| For me:
The meaning of life is survival. We all know what survival is - it's "life" that I probably view differently than you do. By my way of thinking, life is anything that can perpetuate itself. That means ice crystals, trees, dogs, human bodies, companies, government programs, political parties, and the teachings of prophets like Jesus or Mohammed are all alive. Each gets its meaning by fighting to survive, and if it fails, it no longer has any meaning.
Movies and music may not seem like they have anything to do with survival, but only if you try to associate them with the wrong form of life: they don't struggle for survival as people, but as culture. Like any form of life, culture needs food in order to perpetuate itself. For plants, nutrients are food. For animals, plants and other animals are food. For culture, it's living human bodies.
But how can our bodies and our cultures both be alive at the same time? It's simple - we've got divided identities. I identify myself as a human being, so I eat and breath and sleep. I identify myself as a part of my family, so I love and defend them. I'm a part of a company, so I trade my labor to them for money. I'm a recreational pilot, so I fly for fun. I'm a member of a political party, so I vote for it and donate money to it. The identities go on and on, but they all share the common goal of survival.
True, my 'pilot' identity can't survive without flying, but doesn't that pose risks that threaten survival of my body? Yes, it does, but it also produces drugs that convince my body to go along with it. In the same way that we eat food by digesting it and making it a part of us, culture 'eats' us by convincing our bodies that things like listening to music are more essential to survival than just eating and making babies (it doesn't matter whether or not these things are true - just whether or not our bodies believe them).
Hundreds of different aspects of culture all compete for identity and survival within each person, simply because they can. The survival of these bits is what gives life meaning.
- Call me cynical and blow me off if it makes you happy, but this explaination of the meaning of life makes sense to me. I'm also open to constructive criticism. |