The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

by Robert Pantano

The loss of our early, youthful innocence marks the death of sanity. Not because we were saner as young children, but because there were no expectations for us to be. A young child spouting gibberish or running around with his or her imaginary friend is not mad, not crazy. They are a child. An adult doing the same thing, of course, is a madman. Thus, it is at this juncture of maturity where the expectations of sanity are enacted that madness is born. It is not behavior alone but the restricted nature of how we are expected to behave that synthesizes this sort of internal experience of a general madness. Only when the child in us is muzzled and clothed in a straitjacket do we suddenly feel this madness previously inexistent to us. We don’t suddenly know perfect sanity, but we somewhat suddenly must act as though we do. What follows is a sort of sane insanity of life.

We expect the world and the world expects us to be clear, to be lucid, to be rational, but that mad child is still inside all of us, existing with its relative stupidity, but denied the innocence to justify it. Perhaps, then, to some extent, we should be understanding and forgiving of ourselves as well as others if that child breaks out to blow off a little steam—if we act out of (or at least apparently out of) character, if we make jarring new decisions, if we lose a little grip, if we act a little foolish. There is a wisdom in this sort of general madness; a wisdom that reminds us that there are no right paths, no set directions, no certain answers, no dumb questions, that up is down and down is up, that the world is anything and nothing, that it’s not that serious.

Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? . . . You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life . . . Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim.

We recognize that affecting a small thing in the past can dramatically change the present, but yet, we rarely think about the way in which affecting a small thing in the present can dramatically change the future.

what makes us think we could ever truly know the impact of our other actions? On the timescale of history, good, bad, and neutral events can never be fully known or identified.

In the final analysis, either no one matters at all, or everyone matters completely. There is really no in-between. No matter who you are, because of you, the course of reality’s future will play out in a unique way. We are not only each the agents of our own story, but we are also the agents of the story of humanity, this earth, and perhaps beyond, collaborating on the unique expression of art that is the future.