LIE: My life is meaningless

Lie: My life is meaningless

Truth: Your life is full of meaning and purpose

This lie is told (most often subliminally) in different ways with different words, but all the ways and words are equally devastating:

Life is meaningless	What’s the use?
It’s just not worth it	What difference does it make?
I have no purpose	I’m bored
I don’t know what to do.	I give up
What’s the point of it all?	or simply: ‘why . . Why . . WHY?!’

Nearly all of us struggle to some degree with this lie and no one is exempt from the assault. Some try to ignore it or claim immunity; others struggle but have no idea of how to name it. Still others are brutally aware but have no idea how to fight it. My desire is that this article will offer some hope to you, no matter who you are.

We instinctively know that our lives ought to have a profound importance; that if our lives are truly ‘priceless’ – of eternal worth, if God in human flesh died to save us, surely our lives should be full of meaning and purpose. And we should know and understand and be consciously living out that purpose . . . shouldn’t we? Then why do we so often feel the precise opposite? – like we have no purpose; that our lives are just full of random noise and activity? Or you may know abstractly that you have meaning and purpose, but have no clue practically of how it should work out in real life. If either of those scenarios start to describe you, you are not alone, and there are good reasons that this is now an almost universal experience.[1]

With the rising tide of suicide, especially among youth, this is an especially critical fight. We must know our enemy, and more importantly, we must also know the only One who has or will ever defeat him. From the most recent CDC report, published in October 2019: “The suicide rate for persons aged 10–14 . . . nearly tripled from 2007 to 2017.” And: “The suicide rate for persons aged 15–19 . . . increased 76% from 2007 (6.7 [per 100,000 persons]) to 2017 (11.8) . . . . The pace of increase was greater from 2014 to 2017 (10% annually, on average) than from 2007 to 2014 (3% annually).”^[2] [emphasis added]

In other words, suicide among our most vulnerable, is increasing and accelerating way too fast. And by the way, 2007 was the first year the smartphone became available.[3]

Obviously, in simpler times, when most lived their lives in small villages and vocations were handed down from fathers to sons, these questions of meaning and purpose rarely came up. It was fairly obvious and straightforward in these traditional societies – girls got married and raised children; boys learned a trade, married and provided for the family, etc, etc. (I’m obviously generalizing here; it wasn’t that simple because of wars, displacement, droughts, famine, disease, etc, but certainly necessity was a prime driver in what opportunities became available.)

So the question is: what changed? In other words, what are the cultural forces that created this present crisis of meaning and purpose? Are there common hindrances or obfuscations that prevent us from seeing our meaning and purpose? If we could isolate and identify those forces, if we could name our enemies, could we better thwart their destructive influences? Yes, I think so.

But I’d be dishonest if I said I could definitively enumerate all of the negative cultural forces – the problem is simply too large and complex to claim that superpower. Yet I can name the culprits according to many theologians, sociologists and cultural critics. The major/broad-brush social changes, though they may be described in various ways, from various angles, form a clear consensus around several forces. I’ll name and describe four, and though these four are not exhaustive, together they paint a fairly clear picture of how and why we got here – here being mired in the lie: my life is meaningless.

You could call these shifts, from one center of gravity to another, or a favorite term: paradigm shifts. But I will call them triumphs because in each case, the latter state is now clearly dominant over the previous state. And that newly established state will not allow any regression. This is not a simple shift; it is a triumph and a defeat – a triumph of evil and a defeat of good.[4]

Cultural forces that cultivate a near-universal sense of meaninglessness

1  The triumph of image over word. In his seminal book, The Humiliation of the Word, Jacques Ellul describes in great detail how the word – both aural and print – was overcome by the image. The word is the domain of truth and the carrier of discourse and meaning, meaning is discovered in the sincere conversation between speaker and hearer. Conversely, the image is the domain of reality and the carrier of the fact, of material, and the instantaneous. It is that which shuts down all meaningful discourse.

