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Re:The dangerous idea that life is a story by Retric on Thursday September 03, 2015 @04:05PM (#10167204)
Young children don't need 'meaning' to enough life, which IMO is a philosophy as valid as any other.

I used to have quite a bit of existential angst and personally I found the most useful thing to do was finding something interesting and do/learn it. It's easy to get into a rut where month after month you follow the same patterns. Especially when living in doors most of the time removes most seasonal variations.

Re:The dangerous idea that life is a story by hodwik on Thursday September 03, 2015 @04:20PM (#10167293)
Children live a life of pure fiction. My two year old in the last day has believed himself to be a Jaguar hunting our chihuahua, a pirate sailing our living room couch, a bear eating ravioli, and countless other tiny dreams.

All of them are fundamentally narratives about power. Children incessantly dream of having more strength than they currently do. Why that is the case should be profoundly obvious.

It may not seem like meaning to us because of its naive purview, but to children their own narratives about their power are all-encompassing epics detailing a hoped-for relation to the world.

And why should the season matter? Outside of its aesthetic attributes, attributes we project upon it, it is merely a small change in temperature as the angle of the sun's rays move in relation to the crust of the Earth, followed by some shifts in the flora and fauna populations -- beings which are themselves merely carbon-based machines arising from the repetition of simple chemical processes over very large time scales.

Those things that we find interesting are so because of what we project upon them, not as a result of what they fundamentally, physically, objectively are. The very idea that something should be "interesting" implies a subjective witness to project their own feelings onto the meaningless physical trivia of the universe.

If your goal is to live a life without lies, you'll be living a life without meaning. There is no meaning outside of the beautiful, nay, holy fictions we tell ourselves.

The beauty in childhood isn't that it's all truth, it's that its all lies. They don't yet have a concept of truth and lies, and so are free to live entirely within their dreams. We, on the other hand, are in some ways shackled to reality by our experiences of materiality.

Re:The dangerous idea that life is a story by fineline on Thursday September 03, 2015 @08:34PM (#10168258)
There is a multi-billion dollar industry selling people all kinds of fashionable, pharmaceutical and surgical means of "preserving their youth". If only people realised that what they are trying to relive is the state of not knowing or caring about that crap, and that "Living the dream" is not about acquiring material accessories, but preserving a sense of wonder, excitement and imagination. Whenever an old person is described as "youthful", its not because they've had plastic surgery, it's because they haven't grown out of dreaming.
Re:The dangerous idea that life is a story by branchless on Thursday September 03, 2015 @09:42PM (#10168433)
This is probably the best part about having kids: seeing things through their eyes.

I'm hoping if I spend enough time with them some of it will rub off (or back onto) me.

It's the adults who are mad!

Re:The dangerous idea that life is a story by czbond on Thursday September 03, 2015 @08:57PM (#10168312)
Extremely well said!
Re:The dangerous idea that life is a story by beamatronic on Thursday September 03, 2015 @05:06PM (#10167526)
"They don't yet have a concept of truth and lies, and so are free to live entirely within their dreams."

The best description of working in Silicon Valley that I've ever heard!

Re:The dangerous idea that life is a story by Retric on Thursday September 03, 2015 @05:13PM (#10167561)
And why should the season matter?

It's not that they provide meaning, however if you spend a lot of time out doors in most areas there are dramatic changes. There is something visceral about the feeling that you need to smell the wildflowers right now as they will soon be gone.

Re:The dangerous idea that life is a story by oldmanjay on Thursday September 03, 2015 @04:51PM (#10167458)
> There is no meaning outside of the beautiful, nay, holy fictions we tell ourselves.

The presumption-to-word ratio of that sentence is pretty off the charts.