Analysis of Diverse Concepts of Seeing the Meaning of Life
People have various conceptions when it comes to life; what one person thinks of it may not be the same as the other and that is acceptable; we all see life from different points of view. there are different perspectives and contrasting views on the meaning of life. But the traditional and modern approaches hold significance in modern Philosophical Literature. Both the Traditional American saying that “Leave the earth as you found it” and the modern American view which states “make your mark on the world” illustrate two different meanings of life. These views on living life are compatible and can be reconciled. The meaning of life essays reveal some common (or not so) viewpoints about how people see the role of their life.
The traditional American meaning of life emphasizes reverence for our planet and all the living beings in it. Native Americans lived in a natural environment that shaped the culture and the thinking of humankind. It gave them life and it took their life as well. The lifestyles and the traditions were different in every tribe and some of them lived in tents and some resided in longhouses having complex systems. With time, they learned to work and hunt side by side which is of extreme importance. They began to realize the power of living amongst each other, and the consequence of living alone i-e death. Mother Nature taught them that life is hard.
Natural disasters and their power made every human being on Earth observant of the planet, such as thunderstorms, lighting, summer days heat, cold air of winter days, tornados. The natives lived life by learning from the Earth, the changes which occur in it, and from the living things present in it, like plants and animals. According to natives, everything on this earth has some role and responsibility. Everything on the entire planet has some purpose, every disease can be treated by a specific herb that is made to cure it, and every person has his mission.
The traditional approach to the meaning of life was to accept life as it is granted to you, but the other concept forces you to dig deep in search of a meaning of life, purpose, and an approach for a better world. The traditional Approach suggests mankind exploit the given resources of the world that it doesn’t require new inventions, new ideas to make life better i-e innovation. They passed their beliefs from generation to generation and their thinking was to some extent helpful as well, but it was rigid. The modern man knows that he will not live forever so, he is more focused on the goal to create something that will live forever.
Another aspect of the traditionalist aspect is that it considers present world issues, not of the future generations, or it doesn’t go far in solving the issues at hand, it rather encourages the selfish approach. Some researchers (Steinmeier 29) opposed the idea of leaving the earth as we found it and suggested that Germany shouldn’t shut its doors on the more than a million refugees who entered Germany through Munich, rather the roots of the issues should be solved.
Some men have the urge to know the unknown, which made them do things that seemed impossible. There are numerous examples, which can be quoted in such context like the modernist approach supports leaving mark on the world, because in modern time, new inventions i-e with the invention of the steam engine, the industrial revolution made life simple, as compared to the older times, when people used to walk for hours or days to reach a certain destination and the new invention made life easy and more comfortable. With the evolution of science and technology, man has stepped on the moon, flew in the air, developed new surgical tools. It was the desire of humans and the capacity to think beyond the traditional approach, but the native view lacks this. It just requires to respect nature, not the quest for knowledge, and questions that do not have obvious answers.
According to the modern American approach, every person leaves its’ mark on Earth. They (people) do it willingly or without any wish. Many people live their lives without thinking that they have this life for a purpose. A lot of them think that having kids is what is meant by leaving mark on earth, their generation will grow, they will have a legacy. Almost every person in the world would love power or his selfish nature. Some people have this view because they are afraid of life’s mortal nature. They think that giving back to the world is their responsibility and they try to help mankind and this planet.
On the other hand, some selfless people genuinely do good things in their life and leave their mark, but they do this because they want to try these things, and some luckily have the resources to do these things. People who do not have any specific purpose to do a great thing do many of the good things, which is natural. But leaving a mark on Earth means having a lasting effect on the planet. As there are benefits of the modern approach there are certain disadvantages associated with it as well.
Leaving a mark on Earth has its consequences as well, it deals more with the thinking of a man, what he considers right thing may not be beneficial or of no significance but in reality, may cause harm to the society and could be encouraging evil in societies. For instance, in the famous story of Shemot, the Jews are asked to slaughter a lamb and put the blood on the door so that they can be recognized and will be safe from the plague when the whole of Egypt will suffer. Here the question arises do God needs this mark to recognize Jews etc. The argument is it is healthy to leave mark on earth but the perceptions of people are different. As when the atomic bomb was invented no one knew that it will cause such disaster in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Both the views are important and have their own merits and demerits, the modernist approach deals with the passion for success and it has some future insights as well but it is more related to the perspective of a person, which mostly considers benefiting the whole world by doing something exceptional in any field and make things easy for the future generations, whereas the traditional approach deals with the leaving the world as it is, as it was inherited by the ancestors. Both the views can be reconciled, when the traditional Native American approach is stretched a bit, from the utmost respect to Mother Nature towards the future of Mother Nature and benefits for the forthcoming generation.
Tos end up, thus the meaning of life is difficult to identify, as some people regard the meaning of their life due to the Children, God, Afterlife or often supports Nihilism, because it is the most difficult question to answer, it doesn’t have a specific answer.
