Death Happens

It is something that we don't like to talk about. That we don't like to think about. But it is always there. A horrifying idea.

Dying. Eventually we all will die.

Nothing that we do will change death's inevitability. No matter how we live our lives we are all subjects to the same fate.

So, what is the purpose of life?

We might believe that it love, friendship, success, or family. But in reality these are just social constructs that are made up systems of control. They are not transcendent, a priori, or absolute and believing that they are is “bad faith”.

Living. Not just being alive, but living a life that we want to live.

And, yes that may make us a weirdo, a loser, and maybe even a sociopath. But, if we continue to follow the social constructions we will not be truly living.

If we do not let ourselves truly live. Then our lives become meaningless.

The Stranger by Albert Camus gives us a perfect example of this philosophy. Meursault (the protagonist) was a existentialist. Throughout his life he did what he wanted to do, not what society expected of him. In the end his actions would lead to his death. But Meursault knew that one day, like everyone else, he would die anyways and because he lived without being a slave to social constructs he died happy.