Summary

This article puts on the lenses that there are no divine gods and uses only basic concepts of evolution and reason. Through deductive reasoning we can prove you have a purpose in a life that is unapologetically chaotic and seemingly meaningless. We then take a step forward in turning our self-awareness for purpose into personal power for taking control of our lives.

This will be a short and digestible article.

Body

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Book 8 -

"Everything is here for a purpose, from horses to vine shoots. What's surprising about that? Even the sun will tell you, "I have a purpose," and the other gods as well. And why were you born? For pleasure? See if that answer will stand up to questioning."

Marcus Auerelius was a stoic philosopher and later emperor of Rome in 161 AD. As wise as he was, let's disagree with Marcus and see where the bread crumbs lead us.

Horses were not made with a purpose. Nor the sun. The sun was not made for the life on Earth. Horses evolved to become what they were and human beings of the ancient times found that tamed horses made for better mobility. It happened that we did not choose bears, lions, or the sort. The situation was right for horses. Man hadn't developed the muscle, wit, and other tools needed to tame something as wild as a lion and a horse posed just enough challenge that man could and did conquer as a steed.

What man saw was properties. The horse had properties that man could utilize. Horse has use therefore horse has purpose.

Let's tackle the sun problem. Marcus, the old geezer, is full of shit, suns can't talk, and they were not created with a purpose. The sun is a ball of gas that happens to have properties of mass to pull in planets into its orbit.

What events followed next gave the sun a purpose. Ecosystem of chemicals reacted on earth, the light rays from the sun fed the bacteria, and eventually begot life and other pretentious carbon life-forms.

An ecosystem responded to the sun's mere existence and now depends on the continued existence of the sun in order to thrive.

So now we have two new axioms in our reasoning tool-belt:

  1. Things have purpose because they have properties that can be of use.

  2. Things have purpose because they exist and an ecosystem acknowledges the existence of a thing.

Let's apply this to you, human reader. You have talents, traits, ergo properties about yourself that other people value and can use. You can be of use to someone. Therefore you have purpose. Second, you were born, by a series of natural events. Your mom was a drunk slut and your dad was a horny man. Out-of-wedlock came you, without a choice in the matter, to a dysfunctional house hold. You were born without a purpose. And yet you inherited one. Your existence has affected the other people in your life. Think about those you have affected both positively and negatively. You have affected a social ecosystem much like the sun had affected a chemical one. This social ecosystem has molded around your existence and changed it in ways we cannot comprehend but much like the intricate formation of life on earth, we simply accept it.

Your human existence satisfies the two axioms. You can reflect on these and say to yourself with confidence that you DO have purpose.

Even through originally disagreeing with Marcus that things are made with a purpose, they DO breed a purpose, and correlate with the behavior presented by Marcus in his quote.

Further Analysis

"Great", you say. "I have purpose. But it seems defined by being used like a rag. I want to do what I want to do!"

Yes and now you are self-aware of how you are being used.

Using self-awareness we can turn the axioms of purpose into personal power:

  1. You are useful for others

  2. You have influence on others

Now that you are aware of yourself in the social economy, you can gain power by controlling how you make your purpose available to others. Once you gain leverage, you can begin finding a new purpose outside of your social economy built on top of your inherent success.

Lessons Learned

  • Marcus Aurelius was a wise stoic
  • You are useful, therefore you have purpose
  • You exist and influence, therefore you have purpose
  • Awareness of purpose can be throttled to others, therefore establishing personal power
  • As personal power outgrows its original purpose, you can begin molding a consciously chosen purpose