why senseless?

yodahomelife, thoughtsLeave a Comment

This blog is named “senseless wisdom of life”. I didn’t really think about the name and because nobody asked me about it I think I should explain my definition of senseless. See the logic in this?
No? Great, there is none. Which is btw. pretty much my point anyway.

My idea of sense (like in “That doesn’t make sense”) is pretty much that it only exists in our brains. I don’t believe in pure chance, neither do I think every little thing is ruled by fate. But my general tendency is towards the fate idea. I believe we actually don’t have as many free choices in life as we would like to have. This belief is strongest when e.g. I get up in the morning and would like to stay in bed but my mental timetable tells me I’ll be late for, say, a seminar if I really would rest some more. That’s why I get up (well, in most cases). One could argue that at one point in my past I made that decision (to attend university) conciously so I had my chance and can’t undo it now. But then again I didn’t know that attending university involves to visit this particular seminar which takes place at this particular time when I had to make that decision. Actually even the people who organize the seminar now didn’t know that it would exist back when I had to decide on this. It had not even been planned. So I feel somehow deceived and so should you.

We keep making decisions on things we actually can’t predict all the time. What is even more magical is that all those unpredictable events that occur to us during our lifetime tend to fit each other perfectly if we look back. Don’t they? Back in 1992 reading this stupid manual on the BASIC programming language made absolutely no sense but now 14 years later you are actually working at an outdated software company that refuses to update their award winning software to a more recent language and they pay you to write an emulator. Isn’t that a perfect match?

The point is: Whoever you ask about their life’s story -> whatever they tell you makes perfect sense the way they tell it. Allthough we all know that most things don’t make any sense the moment we do them we also know that through some irrational time-correlated effect they will make sense at one point in the future.
That is because sense is created by our minds. There is no objective sense at all, it only takes place in the head of every individual on this planet. Some scientists say, this is the way decision-making is done brain-style:

Whenever you’re about to decide anything your subconscious sends your consciousness a kind of initial proposal – based on numerous variables you don’t have access to – which it accepts silently. Then your consciousness asks your mental library for data and constructs a valid explanation for the decision you just made. It justifies the proposal made by your subconscious using a method of rational reasoning that is applied to us by the environment (culture for the most part) and therefore differs between cultural circles. The brain just applies sense to our subconscious decision. We then believe we made a conscious decision based on logico-deductive thought patterns and that is why we accept that decision as valid. We think it made sense.
Sometimes it takes more time to make up this justification because the puzzle is missing some pieces and the consciousness can’t complete it yet. Then, over time, parts that don’t fit are blended out while other parts are altered or newly invented to fit. This is perfectly neccessary to remain sane (to some degree). You won’t even recognize how your brain applies sense to your CV literally while you’re asleep. It works pretty much like all those people that keep your world running by providing you with information, cleaning your stuff, repairing your machines, providing you with food, guarenteeing your safety. If they do their job right you won’t even recognize them and you’ll believe you did all this by yourself. Hah! How could you?

As you may or may not understand sense is, in my understanding, something highly personal and individual. I try to make a habit of finding the senselessness that really is out there because I know that it is me and my mind that creates the sense. I also try to encourage my mind by doing really senseless things and then see how my brain connects the dots to make it fit somehow. So when reading this blog you should keep in mind that it is specifically written to depict the unobvious senselessness of the world and to provide you with dots that you can try to connect mentally. Thereby you should be able to get a grasp of the silliness we’re surrounded by.
Feel free to discuss this theory of mine with or without me. And now for something completely different…

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