If you died tomorow...

What would you do? And would you really want to know?

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so today i got in an insane conversation with a few people. it started like this:

we were talking about public ignorance vs. education towards the economy. the arguement was that if people were kept more in the dark about the economy they would freak out less and the economy would suffer less as a result, and the other side said that it would be better to know so people can prepare better:

you are one of those people who, if a meteor was coming towards the earth to kill everyone, would want to know, aren't you?

yes, i am.

why would you want to know something like that, wouldn't it be better to live in peaceful ignorance your last days on earth?

no, i would want to know so i could enjoy myself and do crazy stuff the last few days.

well we are all dieing, why don't you do that stuff now?

because i can't just drop everything and leave all my resposibilities. i have to prepare for the future. if i knew the world was going to end in 10 days i wouldn't need to prepare and i could spend all my savings.

(the conversation was between more than two people but this is roughly how it went)

at which point i came to realise that a meteor could be headed towards earth right now and we could have no idea about it. what is stopping us from leaving these material responsibilities and going to enjoy ourselves? fleeting security which is uncertain? why prepare for anything that can pass us by so easily?

just some thoughts i had.

 

"I"

 

I'm not really sure it would make a difference, I'm ready to die right now.

I've been ready to die every since I took those 5 hits of acid, I'm not afraid. Death is just another thing I will go through, and death is just the name we give to the state of existence that is after life, yet why do we not say that we were dead before we were born?

It's not

Life -> Death

It's

Death -> Life -> Death

so what's the worry?

Back to the source I go, smiling

 

Yeah. I've thought about that too.

Honestly, I am a little bit afraid of death. I don't know why, I just am.

I've also had this theory about a recurring soul-pool, in which, when someone dies, their soul goes on something a bit like a 'waiting list' and then, once they're up, they just get thrown into another body. In the meantime, I don't know. Maybe they just hang out and play pool or something like that.

And if a meteor were to hit the earth in a couple days, I personally would absolutely want to know, though I think it'd be bad if everyone knew. Do you realize how many murders/rapes/etc. would take place when people realized that they had nothing to lose.

 

Good point, because the world would turn into a chaotic death ball the last couple days as people would do anything they ever wanted to do before they died.

 

Yeah. I'm willing to bet some people have some pretty interesting things on their bucket lists'.

 

We are all morally groundless. Which is why we create values in order to prevent the nihilistic void you speak of above.

 

if i knew i was gonna die.. what would i do?
id take about 5 grams of H, and shoot it in my eye lol
either that, get about 20 80mg oxycontin, grind em up, throw em in a glass of whiskey and drink.

lol jk..

 

I stopped fearing death a long time ago.. I would tend to think that I would spend my last days the same way I do now, except I would skip my classes. =]

I've already renounced most of my material possessions, and the ones that I haven't I am ready to lose...The people I love know that I love them, as I act as such in my everyday life...really not much would change.

 

this isn't really about fearing death, it's about how someone would change their life drastically if they knew they were going to die soon. but the thing is, our safety is so uncertain that we could be going to die soon and not even know it, but our lives would still remain normal. so why don't we just live like we are going to die soon?

 

We are going to die soon. But we tend to forget that it's sooner than we think. Those among us who remembered this created values out of will to power(which is life itself). We then live by these values to prevent nihilism. People will then come along and challenge these values and create new ones. These are the ones who as i see it, affirm life since they know it is going to end soon. The creator within us commands and the creature obeys. Some are better at commanding than obeying and vice versa. That's my take on why everyone doesn't live like they're gonna die soon i.e it leads to a nihilistic void. (Nietzsche people)

 

I wouldnt change a thing, at least I dont think I would.
I imagine that Id most likely just appreciate every detail more than I already do.

 

That's just an opinion and a perception.
Not one I agree with... but whatever floats your boat or finds your lost remote.

