The pointlessness is the point in itself. Instead of dwelling on it, I embrace it and live with one aim: maximise happiness.
Dude, you’re comparing the 60s and 70s to today. I mean, can you imagine working at a 7Eleven, going to a soda shop that’s a little too pedestrian as in Happy Days? That was the 70s. The 80s had arcade games. The 90s, super soakers.
It’s depressing to compare stars and starlets from the 70s to today? :dubious:
Don’t you think Emma Roberts aspires to be like her aunt, Julia Roberts?
I guess I’d go for #2…but I wouldn’t choose a very upbeat phrasing though.
Our short existence, and gradual decline into decrepitude is depressing. We can find some positive things to do within that time however.
I’m actually pretty happy in my everyday life. But that’s only because 99% of the time I’m caught up in the moment, and behave as though I’m going to live indefinitely. But in that 1% of the time when I reflect on the Big Picture, I get depressed.
And I think I’m right to: as far as we understand, the Big Picture sucks.
It’s in my nature to tell it like it is. All this stuff about “Life’s great because it’s short” is just the standard BS people say to try to make themselves feel better about a situation that they have no control over.
I guess this is how I see it. If you believe that the material world is all there is to existence, everything - absolutely everything, including our impact on other people or future generations - is probably ultimately meaningless, unless there is something more to the universe than we currently understand or perceive. Personally, I find some consolation in the idea that, yes, there is a lot that we don’t currently understand about the nature of the universe and human consciousness, and it is conceivable that there is something more to existence than meets the eye. Of course, this issue also is why so many people want so badly to believe in religions: it gives them a meaning in life. It is interesting to wonder if the aforementioned Martin Luther King would have been so motivated to change things and risk his life for his ideals if he hadn’t been religious and thought that he would have eternal life in which to reap the benefits of his efforts.
Even if everything is pointless, though, I still think to myself: does it help to dwell on that? I can’t change the situation by being miserable about it, so might as well try to find something to be happy about instead. Even if being happy is pointless, it still beats being miserable over something pointless. 
I’m an animal with an emotional response to the things happening near me, and feel a sense of reward when I make them better. So, unsurprisingly, I spend much of my time trying to do so. I live in a kind of harmony that is strongest when I help those I love or help things that are bigger than I am (like a group effort of some kind).
I also note that other people’s actions are consistent with them being in the same situation, so it’s my model for how everybody works.
Interestingly, it explains why dogs seem so happy when they are pleasing their masters or the leaders of their packs, and it explains religion.
Sure, life is probably pointless. But it beats the alternative.
Since you probably AREN’T going to die in 10 minutes, the point is to make it meaningful for yourself and maybe some people around you.
People find points in funny things. I spent an hour on Facebook messaging with some high school friends I haven’t seen in 15 years about the supermarket they demolished in our home town. It wasn’t particularly nice and most of us probably haven’t thought about it in 15 years, but it happened to be a fixture from our childhood. I think life is mostly a series of not particularly profound events or places or interactions that someone become significant.
I spend 100% of my time in the 3rd approach to life:
- Everything I achieve has a significant point and when I die, the Big Guy in the Sky will reward my great achievements by granting me everlasting consciousness in a magnificent plane of existence, with 72 virgins and a couple of large breasted contortionists who’ve been around the block a few times.
If I didn’t believe that, I’d spend more time kicking puppies.
Watched “Rear Window” for the fourth time last night. What a brilliant film; people will be watching it for centuries, I hope. Why are you watching old interviews of stars? Frankly I’d love to see a few old interviews with Jimmy Stewart or Grace Kelly, or Thelma Ritter.
Anyway, it’s not all pointless. Most of what we do crumbles to dust, and good riddance, but there is a bit, a small bit, maybe a tenth of a percent that carries on. Look at what people are quoting to persuade you; Shakespeare and de Bergerac and Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, all long dead and anything but forgotten. Maybe you’ll be being quoted in a hundred or a thousand years, or hung up somewhere or being watched on some future iPod. It happens all the time, and you’ve got a better chance at it than winning the lottery.