A short spoken monologue by Ryan Daniel Moran (uploaded by Capitalism.com) arguing that life has no inherent meaning — "the meaning of life is nothing" — but that individuals are free to create and ascribe their own purpose. Moran distinguishes "meaning" (not pre-existing) from "purpose" (something one can create), emphasizes that brains are meaning-making survival machines, and invites listeners to author their own meaning rather than discover it.
What is the meaning of life? I'll tell you the meaning of life.
The meaning of life is nothing.
I'm just gonna wait for you to get all upset about that one.
Every time this comes up of like what's the meaning of life? And you tell somebody that there is no meaning of life immediately what someone wants to do is put meaning on that. Our brains are meaning making machines. Our brains want to make meaning out of everything. But there is no inherent meaning to life that we have to find. It doesn't exist. That's really good news. And I'll tell you why.
If there's no meaning to life, that doesn't mean there's no purpose to life.
But it means that there's nothing to get. There's nothing to figure out. There's nothing that we have to find. It is only what we create and what we decide that gets meaning in the first place. So there is no elusive outside ourselves meaning to life that we have to discover. There's nothing there. It's only what we create and decide what is important that has any meaning to it. Our brains are made to survive. Our brains are not made to make us happy. And we survive better if we feel like there is something driving us. If there is some meaning behind what we're doing. But there is no elusive already decided for you, meaning. There is nothing to get and nothing to figure out. There is only what we decide is important. So you get to define the rules. You get to decide what's important. You get to focus on whatever you want to focus on. Whatever you deem important enough to put meaning to is exactly what the meaning of your life is. So there is nothing to find. There is only what we create. So you get to be the author of your own meaning. You get to be the story maker behind your life, not someone else. And there's nothing for you to have to figure out. So the meaning of life is nothing. And that in and of itself means nothing. There is no meaning to anything until we ascribe meaning to it. So you're free. You get to decide whatever you want. You're free to make it up as you go. You're free to define life however you would like it. That's the meaning of life.
Can't be that simple.
It's. It's really hard to practice that. It's really hard to forget that you're making up the whole thing as you go.