I don't believe in death. I believe in change. Constant change, that comes in varying degrees. I think a better question (at least for me) than How would you live if you knew you would die soon? is How would you live if you knew that you would live forever?
People's brains go silly when they think about death. Oh, that's it! That's the end! I have to squash as much crap in between now and then as possible! I have to be self indulgent and spend all my money and tell everyone everything before it's too late! ...Why? You never lived that way before. Do you really think you'd enjoy it?
If you believe you'll live forever, you can relax and think about what truly interests you. If you're not afraid of death, you'll give yourself the time to be present in the moment. To read books. To learn things. To appreciate things, because you're not afraid that this might be your last chance, and so you need to see everything quickly. What's really more valuable, skimming 30 magazine or really digesting one great book? Superficial chitchat with a hundred different people, or a deep connection with one?
If you live your life as if you were going to live forever, if you die suddenly, you die fully engaged in life. You don't keep on living because you need to fulfill your plans. You keep on living because living is something that has completely captivated you.
It's helpful to be aware of death, because otherwise you're actively denying it. But imagining some "THE END" sign looming in the distance doesn't help. It's like entering a relationship with someone, fully aware from the beginning that it's definitely going to end, and it will probably end soon. It doesn't work. You can't fall in love. You have to accept that shit happens, but right now, this is as far as it has gotten. This is the last page, and nothing else exists yet. This is eternity. You have to believe it, or you're constantly running, away from something and toward something else. Not that change isn't possible, because it's guaranteed. But the future is only thinly sketched out by what's happening now. Don't work for a paycheck that may never come if you can't love the work you're doing. Don't eat a dinner you hate just to get to a dessert that you may never taste. Love your work the way you love your pay. Love your dinner as much as you love your dessert. Live as if there were no end, and this was it.

Blahblahblah .

 

Wow. That was pretty amazing. Thos are most definitely words to live by

 

I like what you have said. Your words echo an affirmation of life. But i'm interested in knowing why you think we are not morally groundless?

 

Well, I agree with that part, actually. And depending on what you meant, I could agree with all of it, but I thought I grokked your point, and I didn't quite agree.
I do think we're morally groundless in the sense that the morality we believe in religiously is something completely fabricated by us. But I don't believe that man's natural state is individualistic, selfish, hateful, sociopathic, impersonal, dispassionate, or any of those things. I believe we're all capable of experiencing those states, but they're not what's "at the center". They're a response to our experience of life not matching up with what we're told it should be. Most of our negative qualities, if you want to call them that, come from a sense of not having enough (or not being enough), which is something that our culture made up, in order for it to be of any use to us. If we don't need anything, what good is therapy? Government? Pharmaceuticals? Food packaged and sold as a drug? "Must-see" tv? Ikea, Cosmo, Life Insurance? All of that stuff is a bandage over a wound that we don't truly have.

But I don't believe that when you get rid of all of that, you're left with a void. I think that the void is an illusion you pass through on your way out. If you think you've wiped away all the crap, and all that's left is a void, you're actually in the process of wiping away the biggest load of crap of all. Maybe it's ego, maybe it's fear, I don't know what it is, but I know it's not the truth. Underneith it, there's something sublimely beautiful, bizarre, chaotic, perfect, interesting, loving, real, and eternal.

 

By the way, I love Lou Reed. He is an absolute genius, and a beautiful soul.
His music actually helped me through the void... to make this seem less off topic...

 

I'll explain what i meant. There's no universal law of morality which governs all of us. All morality comes from us. Nature itself is chaotic, irrational and bizarre. That is what separates humans from animals, we have the ability to evaluate and to create values. Without any morality we may not have been able to make any progress. That is what i mean when i talk about a nihilistic void i.e without values we'd have no direction.
I know what you mean when you say that you don't believe in man's natural state being individualistic and selfish. This is something i've thought about alot over the past few months. Let me digress and a little and tell you about me. One of the most important things in my life is music. And all my favourite music comes from a distant time known as the 1960's. Flower power, peace, love, acid and good motherfucking times(in some places). "All you need is love" I think that sums up the message that generation was trying to get across. Since i was(and still am) so influenced by all these beautiful things going on in that decade i was also inclined to believe that all you ever really need is love, that the universe is built on love or something to that effect.
But see when i started to think about human nature and morality etc over the last few months i started to realize that nature is beyond good and evil. Its not selfish nor is it selfless. Nature is morally neutral. So while i still see love as a "good" thing I know that this is MY own truth. Nothing is inherently good or bad. We are the ones who give it meaning. I also recently discovered the works of Nietzsche who claimed that all life is will to power i.e to dominate (but in a slightly more abstract sense). Reading this guy is like having all your beliefs broken down, something i find very refreshing.
I'm not really trying to argue a point here as much as i'm trying to show you what i've learnt.
Btw i know what you mean about lou reed man. The velvet underground is one of my favourite bands. If you don't already have it try to get your hands on this album called 1969: the velvet underground live. It'll blow you away.

 

i don't belong in this forum, but i like too look around.

i say get busy living or get busy dieing. (Shawshank Redemption, woo!)

 

yea. crime would go nuts if everyone knew we had 10 days left. if i knew. id keep it on the DL but tell all my friends. id spend a solid 7 with my family. then on the 8th id party hardcore. 9th id take alot of acid/and or dxm. 10th id take SHITLOADS of shrooms. have a chat with god, see if i could bump my way up the waiting list to the pearly white gates.