Wrong Search, Wrong Tools, Wrong Outcomes: On Man's Search For Meaning
(An Essay)
The abandoned child will one day wish to obtain the milk his mother denied him. In the same way, the man who searches for meaning will never obtain the story that was denied him. Meaning was his birthright, a birthright denied.
Questions:
Has the indigenous person ever been plagued with a search for meaning?
To SEARCH is different than To RECEIVE.
To receive “meaning” requires we first learn to see through a different set of eyes.
First, a dedication:
I live in a story. It is a beautiful story: the stage, the props, the lighting, the script, and the director. All of it makes sense. The sum of its perfect parts, adds up to a perfect whole whose beauty I love more than I love my own fleeting self-importance. My life is made full by every act that serves to feed that story. The story itself is hungry, and by my feeding it, is what feeds me. The story… is Earth’s story. And when Earth’s story is nourished and satiated, then good things grow. When it is not, the good things die. Man’s creations are simply just imitations of what is already created by Earth... and created for Earth. Earth has been functioning successfully for billions of years…and without our say so. Therefore, I need not recreate in some man-made ecosphere what’s already been created by Earth Herself. As to whose benefit it is that a man slaves away so he may one day afford to enjoy fishing for his meals? Who benefits when a boy plays video games that simulate his protecting his people, but in fact protects no one? Does Earth exist for our benefit or do we exist for Earth’s?
I am here to celebrate creation, to thank it, and to nourish it, because it works better than anything man has created. So, above all, I am here to participate by delivering as many thank you’s as I have breaths.
Let’s begin:
The man who searches, has already been deprived of his birthright, thus will never find meaning via his search. Meaning is something given to us through initiation (a story), and to receive it requires we first learn how to see through a different set of eyes. These eyes must stop looking from an alienated point of view. When confusion and alienation initiates our search, we are seeking something solid and objective inside ourselves. This will not work as there is nothing solid or objective in ourselves if we live in a meaningless vacuum. Instead, we must focus outside ourselves, focus upon the beauty and functionality of the natural world of which we are part.
Just as the word freedom was not invented until a civilization found itself under the rule of a tyrant, the phrase search for meaning was not invented until people found themselves alienated from Earth and tribe.
THE CORNERSTONE OF MEANING
A man who explores the question of meaning is either seeking to locate a cornerstone upon which to build a life’s story, or is simply describing his life’s participation in an already beautiful story.
For the man who has built his life upon a suitable cornerstone, is a man who lives with meaning. His declared “meaning” will help us understand the reasons why he cares, hence why he acts. A life of meaning is driven by a motivation that exceeds mere survival. His motivation will tell us why he bothers to survive. The reasons he gives us will tell us why he feels affirmed in fulfilling the story of his destiny, thus why he brings his potentialities into fruition.
What does the word CONTEXT mean?
Context is what establishes our positioning, our sense of direction, and our worldview. Context is what allows us to stand firmly anchored in a position of “knowing” –––a “knowing” whereby we “know” our needs relative to our environment's resources and needs. A context is what sets the symbiotic relationship between ourselves and the story of the world that we live in.
The actions we take within the story are not just about survival. When we act in violation of the following: our context; our sensibilities; our moral righteousness; and our self-identity, this violation confuses our sense of direction, thus we feel ourselves becoming lost and worthless. This violation can be a death worse than physical death, because this death of one’s meaning will cripple participation in life’s obligations and tasks. By this violation, the relationship between ourselves and the world collapses into meaninglessness. People will often rather physically die than to have their narrative’s meaning dismantled this way. We simply can’t withstand being forced to perform acts that violate our sense of righteousness and proper narrative. Our body acts, not just for its own survival, but acts as the vehicle for our narrative and heroic deeds. Our narrative is what we are made of. Our narrative outlives our physical form. Survival comes to an end, but our narrative does not.
Context is a word that describes a framework of a story’s construction. The story is a narrative into which we insert ourselves. The story is what sets the stage of our lives, thus we become its character… in whichever story we see ourselves a participant.
LACK OF MEANING
The man who lacks meaning or purpose will seek to find a worthy story. He needs to find a worthy story in which his potentialities will blossom. He has no life-meaning until there is a story that activates his sense of eager participation. The man who seeks meaning, is a man who has never been given a worthy story. For this man, there is a potential substitute for meaning…
WHEN PLEASURE IS USED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR MEANING:
Because our nation’s enemies (and tyrants) understand that man is crippled if he is without a story, and because tyrants understand that pleasure will act as a substitute for one’s lack of story, and because the tyrant knows that once a man has become concerned only with pleasure, safety, and comfort, that this man is easily controlled, manipulated, and weaponized, then this tyrant knows to prevent young people from receiving the worthy story that activates their humanness, thus the tyrant sets up the trap to lure people toward pleasure, hence toward consent and slavery.
