Why Live?

Disclaimer

This is a philosophical piece written at 3am discussing the rationale for continuing to live in a world filled with suffering, not a cry for help.

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest— whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer.

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In a sense, and as in melodrama, killing yourself amounts to confessing. It is confessing that life is too much for you or that you do not understand it. Let’s not go too far in such analogies, however, but rather return to everyday words. It is merely confessing that that “is not worth the trouble.” Living, naturally, is never easy. You continue making the gestures commanded by existence for many reasons, the first of which is habit. Dying voluntarily implies that you have recognized, even instinctively, the ridiculous character of that habit, the absence of any profound reason for living, the insane character of that daily agitation, and the uselessness of suffering.

— Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

It’s fair to say that many people throughout history have pondered why they should go on with their lives. To tell the story of humanity is to tell a story of overcoming endless hardship. Yet this story doesn’t say what we’re overcoming this hardship for. Why endure hardship in the first place? When I say hardship here, I do not mean to point at frivolous complaints, I’m pointing to a struggle at the core of the human condition. I’m talking about mass, often shared suffering inflicted by others in a cold, unfeeling world. Many have gotten past this reflection by ascribing some meaning to life. This meaning throughout history has often been obtained through religious positions. “I continue onward because there is a loving, caring God. This God will enact justice on earth.” However, as time has moved on, humanity is slowly becoming more secular, and more people are finding there is no such God to speak of. We don’t have a Moses in our times, no one will save us from our plight, so again, why should we carry on?

To live in this world and believe life has meaning is to be willfully blind to the overwhelming evidence on the contrary. If there is a God in this universe, he is either a callous one or is asleep at the wheel. Therefore, there are only two places left to find meaning: the journey of life, or in its inevitable end.

No matter how you put it, we’re all going to die, everything you’ve worked for is going to dust and ash. All the people you love are going to die. You are going to die. You can be a mass murderer, a humanitarian, a heroin addict, the world doesn’t care. In the end we all go back to the earth from whence we came and the cycle of life continues.¹ But what about legacy? Certainly, people who have left a lasting impact on our world through the arts, sciences, or through humanitarian efforts are remembered fondly for their invaluable contributions to humanity. This is what some people strive for in their lives, and this is, to put it bluntly, such a selfish way to live. When Mike Tyson lost his boxing match with YouTuber Jake Paul, many thought this would be a stain on his legacy. In an interview around the time of this match, Tyson remarked,

I don't believe in the word legacy. I just think that's another word for ego. Legacy doesn't mean nothing. That's just some word everybody grabbed onto. Someone said that word and everyone grabbed on the word so now it's used every five seconds. It means absolutely nothing to me. I'm just passing through. Imma die and it's gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that? What a big ego… so imma die, I want people to think that I’m this, I'm great I’m… No, we're nothing. We're just dead. We're dust. We're absolutely nothing. Our legacy is nothing.

Can you really imagine somebody saying, I want my legacy to be this way when I… you're dead! Why do you want somebody to think… you think somebody really wants to think about you? How… what’s the audacity I think I want people to think about me when I’m gone? Who the fuck cares about me when I’m gone? My kids, maybe, or grandkids, but who the fuck cares?

This wish to be remembered after we are gone is egotistic, and ultimately futile. Even if we are to find meaning in life from being remembered, all who are remembered must be eventually one day forgotten. Why should it matter if this forgetting takes one generation or one hundred?

Some people say the impermanence of life is what gives it meaning. I say they are deluding themselves. What does that even mean? Do you continue to go to work every day because one day you will stop working? No, you go to work because you need the means to live another day (and for a lucky few, the fulfillment that comes from doing something you love for the betterment of humanity). Do you create art because one day it will be destroyed and all remnants of it forgotten to time? No, while different artists have their reasons, most boiling down to self-expression, providing a window into the soul of humanity, or just because they were commissioned to, I doubt any artist throughout history has created art for the sole purpose of it one day being destroyed.² Saying we find meaning in life from it being over one day is absurd.

I’ve heard and often taken comfort in the argument that this impermanence tied with the meaninglessness of life is freeing. Because nothing matters in life, you are free to be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do. This position is ludicrous to hold given the human condition.

