The Big Rocks

Photo by Martin LaBar of Flickr

Someone was once trying to fill a barrel with big rocks, smaller rocks, gravel and sand. He filled it with the sand first, the gravel next and then started on the rocks. By the time he got there, the barrel was full and he had nowhere to put the rest, After so much wasted effort, he emptied the barrel and started again, putting the big rocks in first. In this way, he fully utilized the space in the barrel and it all fit. The meaning of this parable is simple: You must solve major issues before you can solve smaller ones.

The biggest issue I have is this: what is the meaning of life? I've determined that to the best of my ability. Without some compelling evidence otherwise, there is none. This is also known as Nihilism. While this is not the most cheery or useful of beliefs. Based off of my observations and my understanding of the world, I believe it to be the closest to the truth (and truth is something I value greatly).

For a brief period of time after I came to believe this, I thought my pursuit of philosophy was at an end. However, now that I have placed this biggest rock in the barrel if you will, I can deal with some of the smaller ones with some meaningful (or completely meaningless, considering it's coming from a Nihilist) context.

The next rocks? This one comes from my reading the famous sci-fi "Dune" (just started reading the book): Government. What do I think about governments? What should their goals be? What type is the best? Democracy or something else?

I believe the current form of government in the United States is largely reactionary and except for basic functions (maintaining roads, stuff like that), it is unable to make commitments to long-term goals. I also believe that this is leading to America's demise. Our politicians are primarily activists as opposed to political thinkers and I think that should change, but I don't know what system would cause that. I will have to research and study and it will probably will take a while, but that is my current focus.