In short, we have become a visual society so that now, nearly all communications are facilitated by images, with the images drawing most of the attention. Speaking of the onset of, first telegraphy, then photography, then television, theologian Marva Dawn writes:

New technological imagery did not merely supplement language but replaced it as our primary means “for construing, understanding, and testing reality.” [Neil Postman] Consequently, this focus on image “undermined traditional definitions of information, of news, and, to a large extent, of reality itself.

We were left with a world loaded with “information” that is meaningless because it has no context, can lead to no response, and has no connection to everything else in our arsenal of “facts.”[5]

She quotes Neil Postman extensively from his book Amusing Ourselves to Death because of his incisive commentary, especially on TV. This recasting of reality is seen in the obsession with ‘news.’ And now in the Internet age, news and information has exploded into mountains of useless trivia, and disconnected ‘infotainment’ of every kind.

Here is Neil Postman describing the near absurdity of news. He describes how the form of media creates the novel content that is needed for itself.

The information, the content, or, if you will, the ‘stuff’ that makes up what is called ‘the news of the day’ did not exist – could not exist – in a world that lacked the media to give it expression. I do not mean that things like fires, wars, murders and love affairs did not, ever and always, happen in places all over the world. I mean that lacking a technology to advertise them, people could not attend to them, could not include them in their daily business. Such information simply could not exist as part of the content of culture. This idea – that there is a content called ‘the news of the day’ – was entirely created by the telegraph (and since amplified by newer media), which made it possible to move decontextualized information over vast spaces at incredible speed. The news of the day is a figment of our technological imagination. It is, quite precisely, a media event. We attend to fragments of events from all over the world because we have multiple media whose forms are well suited to fragmented conversation. Cultures without speed-of-light media, let us say, cultures in which smoke signals are the most efficient space-conquering tool available – do not have news of the day. Without a medium to create its form, the news of the day does not exist. [emphasis added][6]

All of this decontextualization and fragmentation of our reality – and therefore decreasing meaning – subliminally communicates something deceptive and dark. It communicates that life itself must then be meaningless, has no context, no core, no connection to anything truly relevant. This ‘background noise’ of incessant, contextless imagery takes a toll on us. No wonder our only escape is to go further into a false world, binge-watching Downton Abbey or mindlessly scrolling and scrolling web pages or walking about zombie-like with our smartphones. Apparently the triumph of image is nearly complete.

2  The triumph of the individual over community. This paradigm shift morphed over centuries with many compounding forces contributing to its triumph. We could go all the way back to the invention of the printing press and the rise of literacy, which profoundly inflated our private, individual point of view. But let’s start with the Industrial Revolution that kick-started the rise of materialism of private consumption and the forced anonymity of crowded cities.

Again Marva Dawn recounts the work of Jacques Ellul and his work to describe the technological society.

Moreover, these factors are both symptoms and causes. Part of a never-ending spiral, they have arisen from previous technological developments and societal forces and, in turn, cause other factors that destroy our humanity. They must be named so that we can lessen their negative influences.

As Ellul traces it, the general social fabric of family and community cohesion began to shred in the Industrial Age, when family businesses and farms gave way to factories and corporations. Now the head of the house who went away to work in another place brought home additional psychological strains, numerous relationships that the rest of the family did not share, and extraneous concerns and realities. World War II escalated the process because women left their homes for the workforce outside. As human beings spent less time together with those dearest to them and more time in a wide variety of communities with superficial associations, they lost the opportunity to learn and practice skills of intimacy. A far greater rending occurred, however, with the onset of the technological society, because the new milieu’s tolls of work and toys of pleasure pull us away from each other. The automobile, instruments of the media, personal computers, and work modems [an early name for internet access] are just a few examples of technological tools and toys that have stolen our intimacy.[7]

I often hear the commonplace: ‘Technology is neither good nor bad in itself; it depends on how it’s used,’ which is true as far as it goes. But the greater truth is that technology has forever changed us and continues to change us. And in this context, technology has extended man’s powers: his vision, his mobility, his speed, his intelligence to god-like proportions. In this artificially-enlarged state we can easily believe that we don’t really need each other or God.[8] No deception could be more powerful. But actually all such ‘extensions of our powers’ only truncates and dumbs down our native, God-given gifts and powers, and reduces our ability to communicate, to think, to act.

