Human life seeks meaning or purpose. Yet most human beings are not privileged enough to consciously pursue life as something meaningful. They simply walk on as circumstances shape their paths. This is the first tragedy of human life: too many people do not know what their lives are meant for, how to live with contentment, and, for that, how to live in harmony. They cause pain to themselves and others.
The second tragedy is more serious. The meaning of human life comes from nowhere; it is invented by human beings themselves. Those who enjoy some material advantage often seek meaning in life, but even those who pursue meaningfulness do not understand what meaningfulness actually is. The real problem is to know what meaningfulness means. How do we know that something is meaningful? How do we identify its implications and consequences?
Most people simply do not know, and they are not capable or equipped to know how certain pieces of knowledge came to be recognised as such, how meanings are constructed, and how to examine their consequences. Societies need to identify people who can think deeply, and to listen to them intently, even when they sound absurd or offensive. This knowledge of knowledge, or meaning of meaning, is indeed a very rare and challenging noetic inclination and exercise, as it seeks to extricate almost nonexistent ideas from phenomena deeply entrenched in life and defended by soulless forces.
The fact is that human beings are what they know themselves to be. Much of human suffering could be substantially reduced if people learned how to weave meaning carefully, to avoid false meanings that masquerade as genuine ones and cause profound trouble.
Yet communities must guard against people who, in pursuit of the knowledge of knowledge or meaning of meaning, get overwhelmed by the absolute darkness of meaninglessness, upon which float only tiny vessels of constructed meanings, and speak and speak as if possessed by it. The philosophically inclined ones must also save themselves from being sucked into meaninglessness.
Niraj Kumar Jha
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