Quote:
Originally Posted by BOIDS
i think a lot of the meaning of life comes from conflict. we feel our best when we are banding together with like minded folk in a righteous fashion against a strong enemy
we dont have any strong enemies. russia is sort of trying but they cant even beat their little brother who lives next door, and the biggest realistic threat they pose to the west is slightly higher heating costs
so, the battleground is no longer eg the fight against fascism, and is instead centered on the finer points of sexual politics within the corporate environment and so on. its ****ing boring. no wonder people are drawn to things such as Qanon and its a shame that you have to be ******ed to get involved in that sort of thing
basically we need ww3 to feel normal
I think this reply nails it on the head. As a species, purpose is typically derived from conflict / attainment of power; that may very well also be true for every living thing on Earth. As a people, we don't have many external conflicts like we used to, so we end up in the current climate where internal divisions are at an all-time high, sometimes over pretty innocuous things. In the United States, class divisions are a particular focal point for conflict, even though there have been few times in history that things have been as good economically for everybody as they have been in the recent past.
On a micro level, it is important for each of us to find meaning for ourselves. Victor Frankl wrote a very popular book on the topic. On a macro level, this is a more complicated issue that does have real world consequences.
Good OP and interesting replies! That there are so many different perspectives on this is refreshing.