Observations on Meaninglessness

Meaninglessness often appears to originate from external sources. We anticipate discovering meaning in our professions, hobbies, travels, and relationships, and we often attribute our feelings of meaninglessness to the world’s failure to live up to its promises.

However, meaninglessness is not something we find externally; it’s an internal creation. It emerges from within and perpetuates itself. In reality, meaninglessness is a battle we wage against ourselves.

Meaninglessness is a subtle adversary. It employs various tactics to prevent you from relishing your life, facing the world as it is, and taking the necessary actions. It can be deceptive, exaggerating, contradictory, distorting, coercive, enticing, and seductive. It takes on any guise necessary to make life appear futile. It can pose as your most reasonable confidant or your unwelcome neighbor who disrupts your peace ²⁴⁄₇. If you accept meaninglessness at face value, it can lead you astray. In truth, meaninglessness is consistently in the wrong and utterly deceptive.

Meaninglessness is impersonal. It doesn’t target individuals personally because it doesn’t know or care about your identity. It seeks to infiltrate anyone who opens the door through doubt, a lack of values and personal philosophies, or the absence of overarching narratives. Meaninglessness is a natural force, a shared human experience. It operates impartially.

Although it may appear as a fierce adversary, meaninglessness behaves with the dispassion of a mosquito. When we engage in a battle against it, we must remember that it doesn’t single out individuals personally but affects all of us.