By preventing man from falling in love with life, and by preventing him from accessing life’s meaning, men fall into an existential vacuum. It is a pit of despair, a feeling of being lost at sea. Then, when the tyrant creates a boogie man meant to scare the story-less people, the people will be stirred, they will believe they have an enemy that must be fought. If the fear is great, then they’ve found a cause, and thus will become weaponized against the tyrant’s opposition. After scaring the people with the use of a boogie man, the tyrant need only promise protection, pleasure, hope, better tomorrows, moral righteousness, virtue signals, and equity, which altogether act as a line tossed overboard to the story-less men who in this new state of hope, will momentarily forget their mental/emotional state of meaninglessness as they're being reeled in from the sea of alienation to the shores of participation. By this, the story-less men have been activated and weaponized. Tyrants have turned these people into terrorist sleepers. Our enemies know that this is the easiest way to steal man’s consent, labor, thoughts, and meaning.
CREATION AND MEANING
Man’s need for meaning… is perfect! It reflects the creator’s magnificent design functions. The functionality of our need for meaning is no different than an eyeball, intestine, finger joint, etc.. The so-called creator knew that man would fail to survive if he lived to himself, thus man would need to live in groups. Man’s need to be part of the group is linked to “meaning.” When functioning in the group, the meaning itself becomes established. There is no need to search. Man’s search for meaning is evidence of a cultural disease….as the only man who searches for meaning is the man who was robbed of meaning, thus robbed of his human cultural birthright. (He has been lured into a robotic state that discounts and denies the human design). The man who searches for a suitable story in which to become part of, is a man who has never been properly initiated into Earth’s story or the story of his being needed by those whom he survives with. He has been intentionally misled away from seeing that Earth’s story precedes him, and that he and his people depend entirely on Earth’s providence. He has never received the invitation to participate in helping hold it all in balance. Every living cell on the Earth knows how to hold the job it was designed for, within the body it was placed in, and thus every physical body was given instructions within its DNA as to how to do its job… and knows with whom to do it. All but the zoo animal, the lab mouse, and the modern human knows its job, thus knows its meaning, lives its meaning, and dies having tried to fulfill its meaning.
(I am using the term creator to reflect that creation happened. It was created. We know that. By what or how, I do not know. It is a Great Mystery (as indigenous people call it), and some call it God. Whatever. It works!!!! We live!!!! And man has never produced anything so sophisticated as an ant’s eyeball or a spec of bacteria. (We humans do not reproduce. However, we do have sex. Nature takes care of the reproduction part! We’re not that smart.)
THE FORMATION OF MEANING AND PERSONAL IDENTITY:
A person’s identity is built on a story. The story is built in one of two ways. First… the child is given a beautiful description of a world that operates seamlessly (the pieces fit), and for this beautiful world to continue to operate, that world needs his participation. Here, he is welcomed into the tribe as someone who will help keep the balance. This acts as his initiation and this initiation is his birthright…just as milk is his birthright from his mother’s breast. The moment that he falls in love with life via this story, is the moment he gains self-respect. When he respects how the world around him is assembled, he will then protect that world’s operations. His newfound desire to participate and protect is what fashions his self-respect. This is what gives birth to his life-meaning. No search needed.
The second way that an identity is formed (a negative identity) is that the child is given no story, thus a void is left in the child’s heart and mind. What will this void get filled with? A normal person will endure life’s ordinary discomforts as part of an overall meaningful life. But, for the story-less child, all of life’s ordinary discomforts will fill the expanse of this void (his mind), thus making life-itself a pit of suffering. When life’s canvas is left blank––a wide open nothingness–– then he will have no place in that canvas to stand. He is nothing. When life’s ordinary discomforts are placed in that canvas, these become his only focus, thus fill the expanse. Because he has no greater story to live for, he therefore has no eagerness to overcome life’s basic obstacles. So, for him, life-itself becomes his enemy. By his lack of respect for life’s theatrical stage, which includes all the things that hold the fabric of reality together, it means he feels no responsibility in maintaining and protecting the balance. However, the moment that sensory pleasure takes hold of him, he becomes excited to have found a reason to exist. This is why addiction is prevalent amongst nihilists. When pleasure fills the space of his meaningless moments, then the pursuit of pleasure becomes his lifestyle and identity. Yet, still, it does not create a life-affirming story about the world we live in. Instead his story is one where he is the center, and anything that stands between himself and pleasure, is the enemy. (Narcissism). This is a depressing story about a world set against him, a world that tries to prevent him from having total access to his objects of pleasure. He now identifies himself as someone who loves “love” because it’s what’s missing from his life. Just as those who have little food, love food, he’s now on a crusade for love and pleasure, and hopes that this search will assemble some form of meaning. To him, life itself is a problem that needs to be solved, and by solved, he means, comforted. The best he can hope for is some manufactured method of coping.
Most of the self-help books and spirituality books are designed to offer tips on how to alleviate suffering (for those who live in a canvas of nothingness where life’s discomforts are now like speed bumps between points of pleasure rewards). For these people, life-meaning is still missing. So, they hope to find a coping mechanism that will help them to either:
1) accept a meaningless life (meditation, yoga, pleasure, comfort, affirmations, safety).