This obsession over self, to the point of narcissism, is a tragic and pitiful solipsism. We desperately expect to find meaning in our individually-disconnected selves, but we will not find it there. The dual triumph and defeat of the individual is nearly complete.

3  The triumph of digital/virtual over material/real. In his recent article “Alienated, Alone and Angry: What the Digital Revolution Really Did to Us,” Joseph Bernstein takes a sobering look at what the ‘digital revolution’ has given us. As someone who believed the promise of a quasi-digital utopia, he speaks truthfully when he says that it has produced an alienated, angry and alone generation.

Bernstein says:

Looking back from the shaky edge of a new decade, it’s clear that the past 10 years saw many Americans snap out of a dream, shaken awake by a brutal series of shocks and dislocations from the very changes that were supposed to “create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace.” When they opened their eyes, they did indeed see that the Digital Nation had been born. Only it hadn’t set them free. They were being ruled by it. It hadn’t tamed politics. It sent them berserk.

And it hadn’t brought people closer together.

It had alienated them.[9]

He also mentions a long-running poll, taken every year for more than 50 years. It’s the Harris Poll Alienation Index. The simple survey asks whether respondents agree (or disagree) with five statements. From the article again:

[The five statements are:]

What you think doesn’t count very much anymore.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Most people with power try to take advantage of people like yourself.

The people running the country don’t really care what happens to you.

You’re left out of things going on around you.

Harris then averages the rates of agreement to reach an index, which is a rough proxy for how included Americans feel in their country and their communities. In 1998, a year after the “Birth of a Digital Nation,” was published, the score was 56% [56% of the American population feel alienated]. In 2008, as the platforms became dominant, it was 58%. Last year [2018], it was 69%, the highest it’s ever been. (The lowest level, 29%, came in the Alienation Index’s first year [1966])[10]

I’ve written about the digital revolution elsewhere,[11] so I won’t say much here, except that few now doubt the alienating and depressing effects of digital technology. Yet I see no sign of it slowing down. On the contrary, it’s apparently speeding up, both figuratively and literally, especially now with the introduction of 5G wireless networks.

Practically no domain of life is exempt from being digitized:  games, banking, reading, research, medical, driving/navigation, shopping, voting, friendship, work, you name it, it’s all going digital, which means it’s all accessible via a smartphone app. It’s a true but ruinous triumph of the virtual over the real. But is it any wonder that our stubborn obsession with increasingly trying to live in this virtual world would produce anything other than a profound frustration? Our hope of finding life and meaning and joy in YouTube and Facebook and Instagram is futile. Life does not and will never work in that false world. But there is a world in which life and meaning can be found.

4  The triumph of transhuman/non-human over human. Ultimately this is where it all ends. Thankfully, this is not yet a triumph, but it is shaping up to be a cataclysmic war to end all wars. I’ve also written about this in other articles at length,[12] so I’ll direct you there for more background. But it’s becoming clearer every day that automation, machine learning, AI, biotechnology, genetics, brain-computer interfaces, lab-grown meat, robotics, sexbots, and on and on, encroach more and more on our humanity. The average person is shocked and bewildered by the extent and depth of these monstrosities. What are we to say to these ‘innovations?’ The underlying message – though rarely spoken – is that humankind needs to be upgraded, updated; otherwise, he will become unneeded, useless, and obsolete. The message is: ‘Truck driver, fast-food worker, farm laborer, Uber driver, and many others like you – you are on your way out and there’s little you can do about it.’

Slowly the subtle messages sink in and we wonder: ‘Am I no better or more valuable than a robot or an AI?’ ‘Will I be replaced?’ ‘What meaning or purpose or dignity could I possibly have.’

There are other ‘triumphs’ that I could mention:

• The triumph of job over craft/mastery.
• The triumph of mobility over place/history/estate.
• The triumph of city over town and village.
• The triumph of corporation over family business.
• The triumph of indoctrination over disciplined learning.

