A Gloriously Absurd Life

The final words in Nagel’s prologue, The Meaning of Life, may have been more succinctly put as “get over yourself.” While off-putting, the direct and condescending message gets his point across quickly. Many people find depth and meaning in their lives with deeds that are not for themselves but the greater good. Reaching out beyond one’s self is where their value and purpose arise. In Nagel’s view, however, it’s all poppycock. There is no inherent meaning to life, nor are we put on this Earth to give to the greater good. These are stories we tell ourselves to deal with the fact that “life may be not only meaningless but absurd” (Nagel). Yet, giving up such an illusion can throw some people into melancholy, from which they may not awake. Much better is it for them to recognize that life is silly and stop taking themselves seriously.

Nagel has a point. How can we, as humans, purport to have any more significance than a dung beetle or our pet dog? Do the people that think their life has purpose attach that belief to a scurrying ant on their front steps? We think nothing of swatting an annoying fly; that life we so carelessly snuff out is no different than our own life, which may be extinguished before we can place a mark upon this world. Even if we had done something noteworthy, as Nagel points out, that significance would be lost to new generations and, in two hundred years, it won’t matter a bit. While at first shattering one’s worldview and place in it, understanding that life is ultimately absurd opens up the possibilities inherent in one’s life. If life is meaningless, then we are free to live our life on our terms. We are still free to help our fellow man but without the need to feel there is some more profound value that is beyond us. We can live, we can love, and we can make the world better, all while acknowledging how absolutely insane it is that we are alive in the first place. Is there anything more glorious?