This is not a post for advice or clarification and breaks the rules. This post is an opinion and I would like to get opinions for and against that opinion from a group of men who are primarily dedicated to improving their life and have done a lot of shit in their lives and have a good understanding of evolutionary psychology and are red-pilled instead of communities where people with shit lives and blue-pill living will just debate you on semantics. I feel a discussion like this would be immensely helpful to both myself and every member of this community, especially now given the few months of lockdown that we have had to do some self-introspection and thinking. I also feel there are a lot of "What is the purpose of life" type posts and a discussion like this would be very helpful. Yet, if it feels this post does not belong here, please do remove it.

My opinion: The purpose of our life is the same basic stuff that the stone age man wanted during his times

Firstly, I believe there is no inherent purpose or end goal as such to our lives. Genetically we are geared to survival and reproduction and have been doing so for millions of years. Any other purpose or meaning we assign to life, we assign it ourselves. Besides that, why we seven billion people are randomly placed on this planet and what we are doing here, nobody knows. But for some reason unknown to you and me, right from the sub-atomic level to the grand galaxy level everything is working fine like a beautifully orchestrated symphony.

Anyhow, I believe that despite a million years of evolution, our core drives and what makes us happy and fulfilled, hasn't changed over the past million years or so. I've had the realization that although we have arts and technology and all these advancements, not only what we seek through them is still the same but things we seek are so few and so identical to the drives of the Stone Age man.

For example. Let’s take the drive for survival and security. What the pre-historic man might consider security would be saving grains and meat for the winter season. What we consider security is having a good insurance plan, an emergency fund and some degree of financial flexibility. But the end goal is the same survival & security.

Sure, a pre-historic man may never know what the stock market is and we live in a system which is way faster, complex and developed compared to when people wore leaves for underwears but the core drives I believe are still very much the same and the million of years of evolution hasn't been undone by a couple of centuries of modern living.

Similarly, the other goals we have in life are identical to the goals that the stone age man had, only the mean to achieve them is different. Say after the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are met, these are namely our needs:

-- Sex

-- Security (Have livable income, move to a better neighbourhood, financial flexibility, investment, emergency funds)

-- Community (Hanging out with friends, partying, social dancing, group sports, male bonding)

-- Adventure (Adventure sports, travelling)

-- Leisure (Do nothing, chill by self time)

-- Physical activity (Running, walking, exercise)

And that’s about it. I can’t think of anything else besides these few needs that I want to pursue in life. Sure you can put things in a bucketlist style format like 1. Travel turkey 2. Scubadive 3. Learn Salsa 4. Become financially independent before 35... but each of those could be distilled and essentiated to the very few basic drives which are the same as above.

Some path of our lives can also indirectly if not directly be a stepping stone to the above drives. For example, we earn money not because seeing more zeros in our account provides us happiness but more because having more money lets us advance faster and further on the above drives. That is, money can buy you sex, friendship, adventure, more leisure time, better health, better community, more security etc.

Not only do I believe the drives are same, I believe the drives are so ingrained in us to the point that the moment we stray away from them, we suffer. For example if we stay isolated and away from people, we end up feeling lonely. If we spend 12 hours a day on a computer and never stray out of the house, we feel stressed and jittery. If we do not walk, run or exercise, we feel shit mentally. Sitting for long durations for example, produces harmful physiological and psychological changes in our bodies. Being isolated and lonely is as harmful as smoking cigarettes.

Whereas we love male bonding through MMA and busting each others balls and group activities. We love community style partying. 80 hour workweeks make us unhappy but spending a week in a naturesque place makes us feel wonderful. You get the point.

So the goal isn't to sell everything and move to a forest in kenya because the conditions of living in hunter-gatherers society suck. Half of us wouldnt make it past 15 in a traditional hunter-gatherer society. No. The purpose is to fulfil the drive of the hunter-gatherer DNA in us, using the means and peace available to us and in the current society. To avoid ways of living that stray us too far from the way our ancestors lived (example too much consumerism, over-working, digital addiction etc)

What do you feel about this? And what do you feel is the purpose and meaning of life?