ON THE VANITY OF EXISTENCE.

[Alarm Agent]

"This vanity finds expression in the whole way in which things exist; in the infinite nature of Time and Space, as opposed to the finite nature of the individual in both; in the ever-passing present moment as the only mode of actual existence; in the interdependence and relativity of all things; in continual Becoming without ever Being; in constant wishing and never being satisfied; in the long battle which forms the history of life, where every effort is checked by difficulties, and stopped until they are overcome. Time is that in which all things pass away; it is merely the form under which the will to live—the thing-in-itself and therefore imperishable—has revealed to it that its efforts are in vain; it is that agent by which at every moment all things in our hands become as nothing, and lose any real value they possess.
That which has been exists no more; it exists as little as that which has never been. But of everything that exists you must say, in the next moment, that it has been. Hence something of great importance now past is inferior to something of little importance now present, in that the latter is a reality, and related to the former as something to nothing."
Full text:
Studies in Pessimism, by Arthur Schopenhauer (chapter2)

Nicely formatted. Thought someone here might like it.
Strange, I read Schopenhauer after I read Nietzsche, and he still seems like a cold iceberg in vast sea of existance.

[Russell Nash]

For me, "to exist" has a very easy solution: either I stay (by living, by breathing) or I go (committing suicide). Obviously, I stay. What vanity are we talking about here...? Vanity of existence, or vanity by living immersed in a corrupt and sick society?

I see some hope, though.

We see a man sleeping on the street, and we say: f@#$ you! dirty useless man!

However, who among us, when seeing the same man dying on the street, would say: f@#$ you! dirty useless man! die!? Or would we call 911?

In this insignificant gesture I see an insignificant hope against vanity.

[Archmonoth]

I created an account just to comment a bit on this idea. I do plan on commenting on other ideas, but this was the catalyst.


First off, I think the "vanity of existence" is a pleasant way to say that nothing is immune to apathy and neglect.

Vanity (pointlessness, meaninglessness, futility,) requires the phenomena of distinction. Without distinction, without the line between the nebulous of nightmares, there is only a vague gray.

In science, there is the Law of Conservation, which is to say; everything returns to zero, and this mechanism takes the proudest monuments of brilliance and reduces them to zero.

For every growing awareness, there is a terror (or wonder) which heralds the new world. Whether you are a child or adult; the strange and unusual need to be defined, narrated from the gray and vague into meaning and distinction. This is what I see as nightmare of existence, even if only a vain stage of pointless players.