Vaughan
Robertson
 |
- The
Doctrine of
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Doctrine of Ultimate Pointlessness. The Doctrine that says, that if there is any meaning whatsoever to our human existence, the meaning ascribed can always be countered with the phrase: “so what?
What
is the point of anything/everything? Existence per se is ultimately
purposeless. Being as such is pointless. Is ultimately absurd. Even if we
‘answer’ the question: “Why this particular design?” the eternal
response will be: “So what?” Or like the four year old’s decisive
refrains: “Why?” or “Prove It” to any ‘answer’. What is the
point of any meaning? There is series of regressions here, Chinese boxes
if you will. When we peel back the layers of the meaning onion we can
always say, “so what?” The paradigm expands exponentially, rather like
Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem.
Let me be a little more specific:
- If for every event, every creation, everything, there is no ultimate
purpose the Doctrine is self-explanatory. Post-modernists everywhere
roll over and fart, a ‘told-you-so smile’ encrusted on their
faces.
- If, however, the very definition of meaning implies that there has
to be a meaning for this meaning and so on, otherwise the word Meaning
is meaningless, then:
- If there is a proscribed meaning for any event, creation, anything,
what is the ultimate point/purpose of this meaning? There can never be
an ultimate point, but only an infinity of ultimate pointlessness.
Infinity poses no problems for the Doctrine, for one can always state:
“So what?” to it. Welcome Sisyphus and Eternal Recurrence.
- But if there is somehow a finite meaning, this would seem to be
pointless too, for one can still ask: “So what!” That is, if there
is a meaning to any given meaning, we continue with our refrain of
Ultimate Pointlessness.
The hackles are already arisen on your respective necks, you are ready to
spit at me vituperatively. What of God you say, you fool. What of the
Creator whom knows all, beyond our possible ken? Trust in the Creator.
My answer is thus. Given that there is indeed some form of Creator –
incorporating or aside from strict religious tenets - so what? The Creator
may indeed have some agenda beyond human comprehension, but this in itself
presupposes some sort of meaning. What is the point of this meaning? The
Creator may have a perfectly rational or even completely irrational
explanation for human existence, but – even so - what is the use of this
existence? More, what is the purpose – if you will – of this
Creator’s existence?
So
what if there are UFOs out there who originally engineered humanity and
visit us now and again? Why them? They also may have their own schema; but
whatever it is – so what? What does it matter that they may have visited
us thousands of years ago and still intermittently do so with some secret
agenda? Any agenda has a purpose, but what is the final purpose? There can
never be one.
Yet there is no need for Depression. Facing the reality of ultimate
pointlessness does not mean giving up the ghost, so to speak. We are here,
why not relax and enjoy it. We may go to ‘Heaven’. We may stay there
for infinity. So what? We may come back as reptiles or as new-born human
babies in some sort of reincarnation process. We may even be transported
to planet Xarxis. We may develop some previously unknown mindstage that
irradiates us into meanings previously beyond ken. But nothing behoves us
to believe that there is any Final Purpose. There can never be such. For
just as we can never know our own minds completely – given that we
utilize our minds to understand our minds! – we can never know an
ultimate meaning. And if we do in some unknown way formulate what seems an
ultimate meaning/purpose, then what is the point of that? There may well,
somehow indeed, be a Meaning of Life, but what – mes amis – is the
meaning of this meaning? The twin horns of the beast impale us. For as
long as there is Existence, there is the Ultimate Pointlessness of it.
Yet
the very absurdity of our position frees us. In pointlessness lies our
existential freedom. We are obliged to be free. Such emancipation creates
momentum and this in its own sweet way creates purpose. Thus in the
refulgent epiphany of our totally pointless existence we perceive/generate
our own purpose and are free, untrammeled, to forever attain it. “Each
man is the author of himself”, Ortega y Gasset once wrote, and he is
there. Because there is Being as opposed to Unbeing, let us seize our
Being. Let us manufacture ourselves. Ad infinitum.
And there is one other thing that must be said at this juncture, my
friends. And it is this: sometimes, indeed, we are transported/we
transport ourselves, into states of munificent bliss, whereby we don’t
give even a brass razoo about questions of ‘meaning’ and
‘purpose’. We become self-drunk on our own endocrine/testosterone. The
Doctrine of Ultimate Pointlessness is in abeyance, even though there is no
escaping its ramifications. ‘Rational’ thought can never penetrate to
the final ultimate truth. But in our mystic panoptic state, beyond selfish
individuality; in our merging with an anonymous ubiquitous meta-being, the
Doctrine of Ultimate Pointlessness – despite its iron-clad veracity –
will be the last thing on our …well we won’t call them… minds!
Because there is being, we are duty bound to be One. Because there IS, why
not delight in it!
Swim into the coruscating abyss, brothers and sisters. C’est magnifique.