This Life Is...

I've been thinking about morals lately and how they play into our lives. I know a lot of people say "Screw It" (I'm keeping it clean here) when it comes to life and I always thought that was kind of a harsh way to see things but at the same time it makes so much sense.

A theory about something called the "Phaneron", coined by Charles Sanders Peirce, is the question of whether or not reality exists. The Phaneron is something created in our own minds. Every word you read from this blog, every shared memory you possess, every item, person, tree and grain of sand you have come across was all created by your mind. Nothing is real. So how does that sound? Is it depressing or liberating? Saying "screw it" to the world doesn't seem so bad now because nothing exists. It's what your mind wants you to think and nothing more. Stress is all part of the phaneron along with anxiety, anger, hate, social norms, so why care?

Now that's been established, this Phaneron theory also argues interesting moral stand points. Do we do whatever we want because it's all possibly fake? Does this excuse killing or stealing? Or is this still unacceptable because our reality is just as possible as the Phaneron?

Now for my thoughts. It doesn't matter. Whether this is real or not, it's all the same principle. We as humans are given something amazing we refer to as our conscience that decides whether something is right or wrong. Since neither phaneron or reality can be proven we can take the best of both worlds. Plus it has the same outcome. At the end we all have to eventually accept our deaths. It seems that people go through life without truly living. We get so caught up in life and all the bad stuff it hands us that we lose sight of what allows us to enjoy ourselves. It's simple though, follow your gut feelings and do what you want. Again I'm not trying to justify bad deeds, like I said we all have a general universal knowledge of whats bad and whats good. We tend to have rewarding feelings after doing good deeds though so why not follow that feeling? We need to allow ourselves the best life possible and without realizing our imminent ends, we won't. We need to treat this life as if it is our Phaneron, say screw it to the world, ignore the stresses applied to us because at the end, phaneron or not, we will die and it will no longer matter. The only thing that will matter in the end is what you will say on your death bed. I have made it my goal in life to have as little regrets as possible. So think things through, love people, do something good every once in a while. You don't have to be a saint but enjoy the joy you present to others and when you are down because someone else belittles you or you get caught up in your own troubles learn to say screw it! It's not worth the trouble. That person who bothers you isn't understanding this same concept and therefore is not living life regret-free. This is how I find happiness and maybe it's just me, but if that is the case then I challenge you to think about your life and what gets you down. What keeps you down and what can you do to change it?