But what is this meaning?
Historically, mankind has been a pack animal, finding PURPOSE in a tribe, racial group or nation state, killing and dying in wars of Collective meaning, that for their moment contained a purpose to it all, but in reality meant nothing.
Religion also preached that the purpose of earthly life is to endure and sacrifice in service to an afterlife, that "God’s Will" was the true meaning of life, that every suffering was a guidepost on a road to salvation, that the purpose of life was acceptance of one’s place and circumstances as a divine plan, a collective identity where slaves and slavemasters all climbed Jacob’s ladder together, and if everyone tried really hard, would resume their holy roles for all eternity. Divine right is another lie pissed on the backs of the working class, it was meant to supply fodder for the cannons of imperialism and gold in the coffers of the church. Blessed be the slaves, for they will be the children of the lord (bullshit).
What then holds any true meaning?
Nationhood is transitory (nations rise and fall). Religion is random and manmade (therefore corrupt). Knowledge is selective (what can we really know after all).
The true meaning of life must, therefore, be the ability to love another person purely and without restraint. Even Dr. Frankl points out that in the German Death camps, when stripped of everything except the nakedness of their puny lives, only love for a wife, a husband, a lover or child made the future a possibility. Even in the nightmare reality of a demonic barbwire world, the caress of love’s fingertips overwhelmed the whiplash of hate, struck down on the innocent by law and order fanatics in service to darkness.
It was not prayer, nor gold, nor titles that accomplished this feat, it was the pure devotion of unknown lovers, a statement made in silence that still reverberates in time, a revolutionary embrace in the heart of darkness, more effective than a gunshot, aimed directly at the absurdity of existence, which stated:
That Love is the only divinity visible in this lifetime, it’s the only meaning and the only purpose in the episode of seconds we define as life. With it all things seem possible, art, music, knowledge (the future), without it, we are animated dust, blowing here and there.
History being what it is, perhaps another generation will be forced to endure the jackboot reaction of man’s inhumanity, perhaps too, there will be the faceless nameless hero’s who when stripped of every human identification, whispered their love for each other in the presence of a silent, uncaring God, then drifted together through the chimneys, up towards heaven, to the place where dreams are born, and thus affirmed the meaning and purpose of Life for all the ages.
All and all, can only fall,
with a crashing but meaningless blow,
it doesn’t matter inside the Gates of Eden.
-Bob Dylan, "Gates Of Eden"
More Of "The King Speaks"
The National Guard
Princess On A Steeple
I Shall Be Released