WebMDave

I s everyone living a superfluous life?  This planet is crawling with billions of us — stressfully going to work, devotedly posting trite photos online, and angrily arguing about the policies and behaviors of self-serving elected officials. On the surface, human behavior can seem very industrious and meaningful. Upon closer examination, however, it bears a striking similarity to scurrying rats.    Most people try to present the impression of being happy and fulfilled. Or at least occupied. Some "find themselves" through religion, by raising a family, or in making sourdough starters; others volunteer for veterans' causes, rescue animals, or collect vintage watches. Some go to therapy, some journal, some hike — these are all excellent distractions from the universal truth that, cosmically speaking, life is entirely pointless. We are mortal. Time is gradually erasing the memory of everything and everyone we see or hear.  Yesterday, I attended a Veterans' Day luncheon...

“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.” ~ Epictetus, Enchiridion Throughout the annals of human history, intellectuals, philosophers, prophets, visionaries, and even anarchists have contemplated and advocated for divergent visions of an ideal future society. Plato's Republic, Thomas More's Utopia, the promise made to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 12:1-3, the millennial reign of Christ mentioned in Revelations 20:3, Karl Marx's Worker's Paradise, and Hitler's 1000-year Reich are but a few examples. Some individuals aspire to reach a state of Nirvana, while others envision a heavenly kingdom with streets paved with gold. Utopias are generally anticipated to materialize in the future and are thus deemed worthy of sacrificing the present for. Consider the Peoples Temple, Heaven's Gate, and other suicide cults that have tragically lost lives in the pursuit of their delusional future utopian dreams....