I can see you have lost your bearings a bit here. At times the social, intellectual, philosophical, and religious constructs that we have which give the world meaning and coherence fall away and we are plunged into confusion and nothingness.
As a gold bug or gold investor, you are faced with the real possibility that gold is a meaningless investment. If this sense of meaninglessness persists, you are forced to ask what value your investment has under the current economic and financial system. Moral Outrage is an option that many "gold bugs" or gold investors adopt to justify their massive losses.
"Gold Bugs" or gold investors are caught in a paradox. On the one hand, all empirical evidence shows that some of the CB's of the world want to divest their gold. Gold stocks, like life, come into existence and pass away. Ideas are proven to be true then determined to be false. One belief is held than another. Even our own moods are constantly shifting. On the other hand, humans have a persistent nostalgia for unity, a need to make sense of the world. Enter the "gold bug" or gold investor with its unique view of the social and economic landscape. This is part of the human condition, a constant attempt to derive meaning from meaninglessness.
Soren Kierkegaard went to great lengths to show the limits of reason and man’s helplessness in the face of life’s contradictions. However, the religious leap of faith that Kierkegaard proposes is unnecessary. It is an escape IMHO. If this leap of faith is in fact a solution to life’s absurdity, as Kierkegaard thought, then the absurdity never existed in the first place, which means the need Kierkegaard described for a leap of faith did not exist either. Any solution to a problem that avoids dealing with a part of that problem is not a valid solution.
If one believes Homer, Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals. He stole the secrets of the gods. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which his whole being was exerted toward accomplishing the same thing day after day.
What determines meaning or the lack of it, is how we look at the reality in question. It is always easier to surrender to fate, easier to blame others of one's plight and pain, as many on this thread do, easier to wallow in palpable pain. I think that self-pity is the anti-thesis of meaning. Pity yourself and you will feel very small. Pity yourself more and your self-worth is put to question. Eventually self-pity diminishes what is beautiful, dignified and noble in a person. What is left after self-pity? Nothing except a heap of diminutive garbage which was once a person.
Does life have meaning? The answer to this question does not depend on circumstance or in one's position in life. A rich man maybe so despondent that he may be driven to insanity or suicide. Yet a poor man maybe so happy that his laughter may reverberate in the walls of his house long after he is gone. The answer to the quest of meaning lies in one's attitude, in one's creativity.
Thanks for "considering my point of view a valid contribution to this thread." Now all you need to do is make a contribution yourself. |
