Camaraderie vs. Truth 2

I like to think that I’ve grown some over the past year or so. I don’t know if I can say that I’m smarter or “better” or that Individual Valuism has intensely gratified my life, but I’ve gotten some new perspectives on things. In my ”Sociopath in the Mirror” article, I wrote that I may have never felt love. Since then, I definitely have. In the same article, I wrote that meaningless actions do not gain meaning if other people are involved. I’ve begun to wonder on that one. Maybe interacting with people is worthier than I thought. How worthy is it? Well, that’s a damn fine question. And as I once again think about the relative values of camaraderie and truth, I reflect upon the biggest truth I’ve learned in the past year. Which is… that truth doesn’t give you a reason to live.

I’ve noticed that Individual Valuism is a very reactive philosophy. I spent a lot of time criticizing mainstream views of values and reality. I spent a lot of effort saying “No!” to everyone that says that the supernatural is real, to all ideas that say that morality is objective, and to any system that says that a person can’t be his or her own sovereign. However, my philosophy has a significant failure that I’ve realized over the past eight months: it can’t give you purpose. It can give you truth, but not purpose. Truth might help you find purpose, but it’s not guaranteed. You might realize that every day of your life, you wake up, do nothing important, and go back to sleep. Then one day you cease to exist forever. I wish that I could come here and say, “If you realize the principles of Individual Valuism, you will have a solid grasp of your goals in life and will have a jolly good reason to jump out of bed in the morning!” I can’t say that. Truth itself doesn’t give you a reason to live. You might find something that matters to you, but it’s not guaranteed.

Trust me, the irony isn’t lost on me that I previously blasted a Christian author in my “The Purpose-Devoid Life” articles while I don’t always see a purpose in life myself. Shrug. I guess the important question is whether false purpose is better than no purpose. Of course, I can’t answer that question for everybody because goodness is not universal, but I am starting to more and more see the benefits of a false purpose. It’s the question posed in my favorite movie, The Matrix. Is it better to take the red pill and get the uncomfortable truth or take the blue pill and get a beautiful lie? I’d say that I took the red pill years ago. I wanted the truth, but what good was it? Maybe I should’ve been a good little sheep in my church and family. Maybe I would’ve gotten something better. Of course, Christianity and United States culture is fairly benign these days. What if in the culture I lived in had a really malicious purpose? Is that better than no purpose at all? Let’s go back to the Nazi rally referenced in article 30. Suppose that there is a guy that has to make the choice to either blindly follow Hitler or go home and have no purpose. Suppose if he chooses the latter he’ll get depressed and hang himself. What’s the better choice? Bad purpose or no purpose? You decide.

Again, I’d like to say that it’s not impossible that a true purpose can be found in life. It’s just that living for yourself probably won’t give you much. Does living with others? Maybe. Optimally, you should be able to have camaraderie and truth at the same time. In reality, you sometimes have to make a choice. I hope I won’t have to. I might have to go with camaraderie. I would give all of this up for love.