So then taking all of these shifts, these would-be triumphs in society that want to claim their victory in our own lives, how can we wrestle with these? How can we rediscover and live within the deep significance and meaning we all have?

Our true significance

The truth is that you have an incalculable value, but only because of the One who alone can place a true value on anything. He is the Lord and your Creator and Redeemer. You have meaning and purpose, first and foremost as an image-bearer of the living God. He intended that you show through your words, actions and attitudes, what he’s actually like.[13]

He is also the Re-creator, who himself rose from the dead and now calls you to die and rise again with him.

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. — I Corinthians 15:20–23

Paul lights the way forward in his opening sentences to the ‘Therefore’ of the grand narrative of Romans chapters 1–11.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. — Romans 12:1–2

The battle begins in our child-like trust in our merciful Father, but continues in our awareness and resistance to the powers that want to shape our minds. One note of caution: Taking back our awareness and practice of our meaning and purpose from these principalities and powers will not be easy; they will not give up without an intense fight. In this regard, Jacques Ellul says that we will therefore need to live in a state of ‘agony,’ that is, torn by this struggle. Or as the Apostle Paul put it: “we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers.”

Our counter victory will be by displacement.

We can only triumph over these powers by living within the space that our Lord makes for us. But to do that, we must claim those spaces to thereby grow and displace these false dominions that have muscled in. And we will do that by simply living – in community with likeminded people – and doing by the Spirit what he has called us to be and to do.

So in answer to these ‘triumphs,’ we must:

1  Put word over image. Do not be seduced by images, but rather devote your time, yourself, to the living word of God, translating that word, that message into becoming ‘living epistles, known and read by all men.’[14]

2  Put people over yourself. Believe it or not, this is the call of our God, demonstrated by Jesus our Lord, and consistently written of in the scriptures. It can be done in a thousand different ways as we take up our own cross. We naturally believe in our own self-importance and, either consciously or unconsciously try to subtly promote ourselves. Resist that temptation by finding the joy in serving others and expecting nothing in return.

3  Put real over virtual. Bias yourself to the real, that is, to real things and people. Go see and talk with people; go out into the natural world and enjoy its wonders; put your phone away and be present with the people in your life. Get alone and pray to your heavenly Father who loves you. In this way you will discover the actual spiritual world, which the virtual world can only try to imitate.

4  Put human over non-human. Do not be seduced by how technology extends and empowers and enhances you; rather, take delight and contentment in the humble ways that we can live. Take walks, have conversations, show genuine affection, sing aloud with others, lift up your hands in praise to our God.

Hear these words of Jesus, our Master, who knows what it means to live wrestling against these dark forces:

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? — Mark 8:34–36

Our epidemic of meaninglessness is strong evidence that people are losing their souls. We as Christ-followers must take up our own cross and in that process offer the true and living hope to those who are quietly dying among us.

See also the introduction to this category: Introduction: Lies attacking our self-understanding.

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[1] My personal belief, though it would be hard to prove, is that this centuries-old assault is the intentional breakdown of individual minds in order to meld them into various ‘hive minds.’

[2] From the CDC report: “Death Rates Due to Suicide and Homicide Among Persons Aged 10–24: United States, 2000–2017” https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db352-h.pdf.

[3] See the Atlantic article “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation,” by Jean M Twenge where she makes this connection between the introduction of the smartphone and the sharp decline of a generation: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/, captured on 22 December 2019.

[4] But see the article: Lie: Evil is more powerful than good.

[5] Dawn, Marva J, Reaching Out without Dumbing Down, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1995, pg 22.

^[6]Postman, Neil, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Penguin Books, 1985, pg 8

[7] Dawn, Reaching, pg 25.

[8] See also the article: Lie: I don’t need God.

[9] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/in-the-2010s-decade-we-became-alienated-by-technology captured on 22 December 2019.

[10] ibid

[11] See for example the articles: Lie: Passive use of the Internet is harmless, part 1, part 2, and part 3.

[12] See for example, Lie: I can become a god, part 1 and part 2.

[13] See also the article: Lie: The meaning of life is an unfathomable mystery.

[14] From II Corinthians 3:2