First off, just because the universe is blind to your actions doesn’t mean the rest of humanity will be. Think of the millions of Jews, communists, queers, Romani, and other undesirable groups thrust in concentration camps and mass executed by the Nazis in WWII. Should we have told them that everything’s quite alright, and they mustn’t worry because nothing matters, so you should live your life to the fullest? You might say this is an unfair argument to make, since most humans today aren’t in concentration camps. This counterargument is founded on the idea of oppression olympics and should therefore be discarded. Oppression olympics is the mindset of saying other people had it worse, the hardship you have to deal with in your own life pales in comparison, so don’t worry about it. I feel like I don’t even have to say why this is a horrid line of reasoning. Just because we aren’t experiencing the literal worst of humanity means we shouldn’t long for better? Look at what’s happening to the people in Gaza right now. Look at what’s happening in Ukraine. Look at what’s happening to people of color and queer folk in America right now. Without trying to oppression olympics any group here, it’s disgraceful to say that nothing matters, and they should be freed by this notion.

Maybe I’m not getting the spirit of the worldview right. While we are beholden to the consequences of our actions and of how we were born, we should not fall to the slavery of one’s own mind. This still sucks though, right? Okay, so I am no longer living in fear of being judged for my actions, cool. This doesn’t change the reality of our situation in the systems of external oppression we’ve built over millennia. Without meaning, is it worth the suffering?

So, life has no meaning, we all suffer, and it’s all going to end. Maybe if there was a hope for things to get better, we can all work toward that. That could give life meaning, because future generations won’t have to suffer like we do.

There is a school of thought that says the arc of humanity is on average always moving up. Sure, there are periods of acute despair and hardship with war and famine, but on a large enough timescale things always get better every few generations. Imagine living just 200 years ago. Electricity wasn’t widespread, much of the world still practiced slavery, and life expectancy was around 30-40 years due to the dangers of the early industrial revolution and medicine at the time being comedically inadequate. While I see how historically with hindsight this has generally held true, I believe there to be certain intractable problems humanity cannot overcome that will break this cycle, the predominant and most existentially terrifying of which being climate change.

It’s safe to say the world has given up on combating climate change. Politicians on the left are going for easy victories that don’t bring about the lasting change we need quick enough, and politicians on the right are actively working to hasten global warming for the sake of the free market. So called left leaning governments have put the burden of saving the environment on the consumer. Think about the vastly unpopular plastic straw mandates that forced consumers to use paper straws in dining establishments. What was this supposed to accomplish? We didn’t get to this state of affairs because we were using too many plastic straws! Climate change was ushered in by corporations overproducing post industrial revolution, chasing short-term profits, and not accounting for the damage they were causing the planet. All the plastic straw bans did was actively get people against the plight of our planet. Nobody’s even talking about climate change anymore. The world of politics has moved on. Depending on who you ask, we are either really close to or well past the point of no return in terms of our effects on the environment. With the people in power, the systems in place, and the apathetic self-serving electorate, there will be more famine, human displacement, natural disasters, disease, and loss of biodiversity, with countless disastrous second order effects. In regard to most other problems humanity is facing, I do agree that the arc of history tends to look favorably upon us with hard work and activism over centuries, but this is one problem that cannot wait for any such arc.

Humanity has dug itself into a hole, guaranteeing a worsening of our living conditions and inequities with no realistic path for improvement. There still is no meaning to life, we all suffer, and it’s all going to end anyway. So, I ask you reading this, genuinely and in good faith, why live? At this point, we’re back to the statement Camus made in The Myth of Sisyphus. If killing yourself is confessing that life is too much, what amounts to too much for you? I would think someone who had the means to transcend the capitalist rat race of life would have no reason to kill themselves, yet many still do. It seems they don’t have the weight of that system holding them down, but there are still countless more systems at play that cause more suffering than is worth dealing with, whether they be man-made, a reality of the universe, or a product of our minds. Suffering is inherent to the human condition, and with no meaning behind this suffering and with the knowledge that this suffering will worsen for future generations due to the inertia and selfishness of previous generations, why go on?³