Titans For Reason

As we continue to walk along the yellow brick road of life, all of us will almost certainly ask ourselves the same question that has confounded philosophers for thousands of years:

What is the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything? Douglas Adams has wisely declared it to be 42, but there is certainly no consensus. As one ancient example, Plato believed the meaning of life would be found in the pursuit of knowledge and the “good.” The Apostle Paul believed we should seek God (a meaning unto himself) with the hope that we may one day find Him. Depressingly, nihilists believe there is no meaning of life whatsoever.

Explanations for the meaning of life are as numerous as the human species. Everyone has a meaning (except nihilists, poor souls), and almost everyone claims that their meaning is the meaning. Which is true? None of them and all of them. Here is the reality: We create our own meaning and our own destiny.

Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, “‘This – is now my way: where is yours?’ Thus I answered to those who asked me ‘the way.’ For the way – does not exist!”

Truly, there exists no universal meaning or path that can be prepackaged and bestowed upon humanity; leave that to faiths, fictions and folly.

In the quest for ultimate truth, those who believe they have actually found this mythical treasure never fail to march around annoying everyone else half to death. You know the type; they are people like the well-dressed gentlemen who come bashing on your door on Saturday mornings with holy books in hand. At the very least, regard their claims with reasoned suspicion.

Beyond such benign annoyances, people who claim to have found the meaning have carried out some of the most monstrous murders in history; the Crusades, the Jonestown Massacre, the Holocaust and other atrocities all resulted from a tragically misguided sense of certainty about one ideology or another. How many people (excepting certain crazed fanatics) still believe with absolute certainty that killing infidels is the path to heaven?

But enough with the crazies. Most of us can spot them quite easily anyway. The tiresome and incessant questionings about the meaning of life have become a bit of a bore. Why must there be some grand and mystical meaning of life? Isn’t life itself meaning enough?

Many would say no, and would naively prefer a life of rigid certainty to a mindset of enlightened fluidity. Winston Churchill said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” Change naturally precedes growth; every person should have not one destiny, but several!

Do not fail to note that those who profess rigid certainty are often those who claim to hold the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. “It is good to be like the sheep,” they will tell you from the pulpit. “Follow the Good Shepherd in the Path he has laid out just for you.” Following their seductive advice is true death: The mind shuts down, the soul withers away, and “thou shalt” is victorious over “I will!”

The ability to will is the unique glory of the human species. Without will, we are all simply mindless automatons (or sheep, if you prefer) following the directions of our betters. As the saying goes, if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.

And so, dear friends, always be, as Nietzsche so eloquently put it, one “such as can will.” Your will powers the motor of the world and will be the catalyst for the creation of many wonders.

Don’t be like the people who grovel while on bent knees for meaning and salvation to be revealed from above. Instead, proudly look in the mirror and create it for yourself.

(Property of Peter Cornett)