-or-
2) find a life-purpose and meaning (philosophy, passion projects, art or self-expression, romance white knight scenarios, philanthropy, save the world).
Since humans were designed for meaning, our lack of it will demand that we seek it. Yet, while seeking it, in the space where meaning is supposed to be, will be filled with substitutes: pleasure and rage. In option 1, by trying to accept a meaningless life, one aims to use a guru’s techniques of turning meaninglessness into pleasure, bliss, surrender, and calm. In option 2, by trying to find a life-purpose, one aims to place oneself into a story worth living in––– On such a path, the guru steers people toward a self-centered addiction (meditation/yoga/affirmations) that can be turned into an act of service toward others. Neither of the above two methods take any notice of the ACTUAL physical reality that we live in. These methods are not suitable for people who live on a living Earth, but are suitable to lab mice who live in a man-made cage. If we were not designed for meaning, we’d never seek it. But if we seek it, it’s only because it was kept from us, intentionally. Meaning is our birthright and thus, if we seek it, it was therefore already stolen…on purpose. Lab mice are owned objects used for their owner’s purposes. Men who live with objective meaning are men who cannot be owned.
Coping is not “solving.” Solving locates a balanced truth that precedes the origin of the imbalance. “Solving” aims there––– aims to the place of natural balance! Einstein stated, “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.” The anchorless man does not know or believe that there is any such order to Earth or that there is any such balance to life, he therefore bypasses truth’s balance and heads straight for power…the power to pleasure himself (status, dominance, “knowledge,” vengefulness, and aggression) as a way to relieve his existential angst and discomfort. Nearly all means are justified to his ends of finding relief. He’s become a weapon used for power...at the expense of truth.
To him, the things that hold life together have escaped him. He has no idea that anything whatsoever demands his protection or participation. He has no measurable responsibility to life or to Earth. His masters (The State and the corporation) will protect him. While The State is his protector, the story-less man remains a seeker, he is not a protector…because he has never been given or shown anything worth protecting except his own bodily safety and pleasure-source. Since this person’s story is one where his enemy is seen as anyone who takes away his baby bottle and thus leaves him without access to the comfort he’s grown used to …his masters know to feed him a constant diet of injustice narratives that depict the torture of alienated and story-less people, a people who are being robbed of their baby bottles (obviously his masters have deceptively created both the bottle and its being taken away.) By being trained to believe that the master’s opposition has stolen his bottle, (while of course, hiding the fact that it was the master who stole it all along) this will stir him into a weaponized tool of his master. THIS becomes his story. He becomes a hate monster who believes himself on the side of good... “of love.” Again, he seeks love because he does not have it. People who have love, do not seek it. People who actually have both love and respect, they protect it. The protectors are not duped by promises of The State: promises of love, equity, justice, or better tomorrows. The naïve seeker believes himself a man of compassion and love, but is really just drowning in a pit of despair presented as hope and social justice. He’s very pleased with himself and believes himself both noble and righteous. Can a man who does nothing to preserve the freedoms that he and his people have been given, be a man considered noble? Freedom is a meaningless term to the person whose life is a pit of despair. Power is his meaning, thus he will align with a mob-based central power. This person has no desire to prove his love to his people, but he will prove his unity to a feckless and faceless central power whose only desire is power. Freedom is meaningless to the person who believes his servitude will be his salvation. People who have truth, do not seek it. They protect it. Those who do not have truth, seek it, but cannot find it, thus they settle for pleasure and power instead. Power is their God and their God destroys all of life and all of human culture. The result is no different than what one finds in Orwell’s 1984, in Huxley’s Brave New World, in North Korea, in China, in the former USSR.
I hope the above explains both how and why the man who lives with meaning, is a man who received it from those who serve the world’s balance. He protects that balance by doing the jobs that maintain the balance!
But, the man who lives without meaning is a man easily lured into a social justice warrior mindset, thus has been duped into a lifestyle that destroys what holds us together. He has been given a mind-virus. The people who gave it to him are in fact the same people who simply use him to steal power for themselves. This grift is at everyone’s expense, and the cost is our shared humanness. To fix this problem, we need only show these sleepwalkers what living a life of love, both looks like and feels like. Let’s show them that the birthright story denied them by their masters, was one owed to them, and one we wish them to have. Let them see how this grift works, then let them decide for themselves who stole life’s meaning from them. Was it me who stole from them or was it those to whom they had given their trust that stole from them? Who is it that has made their lives so utterly intolerable that while they fruitlessly search for meaning, the only way they will feel better is by feeding their addictions of pleasure and rage, thus destroying the glue that holds a free nation together?
Freedom and Liberty
are
built upon a story,
and that story
needs its storytellers.
AMERICAN FIREKEEPER
America-First
Political Leadership Guidance
Political Messaging and Storytelling
Dio Lyons
American Firekeeper 2022
All rights reserved
americanfirekeeper@protonmail.com
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