It feels pretty weird to me that people are almost programmed to recommend Therapy or Gym as the ultimate solutions.
Despite the fact that not all people are capable of doing both.
Further more, there is no study, as far as my knowledge go, that show any ultimate cure for depression. Matter of fact I had seen a study that suggest a very high percentage of people are drug treatment resistant (meaning that there depression would not get better with any prescribed drugs).
I had seen studies that say that training or even just daily walks can highly improve mood, but I had never heard that they fully cure depression.
Free will doesn’t exist, doesn’t mean you don’t. Do something fun with your time. I would recommend creative writing.
@Arkouda@lemmy.ca Even if I get to do something (such as I’m doing right now while trying to express something profound, aware of how I’m probably just yelling to the clouds), it doesn’t change the fact that the world behaves like a prison where all lifeforms are thrown to “make a living” (i.e. surviving and competing against other lifeforms because their own vessels offer no other option other than the biological preprogramming of “instincts”).
Also, the “exit hatch” is so tight and spiky that one must endure utter pain while trying to squeeze through it. And things like MAID, which would allow one to conscientiously and finally choose something about their own existence, “must be allowed only for the terminally-ill” because “life” is something so, so “sacred” that people can’t even dare to think of choosing other than “living” (a.k.a. constantly trying to avoid and postpone the unavoidable by trying to fulfill the vessel’s needs while being forced to play the unskippable game of social compliance), because they “must do something fun with their time” and thinking otherwise must be inconceivable!
And it sounds no different from how prisoners must “do something” with their prison time, be it reading a book, playing cards and small-talking with other inmates, taking the obligatory sunbath for the daily dose of Vitamin D, scratching the wall so to keep track of days, or doing the obligatory physical exercising at the grass-field…
I can’t help but wonder why some Demiurge threw me to endure the lifelong punishment of “existing”, with all the whistles and bells inseparable from human existence: paying taxes and subscriptions (despite any condition of unemployment), seeking and serving jobs so a rich person can become more rich, conforming to civil duties, serving the military and, in many countries, forcefully belonging to some religion, etc, etc… It’s so absurd that even Absurdist philosophers would have a hard time trying to frame existence in less absurd terms.
I’m not denying how some moments can be “happy” or “enjoyable”, but it doesn’t make life less of a prison. It just makes me momentarily distracted from the prison while still being behind the bars of the baryonic matter.
The only thing that really comforts me is knowing how the kiss from the Lady Scythe-Bearer is inevitable and even humans with their fancy tools are powerless against Her, but for me to need to wait for Her bittersweet lips is like a prisoner needing to wait for serving their sentence before getting to gather with their loved one.
My point is: people like me should be allowed to choose to end our own existence without having to endure pain and the high certainty of failure from an attempt of our own (and trust me, I’ve been trying and failing because my vessel is preprogrammed with the pesky survival instincts). My point is that MAID should be also allowed to anyone who are consciously willing to choose it. But, yeah, it’s such a taboo for many people.
I struggled with this for a while too. But ultimately, I found the meaninglessness more freeing than anything. A cold and indifferent universe makes the elegance of physics and the intricate diversity of life that much more beautiful. The fact that consciousness exists at all is a marvel.
You’re right, death is inevitable. But non-existence is the default state. We didn’t exist for billions of years in the past, and we won’t exist for billions of years in the future. Life is recreation time. We get to observe the world, have experiences, interact with other consciousness. We’ll be called back to oblivion eventually, and as far as we can tell we only get one ride. What’s the rush in getting off?
I prefer to think of life more like a game than a prison. There are cool things to do if you follow the quests, but you can also just bug off to the wilderness to appreciate the graphics. It’s totally open world. Find something cool and obsess over it, create something just for the sake of creation, help other people who are struggling.
If nothing matters anyway, it’s impossible to waste your life. The rules are made up, you can choose to do whatever you want, if you put in a little effort. Even the effort can be fulfilling, it’s not very satisfying to just get everything you want.
So yes, the cosmos are inscrutable and unfeeling, yes, death is inevitable. But so what? What’s the rush? You are not the first to feel ennui, many before you have come out the other side with an absurdist appreciation for a “purposeless” life. Rushing to the exit just seems a bit premature to me, assuming you aren’t in chronic and terminal physical pain. Who knows how your views can change in even a few years, but you’ve gotta be around to find out.