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The state of grand meaning in this day and age can be encapsulated by one phrase ‘God is dead’, Nietzsche’s notorious proclamation rings like the doctor tasked to bear the bad news. He wasn’t referring to the death of an existing entity, but to the idea or belief in the Christian God has become unworthy of belief. In that era of European history, “God is dead” expresses the conviction that our highest values and ideals cannot be realised particularly those rooted in traditional religious and moral frameworks. Nietzsche used this provocative declaration to signify the decline of belief in traditional religious and moral foundations in Western culture. As then and as is today, cultural and intellectual development does not stand still; philosophy, science, and secularism always are evolving, unimpeded by the static metaphysical values of religion. Nietzsche’s dramatic proclamation of ‘God is dead,’ resonates as a symbolic milestone to the profound shifts in meaning consciousness that happened during his era—an era marked by the abandonment of traditional sources of meaning and value, notably but not exclusively—the Christian God.
As Nietzsche’s proclamation echoed through German universities and beyond, it set the stage for the transformations in meaning consciousness that define our modern era. Nowadays, in this age of globalized capitalism and rampant consumerism, we can choose our own meaning in life, just like we can browse the aisles of a supermarket and be presented a choice of what products to take off the shelf and buy. Much like selecting items off the shelf, we appropriate narratives that give purpose to our existence too. A few clicks away on Google and a vast marketplace of ideas, books and narratives are ready for our adoption to become the ingredients of our personal and collective stories.
Defining meaning these days has become a battle between the objective and the subjective. That being ultimate purpose for our existence vs your own story driven purpose. For the religious, the universe has within it an ingrained story and is often saturated with the transcendental. But now what we have in modernity is pluralism, choice and the subjective nature of personal meaning. These are the humanistic tenets of choice in meaning exemplified by existentialism where we modern folks carve out our own meaning in life.
The kindergarten variety cliché existentialist statement: ‘you define your own meaning in life’ is the sort of pithy statements you will come across on websites like Reddit. It expresses the subjectivity of meaning, born out of the opinions of the individual’s mind. I don’t disagree with the stance of the statement, but it leaves much to be desired, it falls short in providing a comprehensive understanding that needs some level of analysis—and an analysis we shall provide.
What is the meaningfulness of any goal on the personal level of an individual’s life? It hinges on its capacity to motivate an individual to persevere. This motivational power is contingent upon two key factors: firstly, the individual’s assessment of the goal’s inherent value, and secondly, their judgment regarding the attainability of the said goal. If either or both of these conditions are not satisfied, the goal loses its potential to inspire—because why bother with a goal that can’t be realised? Perhaps we can understand this better through an everyday example. Imagine you have a goal of running a marathon. The first thing you would do is assess its value: physical health, personal achievement, and the sense of accomplishment associated with completing a marathon. Then, judge its attainability: considering your current fitness level, setting realistic training plans, and having the belief that you can progressively build up to the marathon distance so that is becomes a plausible achievement.
Now that we’ve analysed meaningfulness at a personal level, we now shift to the broader cultural landscape. In a time when the highest values have lost their significance since the advent of nihilism and prior historically given meanings to life and deep-seated beliefs having given way to scepticism and reason. Meaning has now become individualised and moved away from the universally or objectively defined, no longer presented as some top-down social metanarrative overarching society providing a shared meaning as Christianity was. The subjectivity of the individual now takes precedence, and meaning has transformed into a democratised, fragmented thing—something to be constructed, like building up a brick wall by placing clay bricks on mortar on after another.
But whether it be adherence to a unified metanarrative or a personal construct, for many people any value holds greater appeal than the vacuum of nihilism. This is because the human will cannot find a meaning in nothing and will engage in struggle to find purpose in the nothingness (enter the absurd).
