Premise … the world is so complex that we cannot possibly make sense of it … Yet, we are governed by a system that says that it is a given that we are logical consumers … the system is based on blind acceptance of something that is simply not true … an absurd system … the world is, therefore, absurd. Right? This is our endeavor … we must examine our world keeping in mind it makes no sense, there is no meaning in it, therefore, it is absurd …. and also that our goal is not try to make sense of it … our goal is to do nothing … do nothing and all is done … Taoist
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of the heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” – Karl Marx
The internet is the delighted squeal of the impressionable, the mindlessness of the distracted, the purpose of purposelessness, the worth of nothing worthwhile. It is the Skittles of the people.
Our time is our only valuable commodity. The idle rich are perceived to control the addled poor. The opiate of the masses is opinion.
And thus I was. Deluded that all I needed to do was to be clever.
Update December 2017. My update is that I realized a few of months ago that my life has been, literally, a waste of time. My time, everyone’s time.
Up until then, I was satisfied that I was clever, witty, funny … I was satisfied to provide distractions, to watch and listen and be involved in creating distractions. I was that way because years ago, I had come to the clever conclusion that ‘the world is so complex that we cannot possibly make sense of it … there is no meaning in it, therefore, it is absurd’. Because of this conclusion, I had given up on life. I didn’t try very hard, was satisfied with underachieving, being sloppy, careless, in my work and even in my relationships.
Then I made a great connection during an Alpha course. A classmate suggested I read, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, by Victor E. Frankl. In the book, Frankl, a World War II concentration camp survivor discovered what gives life meaning is love. This has changed everything for me including what God is. The connection between the meaning of life is love and “God is Love” made it clear to me that God is everything. Before you start thinking that Lemmon has gone crazy, let me start by saying that all this is part of what I believed all along but did not have the experience to be able to talk about in educated (using a vernacular) terms.
I will speak more to that later. For now, be relieved that I will not tell you I was hit by lightning. It is more like I was made to face myself and realize that I, myself, wanted to be a better person – that I did not want to go as I had any longer … it was time to change the one thing about myself I truly did not like … More on that later (look for “BLOG 171229”).
For now, let’s say that part of my update is that I am no longer confused about life as I was. I certainly do not use “confusion is my strength” as a crutch, an excuse not to go deeper into discussions, into my work, and into my friendships. Nor do I allow myself to interject with sarcasm as a means to disguise that I actually have no idea what people are talking about. Now I listen more carefully because when life has meaning to you, you want to be involved in life. Let’s just say also that I am much happier now that life is a source of joy.
