# Everything we are is absurd and arbitrary **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 27, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927 "2012-03-27T04:21:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/21 "2012-03-27T09:25:06Z")
> [@Three\_Packs\_a\_Day](#): > > The problem is, doesn’t it ever bother you that everything you are is absurd and arbitrary? Doesn’t it ever bother you that you are just a collection of atoms following the laws of physics, and therefore don’t have any control over even whether or not you are bothered by it? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/22 "2012-03-27T09:30:29Z")
Also, while it’s true that we have instincts and are wired up to experience pleasure and pain in response to particular stimuli, it’s _also_ true that we are conscious thinking beings. The OP and later posts imply a simple mapping between genome and actions. That if I changed your genes to X, you’d do Y. But unless that genome change is sufficient to change the whole nature of consciousness, you’d need godlike powers to make such a prediction (and the prediction would be different for each individual). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/23 "2012-03-27T09:30:35Z")
Hey, man, I wrote _La Nausée_ when I was 9 years old. I got tired of all those 11-year-olds telling me about what my destiny was. I decided that I would swamp all them with existential angst. Now I snicker whenever some college freshman comes out of his first Bergman film and tells me about he cries out in the darkness, but there is no answer. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/24 "2012-03-27T09:46:51Z")
Just because things are reducible, doesn’t mean they are meaningless. My arm is reducible to a collection of muscles, sinews and bones, which are reducible to cells, which are reducible to molecules and atoms. But it’s still an arm, and talk about arms is not rendered meaningless by its reducibility. The same goes for feelings of purpose, love, or fun: they are reducible to chemical reactions happening for evolutionary purposes. But this doesn’t make purpose less purposeful, love less lovely, or fun less funny, anymore than it makes arms less arm-y: the value of experience lies not in the experience’s constituents or causal determinants, but in experiencing it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/25 "2012-03-27T10:24:46Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Dude: you play the game with the cards you’re dealt. Or make your own with crayons and potato prints. That’s the beauty of it. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/26 "2012-03-27T11:50:56Z")
I like the story of th professor who rushes into class and says, “The most unbelievable thing just happened to me! On my drive to work, I saw one license plate, 2BRK675, and then I saw another, 678IBF! Do you know what the odds are of seeing those two license plates on the same day!?!?” Consequently, I tend to view all of human history as leading up to the creation of me. It isn’t arbitrary that I like golf, Belgian beer, and travel. It is destiny. It is the way the universe intended it to be. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/27 "2012-03-27T11:53:27Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > somebody just started college. Aye. In the thirty years since I was a sophomore I have lost my interest in sophomoric bull sessions. Absurd and arbitrary may be accurate, but even if this is not the best of all possible worlds, what more can we do but cultivate our own gardens? ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/28 "2012-03-27T12:30:33Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Absurd and arbitrary may be accurate, but even if this is not the best of all possible worlds, what more can we do but cultivate our own gardens? Well put. Three Packs a Day, let’s speed up your game from “soapboxing and vaguely blaming” to thinking about how to deal with this given fact the rest of your life. How are you going to deal with this given fact? Are you going to stop doing the things that are important to you because everything is absurt and arbitrary? Are you going to stop getting an education, stop reading, stop listening to music, getting together with friends, chasing romance? No? Anything else you are going to do differently because you know about this? Hmn? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/29 "2012-03-27T12:55:50Z")
Doing things because you’re genetically predisposed too is the opposite of arbitrary. And that the desires and goals ingrained in our DNA have specifically helped our species to thrive is hardly absurd. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/30 "2012-03-27T13:42:43Z")
> [@Three\_Packs\_a\_Day](#): > > The problem is, doesn’t it ever bother you that everything you are is absurd and arbitrary? Nope. I can choose to infuse my life with meaning, or not, as I see fit. Plus, it’s the only game in town. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/31 "2012-03-27T14:04:01Z")
You can’t win, you can’t break even, and you can’t get out of the game. However, I can have some good sex, eat steak, and watch baseball on my way to my date with the Reaper. So fuck it, let’s have fun. Crank up the tunes! ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/32 "2012-03-27T14:09:12Z")
Life is absurd and arbitrary because, well, because life is supposed to be messy. Not neat, orderly, pre planned. You don’t plan for life. You plan for exams and dinner parties. You have to ‘live’ life. You have to ride the ride, whatever comes. Life is an absurd, arbitrary, beautiful mess. As the God’s clearly intended. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/33 "2012-03-27T14:19:42Z")
Shouldn’t the OPs position actually make people feel better about themselves? If everything is truly absurd and arbitrary, that means there is no “right” or “wrong” way to live our lives and no reason to feel guilty (religious or otherwise) about all those little things we could have done better. That’s a load off my mind. Forget being “at peace”. This calls for a kegger. Anybody else in? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/34 "2012-03-27T14:22:19Z")
Absurd and arbitrary, and yet I knew by only reading the thread title that I’d see a March 2012 join date for the OP. How did that happen? ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/35 "2012-03-27T14:34:44Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > You can’t win, you can’t break even, and you can’t get out of the game. > > However, I can have some good sex, eat steak, and watch baseball on my way to my date with the Reaper. So fuck it, let’s have fun. Crank up the tunes! QFT. Listen, If you are concerned about the meaninglessness of it all then do something \*that will last. \* Work to change things for the better so that those who come after us will suffer less and enjoy our pointless pleasures more. Make some art, or write some music and put it out on the net. I’ve got loads of tunes out there floating around. Plenty of other people have downloaded and shared my horrible music. It is a solace to know that my stupidity will never die, but live on digitally somewhere forever. Yeah, you only get one spin around the rock, but hell it doesn’t have to be a bad one! ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/36 "2012-03-27T14:58:52Z")
Yes, life is meaningless. However, this doesn’t reduce me to a puddle of goo, because if life is meaningless, then meaninglessness is meaningless. If life doesn’t matter, then it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t matter. It would only matter if life mattered, but since it doesn’t then it can’t. You come from nothing, you’re going back to nothing. And what have you lost? Nothing! Dust. Wind. Dude. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/37 "2012-03-27T15:04:32Z")
If everything we are is absurd and arbitrary, how can you trust your brain when it tells you that everything you are is absurd and arbitrary? ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/38 "2012-03-27T15:35:56Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > somebody just started college. Bingo. I, too, remember my first late-night bullshit sessions after we’d all read our first Rand, or Sartre, or whatever existential tract. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/39 "2012-03-27T15:42:34Z")
If there’s no great, glorious end to all of this—if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do, because that’s all there is: what we do. Now. Today. [sub](Paraphrased from memory from the television series Angel.)[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927/40 "2012-03-27T18:13:31Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > If everything we are is absurd and arbitrary, how can you trust your brain when it tells you that everything you are is absurd and arbitrary? Natural selection seems to have given us the opposite problem though. If anything, we have a tendency to see meaning and purpose where there isn’t any. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-we-are-is-absurd-and-arbitrary/616927.md?page=3)