We're all Special Now
Back in the heady days of last week, Joe posted about a strange email that's been doing the rounds. As I said at the time, I was sure that someone with more arsedness than me would get around to tracking down the source of these emails and letting us all know what the fuck was going on.
And sure enough, someone has. And as I suspected, it's a couple of people sure that they are the future of humanity, that they are somehow different from everyone else, that it's possible to find a logic to morals, etc. Or to put it another way, a couple of smart young guys despairing of the uncontrollable chaos and overemotional idiots that make up most of the world. I can empathise, mostly because that's how I felt up until a couple of years ago (and not entirely dissimilar to the way I still feel, kinda, ish, in some ways).
In fact, it's obvious that they've reached the point I hit about 4 years ago, where they've slowly ground down all of their beliefs, wants and needs and lost all of their attachments to meaning except for one - the belief that there must be a meaning. There's only really one thing to let go of at that point and you're there. But when I was only holding onto that one thing, it seemed impossible that the one thing still anchoring me to any kind of belief and connection to the world was false. It certainly took me a long time to truly let go of the idea that there is any kind of meaning to anything.
Of course, having let go of that, it took me quite a long time to rebuild my views on things to cope with that idea, and to put things back together again. And now, amusingly, I find it hard to understand the beliefs I used to have. I'm still throwing around the idea of contacting these guys and seeing if I can persuade them of the error of their ways, but somehow it seems more fitting to leave them to it. They're smart, I'm sure they'll get there in the end.
After all, I spent a fair amount of time arguing on the extropy mailing list with this kind of person, before giving up and running away to do something less bruising, and I'm sure it amuses my friends to know there's some people that I won't argue with.
And sure enough, someone has. And as I suspected, it's a couple of people sure that they are the future of humanity, that they are somehow different from everyone else, that it's possible to find a logic to morals, etc. Or to put it another way, a couple of smart young guys despairing of the uncontrollable chaos and overemotional idiots that make up most of the world. I can empathise, mostly because that's how I felt up until a couple of years ago (and not entirely dissimilar to the way I still feel, kinda, ish, in some ways).
In fact, it's obvious that they've reached the point I hit about 4 years ago, where they've slowly ground down all of their beliefs, wants and needs and lost all of their attachments to meaning except for one - the belief that there must be a meaning. There's only really one thing to let go of at that point and you're there. But when I was only holding onto that one thing, it seemed impossible that the one thing still anchoring me to any kind of belief and connection to the world was false. It certainly took me a long time to truly let go of the idea that there is any kind of meaning to anything.
Of course, having let go of that, it took me quite a long time to rebuild my views on things to cope with that idea, and to put things back together again. And now, amusingly, I find it hard to understand the beliefs I used to have. I'm still throwing around the idea of contacting these guys and seeing if I can persuade them of the error of their ways, but somehow it seems more fitting to leave them to it. They're smart, I'm sure they'll get there in the end.
After all, I spent a fair amount of time arguing on the extropy mailing list with this kind of person, before giving up and running away to do something less bruising, and I'm sure it amuses my friends to know there's some people that I won't argue with.