I am not going to lie, this realization is not a “happy” one. I use quotes on this term simply because of how relative it is. How relative our definition of what is happy and what is sad. In truth, there is nothing sad about this realization, but regardless sadness is typically our initial reaction to ideas like this one. This idea is that life is a trap.
Before I continue with this I would like to clarify my definition of a trap. A trap is something one does not mean to get into, yet does anyways. Something people or things try to avoid, yet are tricked into walking in. They are tricked into this trap because they believe it is “their” decision. A squirrel runs into a snare because it believes the peanut butter is easy pickings. A person sends money to a Nigerian prince because they believe that they will get gold in return. A trap lets you believe you are making your decision for your own interests, but in reality, you are doing it for the trapper’s interest.
Now how in the world is life a trap? Life is a trap because we have the illusion of control and free-will in our decisions and who we are. Life is seen as something we experience, rather than something we are a part of. We do not choose who we are or who we become. We don’t experience life, we are life. Individually, each and every one of us are life that functions as life is supposed to. And one of those common functionals for complex life is to give meaning to itself. By creating meaning and purpose, there is motivation to continue itself and its species lifespan.
The blunt, objective reality is that nothing matters. To be more exact, nothing even exists in the concrete, defined way we interpret it as. A computer is not a computer. A dog is not a dog. Life is not life. These things have no ultimate definition or meaning to them. They are created by ourselves to make the illusion of what we consider life. To make the illusion of progress and purpose. This illusion is a trap because it is something we believe we are in control of when in reality we just do exactly what a living species is supposed to.
We are creating the trap of life, which we call the world. One with hope. One with goals and ambitions. One that is yours for the taking if you are ambitious enough. And look how false it is. Look how not real it is. How fabricated it is. I see reality, the concrete reality, as everything around us, yet never we can identify with.
This now begs the question of the who trapper is. If there is a trap, then there must be someone who set it. Ironically, I believe we are the trappers. Each and every one of us have created the trap of life for ourselves. This makes sense because who can live like I have been describing in the last couple of paragraphs. Who can live with nothing? Who can live as nothing? Not humans, that much I can guarantee, and probably not any life for that matter. So whether it be conscious or not, ironically, we are the creators of a trap we all “consciously” walk into. We are the trappers of ourselves and our trap is the illusion of how we define and give purpose to the world around us.
This idea seems sad because it is exactly what we, as the trappers, attempt to avoid. It is the line of thinking that in many cases is the pill we never swallow. The thing is it doesn’t have to be sad, because just like anything, sadness is not sadness. Nothing is clear cut, and therefore nothing has to be reacted a certain way. By stepping out of the trap humanity has created for itself, comes the end of one reality. The end of one “truth”, which then probably leads to another “truth”.
One should wonder that if that is the case, then is there even a point to get out of this trap if we will naturally just create another one for ourselves? The answer is I have no idea. I haven’t the faintest clue of what is outside of our trap. As of now I just see darkness, but my bias to see darkness could very well be clouding the light at the end of the tunnel. My ingrained way of thinking within the trap could simply make me assume there is nothing outside of it.
Therefore, I have no answer. I have no idea, and I may go my whole life not knowing, but you don’t know until you try. So my one request is to consider this abstract thought. Not because it is a better way to think, or even necessarily going to lead to anything, but because it is a truer way to think with incomprehensible potential.
** Haha, but oh do things change in life. Follow the link to a post that addresses this idea, yet finds the most important idea that this post accidentally leaves out. Yes, everything is fabricated, even ourselves. **
is this nothing into the All this hereinto Everywhere
haha qtd Douglas Hofstadter. seems so
I agree with most of that i guess, except the “We are our own trappers” bit….Fact is…we are being forced to play a monopoly game, where everything is already owned, we are doomed to land on someones property and get screwed, one way or another. We are little more than fertilizer for the next generation to feed upon and so on; accepting this doesn’t make it better really; rather it justifies why its OK to sometimes be a bad person. The world is still dictated by wealth, many families having acquired their wealth from generations past who did things that today are seen as crimes and inhumane, yet the wealth is allowed to exist. The make believe currency that laughs in our face only backed by a hypocritical government. Those people are in positions of power, not having to ever drip a single sweat drop or bleed a drop of blood, yet still are the almighty executioner in many ways. The rat race where people can sit on their asses all day and make bank while others have to bust ass to pay even more taxes. I for one will not pay taxes…EVER. I don’t believe in paying people to tell me when I am right and wrong. I don’t believe in paying for someone else’s problems. I don’t have children…thus i am not obligated to care about anything except myself…and that is selfish? I think not, though others will drill it into your brain that you exist to make everyone else around you comfortable; always trying to lure you into being first into the unknown depths. Make no mistake…every person on this planet would sacrifice 100 strangers to save their own ass; it’s just half of us don’t lie about it. Burn the witches for fcks sake already.