger older brother (you know?), but this time the only person discouraging him really was himself. Long story short, both of them ended up doing something they love, but they have to sacrifice those to a few mere hours a month, so that they can earn money to fuel the economy. 

afterlife

~~~ I didn't know whether or not to include this topic in this blog post because I felt that it's not the sort of thing that anyone wants to read about, but I then realised that when you have a rant that feels so raw and unedited, it should be left in. Feel free to skip this section. ~~~

I don't like the idea of Heaven.

Okay, so this probably isn't the best line to start a topic on, but I feel that it should be mentioned. Sure, eternal paradise sounds lovely, but after endless years of Heaven, wouldn't we get bored? Surely there would come a time when you've done everything you could possibly do in Heaven, maybe twice? What would you do then, continue redoing everything you've already done for the rest of eternity??

I don't like the idea of becoming a ghost.

Again, wouldn't we get bored?? Free travel would be great, but there's only so many countries and cultures you can see before you've pretty much seen it all. Plus, you can't eat the food of said countries, which would suck.

I don't like the idea or reincarnation.

Why would I want to lose all my memories, emotions, relations?? Maybe another chance at life would be great, but surely repeating the same old routine just in another body, again and again, forever, would become pretty tedious? Learning the same things over and over, experiencing love, heartbreak, whatever - we would have done them all before but just not remember it. And if our new 'forms' get better or worse each time we're reborn, depending on how we act, what classifies something as 'bad' enough to end up as a slug? I feel like the more I try to understand life and the afterlife, the more questions arise.

the meaning of life

This is probably the biggest question of all. Sometimes I just get really frustrated with my philosophical brain constantly trying to work out the meaning of life, because what if there is no meaning? We live, we breed, we die. We work all our lives and struggle just to respawn and then grow old and get weaker and watch everyone we love pass, or live their own separate lives. There's something humongous in that which I can't just comprehend. Surely, that can't be all there is to life? A typical person spends the first quarter of their life in education, then a third of their life asleep, about half of their life working and then the last quarter is spent with their body systems shutting down. What a waste. And then, who really cares about our individual lives? Our memories die as we die, and in a few generations down the line no one will remember our names. 

~~~ Update: this part is more depressing when rereading than when writing, so sorry about that ~~~

Yet we still continue to live, or half-live, bound by the chains of society - we can't even try to enjoy it, because we'll always have bills to pay, rents to fulfil, etc. As we get older, we are constantly surrounded by physical, emotional and mental pains, and really, is that any life at all? What's the point if we can't do whatever the hell we want, be free, and enjoy life's offerings??

"We have created out lives out of materialistic things and ideals that do not exist in the natural world." 

the american dream

To put it simply, what is the American dream?

According to Google, the American dream is "the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved." This sounds absolutely fantastic, does it not? Well, let's quote our good friend Matt, on why he dislikes the American dream;

"You get a job, you get married, you buy a house, and have your 2.5 children. Society boxes you in and restricts your movements to their expectations. It’s like the matrix. And any deviation is considered abnormal and weird. People may want to travel, tell you they envy what you do, say they wish they could do the same thing. But really, they don’t. They are simply fascinated by a lifestyle so outside the norm. There’s nothing wrong with having a family or owning a house — most of my friends lead happy lives doing so. However, the general attitude in the States is “do it this way if you want to be normal.” And, well, I don’t want to be normal.

I feel like the reason why people tell us we are running away is because they can’t fathom the fact that we broke the mold and are living outside the norm. To want to break all of society’s conventions, there simply must be something wrong with us."

Now, I couldn't possibly be the only person in the entire Universe who believes that really, the American dream sounds like torture. And the worst part? It doesn't just apply to Americans. This backhanded society mindset applies to every single person alive who lives each day on a routine, on a typical 9 - 5 basis, chained to a mundane flattened out life, where our main purpose is to serve the government via work and pay.

I just really don't understand. People want to put this happiness on hold (perhaps forever), just to get money to fuel their lives to fuel more money. It's not even like we own money anymore - the money owns us. Society teaches us to yearn for the American dream, but our lives rely on the materialistic products that this mindset is formed upon.

"You spend all your time making money, so you can spend all your money making time. You work hard to buy a home just to work as hard inside your home. There is no summer vacation from your job – unless you work at a school but then you are back at school."

"Wake up, take a shower, get dressed, go to work, eat lunch, talk about the weather with co-workers, go home, eat dinner, watch TV and/or surf the internet, go to sleep, repeat. No matter how awesome you think your young adult life is now, this is the rut that awaits you."

education

"Education is to produce uniformity, conformity, and programmability, to provide labor for industrialists (in the form of workers) and labor for the ruling class (in the form of soldiers)." 

Another thing which I really, really dislike, is that the education system is there to produce good workers to rear in more money for the government, and basically teach children from a young age that we should all be slaves to the system. It crushes creativity, it teaches us to strive for the American dream, because this will drastically help the economy, and, also, college will put you in debt for at least 7 years. If education really is about learning life skills and improving our knowledge, then why do we have to pay hundreds or thousands of pounds for it? And why don't we learn useful things like how to pay taxes, or live a sustainable life?? It expects us all to work at the same rate, trying its best to synchronise our abilities.

According to people's experiences with education over at Yahoo;

"Everyone was brainwashed and felt the need to conform, there were no original people or individuals."

"School in general is nothing more than a factory preparing you for the working world, there are no self-persuits in most institutions."

And, "My old school in particular encouraged body image disorders so that people were constantly unhappy with themselves."

the answer

I began writing this post hoping that I would somehow come to an answer that I would be content with. Maybe I need to find God, maybe I need to fall in love, or maybe I just need to eat some really good Thai food. Whichever way, I feel better now that I've ranted to you guys about what keeps me awake at night. Another topic which I was prepared to rant about was the whole 'is there a God?' idea, but decided that as this is a topic that I feel very, very strongly about, I couldn't continue without out severely insulting someone, and although I consider this blog to be a free space to share opinions, I know that this is probably the most controversial topic of all and any potentially negative feedback wouldn't be worth the justifications. I hope that nothing that I talked about in this post offended anyone, and I don't think that it would have, but to quote myself from when I started to write this post (three hours ago), "when you have a rant that feels so raw and unedited, it should be left in. "

So, to summarise;

- I covered a lot of subjects within this post but I think that they're all related one way or another, and so I smushed them altogether in one neat mass.

- Don't hate me, all opinions in this post were my own and I honestly tried my best not to offend

- And finally, this post isn't about me throwing conspiracies at my screen. I would never do that. Cough.

Have a good day guys!~~