Meaning and Becoming

The search for meaning - universal or otherwise - has always been man's eternal obsession, since time immemorial, till time ceases. This obsession, this addiction, this unwavering fixation, has driven him to the far reaches of the outer universe, and the darkest corners of the continental shelves. It's been his greatest strength - the drive to make sense of it all; the need for a theory of everything. But it's also been his greatest weakest, his deepest delusion.

What is this obsession with meaning? Is it innate in the human species that existence needs to mean something, that we are here for a reason, that our lives should have some purpose and not mere existence? Are we fearful of insignificance, of the existential limbo that may possibly result if there were no meaning to life? Are we afraid of that pervading sense of ennui we instinctively know could be the reality of existence? Do we peer into the abyss of nothingness with fear and trembling?

And so we create fictions - about life, about love, about self, about others, about morality, about mortality, about rights, about wrongs. We need someone to love, and be loved, so life remains meaningful. We need to connect, to build bridges, to form relations. We need to create a better world for ourselves, and for our future, so our lives would come to mean something. We need the myth of social success, the fiction of progress, so there are goals that can be achieved. We need a family so we believe we can belong to some place, some community. We need children so we can mark our genes on eternity. We need knowledge so we can make sense of what we fundamentally believe to be a senseless world. We need meaning so meaning can be ascertained and affirmed yet again.

In the end, it may all come to mean nothing. In the end, we are just one of several other billion. In the end, we are just one planet in a galaxy of several billion galaxies. The fear of meaninglessness compels us to believe Man needs to remain the measure of all things. He needs to feel so, so meaning may be preserved intact, untainted, and pure.