bcboy

LaFemme

Hmmmm...is this supposed to be all existentialist? There is no meaning of life?

bcboy

Well I do agree the message does seem existentialist, but not in a hedonistic way.

What I did get from the message was that we are solely responsible for giving our own life meaning through living life passionately and sincerely without fear.

I am finding in myself as time passes without using substances to hide from things like despair, fear, boredom that I am able to live life on life terms and grow. Now seeing the little things in my life that make me happy like a walk through the forest, sitting on the couch reading books to my kids while they are holding me close and hanging on my every word, sitting outside late at night just taking everything around me in, understanding music on a whole new level "music being the open door to each persons own true self".

You know the good stuff the meaning of life...

recycle

Although existentialism is essentially dead, (meaning you cannot get published if you call yourself and existentialist), I think existential thought has enough cultural significance to deserve an accurate accounting. Existentialism is not that that life has no meaning, rather, it is that life creates meaning. More specifically, a life passionately lived creates meaning. “Existence precedes essence” is the fundamental thought. To the existentialist: Rejecting found meaning is the path to nihilism. Rejecting passion is the path to religion.

Mattcake

I think that it's a very good video. I agree with V. Frankl's point of view, the "meaning of life" is not a given unto itself, and it doesn't necessarily have to be grand.

Thanks for posting, this video is just what I needed to see today.

LaFemme

LOL...the reason I said that was because when I first looked at your post there was nothing there:-)

Very sweet video...thanks!

wpainterw

This is good stuff! Thank you! I'm puzzled that it's been called "existentialist". From what I know of that philosophy it is bleak, asserts that the universe is devoid of meaning and concludes that the only worthwhile thing is a person's will to survive despite all the odds, rather like the courage of inhabitants of a concentration camp or gulag. The popularity of this perspective was enhanced by the horrors of WWI and WWII.
I see little in common between this film and existentialism if I understand it correctly.

wpainterw

P.S. Those interested in the meaning of life might care to view another video, namely the Monty Python film called "The Meaning of Life". I am particularly fond of the Canadian woodcutter scene and the skit where the gentleman in the pink suit comes out of the frig. and takes a housewife on a tour of the universe.

W.

LaFemme

Painter..read the whole thread...the existentialist debate was due to my computer showing a blank opening post instead of the video:-)

recycle

Painter, it is easy to find criticism of existentialism that paints it as a philosophy of despair. But if you look at the who and why behind the criticisms, it may temper them somewhat. Some of the absurdist writing is very dark, but overall it is a philosophy of personal responsibility, living life passionately, and realizing you ultimately take credit for the life your create. All of this runs counter to popular views of addiction as a disease, so I would not expect existentialism to get a lot of play here on SR.

BTW Monty Python is about as existential as comedy gets. Absurd situations created or resolved through personal responsibility. "We are here for your liver" - Ha Ha

LexieCat

LaFemme,

LOL, that'll teach you to make witty remarks on threads that can be edited. (Been there, done that, explained myself fifty times )

recycle

Lexie I am aware the original comment was a faux pas, but the seeming randomness does not weaken the correlation. There is an existential quality to the video illustrating how day to day existence can give meaning to life. Frankl is a brilliant example of this, but a Buddhist might call it mindfulness. Painter was having difficulty seeing the connection to existentialism, and I was trying to help out.

wpainterw

Like William Ernest Henley's famous poem "Invictus". Henley I believe, predated many of the well known Existentialist philosophers. For many of them their world view was that of a cold, uncaring and indifferent universe in which the individual finds his or her greatness in courageous survival despite all the odds.This bleak perspective on reality may date back to Schopenhauer and, even farther back, to the Greek tragedians. In music of course the great work was Tristan und Isolde.
The poem follows:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

wpainterw

La Femme: Thanks. Note taken. And perhaps you, in your courgeous and noble defiance of the idiosyncrasies of your computer, your persistent refusal to submit to computer paranoia (despite the likelihood that your computer may really be out to get you), do not you exemplify the quintessence of existentialist heroism? We can only stand in awe.

W.

recycle

Henley as an early existential poet......Hmmm, gonna have to chew on that one for a bit. I'll have to admit that I am not that familiar with Henley. Thanks Painter

LaFemme

Oh gosh...one off my all time favorite poems ever...I believe this poem was also a favorite of Mandela's:-)

Alas it is even worse than my computers wrath i must endure...it is the horror of a smart phone, whose sole purpose in existence is to make me look less smart...note the follies of the autocorrect function!