Nothing Has Meaning

When the going gets tough the tough get going. You have probably heard this saying before, and on the face of it is quite humorous, however, also quite telling.

The point here is that being "tough" implies a certain set of, yes, principles and values. (I have a category for principle now…)

So the tough, implicitly then, adhere to a set of principles along the lines of standing up for principle, not backing down, fighting for truth and justice, keeping on keeping on, not meekly fading in the face of adversity, carrying on when the chips are down, persistence, trebuchet, hammering the point, persistence…and did I mention persistence?

Of course tough could have other meanings depending on your point of view, something as mundane as "hard to kill". But I think we all can agree that collectively we refer to "tough" as being someone with backbone,  and that means adherence to a set of principles and values. Of course a lot of tough people may be evil and wrongdoers, and still adhere to a set of principles.

Have you ever noticed, then, that this saying is essentially true?

On the flip side, the meek and the flaccid lay down when the going gets tough. Those without principle, or principle without opposition , lay down. Those "fair weather" types who talk big and walk small lay down. In fact, when the going gets tough, you learn what people are really made of. Fair weather is easy, bad weather can be hard, challenging, and require taking on a lot of demonizing and criticism, usually from those without backbone.

So we learn much from the actions of people in tough circumstances. And reveal the truth.

Only the tough keep on keeping on in the face of adversity. Are you tough?

Since nothing has meaning then how can meaning be erratic and whimsical? Set that aside…

Meaning is evidently highly personal, and uniquely human. With the advent of intelligence, human beings have gone from one bizarre and inexplicable vagary to the next. A seeming dichotomy of actions and outcomes. A reckless abandon toward oblivion taking every living thing with ‘em.

Leaving us only with perception and the personal import of that perception.

A specific example is exemplified by the saying “there’s no accounting for taste”, amazingly true. I like rock and roll, others don’t. I make rock and roll I like, and don’t like. Some like the music I make that I don’t like. My favorite line is a mystery to others. Their favorite line is a mystery to me. We try to communicate these different perceptions and wind up crucifying the opposition minority. Or in my case being correct, while everybody else is wrong. Everybody…yee everybody.

The wonderful thing about the vagaries of meaning is that there is always some other human out there with a unique and specific outlook that will fit with or share common attributes with others’ perceptions. So in other words, we are not 100% different to the point of finding no shared values. We form niches. Good thing too, because if there are enough shared values communities spring up with all the incumbent marketing possibilities for the entrepreneurs.

Bad thing too because if there are enough shared values religions spring up and begin to repress, attack and kill every other viewpoint, literally.

But still, what an inconsistent mess from the local street to the chambers of “power”. The truth of the matter, the facts of the matter are entirely lost on humans and their meanings are all they see. Humans have little or no perspective.

Perspective? Didn’t I just say we all have different perspectives? Yeah, but having perspective is a different context. Learn English! Having no perspective is a reference to the inability to take the holistic view of any given context, or outside the bounds of the context to a universal holistic view.

And that is why nothing has meaning.

Strip away the vagaries of meaning and you are left with nothing but the facts, truth.

Yes, philosophers like to think truth is a concept whereas facts are solid information or events, but the truth is, the fact is, (puns intended) that there is the IS and it is true. Depending on what your definition of is is. (I can’t believe the Bill Clinton’s crazy rationalizing has made the fabric of metaphor.)

Strip away your vagaries and all that is left is peace…

A little known fact of the higher human order, living the voodoo lives of economics.

Everyone is in sales.

Yes, life is one big pitch.

This is one of the larger ironies of human kind, that they get jobs and work and think that they are not selling anything but are respectably “working” and “making a living”.

Sure that happens for real sometimes, subsistence farming is probably pretty close to survival like the animals, you grow or hunt what you eat or you don’t eat. Much like indigenous populations did and do.

But I’m talking about so called enlightened Westerners here. Us folks who somehow think that working at a job isn’t sales and we degrade those actually in sales. Those of us completely blindsided and unable to cope when said job is lost. Those of us with the entitlement attitude that seems to say “I showed up, where’s my money” with no real comprehension of what running a business is all about.

Bottom line, everyone is selling themselves, either pretty well or not so well.

Life’s a Pitch.

I had to finish the Do It Now, Do It Fast slogan.

Yes, Do It Now, Do It Fast, You’ll be Glad You Did!

The meaning of life? Meaningless, without a perspective. Much like the universe.

Nothing really exists without the apparatus that defines it.

A buddy of mine, Jerry Howe, once said to me something along the lines that if I could do something I said I could do, and did not do it, then that amounts to the same thing as not being able to do it. Now, that was not meant literally, but rather philosophically.

So, we are not talking about martial artists who can kill with one blow not having that ability because they don’t kill with one blow. No, we are talking about the self imposed limitations of the human spirit, the downer attitudes that keep us from doing, whatever, whatever, we want.

The kind of thinking that states, I would if I could but I can’t, when in reality we could but we just don’t.

See, Do It Now.

Is that all there is? That’s all there is. What is? Whatever is, is. But anyway. . . .

Nothing that is except for wanting to move this web philosophy blog to a domain more relevant to the stories told here, the thoughts told here, the truths observed here.

www.NothingHasMeaning.com

We only control ourselves.

Diverging from meaning, and looking at control, again, yes, again is an interesting study.

There will always be victims, and perpetrators, however in the course of our pampered meaningless American lives we generally are not faced with such vagaries. So taking this to luxurious philosophical discourse I am talking about manipulation and control of our decisions.

We make all of our decisions, no matter how contrived or rationalized, no matter what external forces may affect us. This is also literally true, physically and biologically in terms of the origins of physical action only occurring within each of us, but we’ll leave out true violence and persecution for the moment.

I am always struck by the alacrity for blaming in this country, or in this modernized meaningless western life style. Excuses. Everyone makes excuses. No decision seems to be made based on inner desire or motivation but rather is blamed on circumstance beyond our control.

The truth underneath everything is my relentless mantra, that our actions reveal values, values motivated into action, and that a choice has occurred underpinning the motivation for the action. Blah, blah, blah. Not recognizing this truth and making excuses is tantamount to preaching tolerance and non-violence while murdering innocent living beings. That is an extreme used here only as a metaphor. Like a government persecuting other autonomous nations through death and violence in the name of freedom or some other wonderful value or concept purporting to honor and value life.

Peeling away the layers of external forces and turning inward to ourselves, frees us from the abdication of responsibility and the bearing of a burden of guilt for other’s actions, while in fact making letting it all go possible.

Let go of having control over anyone other than yourself, deeply considering one’s choices, always asking yourself for advice, being completely true to yourself, standing up for your values, relentlessly, is true freedom, and responsibility.

And don’t think this applies to the helpless in the sense that those in need, still need help and possibly cannot, literally, take action. Like small children. Take great care of your children and all children, teach them the same responsibility for themselves, and maybe someday we will have an enlightened society that can watch the earth cease to support life as we value it, together in harmony.