Existential angst? (was Re: Deathkingdom +Gottfried & Blicero)

[Mike Weaver]

Stacy wrote
>his assumption
>of there being no inherent meaning within anything (TP's Zero), only what we
>perceive meaning to be.  So, therefore it is illogical to believe that
>anything has any meaning other than what you perceive.  And, what you
>perceive as meaning can grow to include other meanings.  (What TP termed
>"Beyond The Zero)  Yet, at the same time, since nothing has any inherent
>meaning, everything is meaningless and therefore inherently nihilistic.


  and later Paul
>In the world of thought and art we can be--if we want--
>Supermen--beyond good and evil in a sense. Yet when we enter that realm
>of dealing with fellow humans we need to be GOOD to each other. One of the
>basic ambiguities of life.


Stacy's and Paul's comments seem to me to place perception and meaning only 
on an individual level.  I'm not well read enough to do more than guess 
here, but I'm thinking maybe this is where the "God is dead" idea comes 
in,  meaning on an individual level needing religious belief to sustain 
it.  The ubiquitous God(s) with a line to each of us individually giving us 
destination and validating the journey.

There is an alternative to Stacy's nihilism and Paul's ambiguity.  Human 
reality is an historical  social construct into which each of us is born 
and any meaning  to be found is going to be generated socially.  Gramsci at 
one point in his prison notebooks comments on objectivity as a "collective 
subjective".  That seems spot on to me.  As we peel off the layers of our 
philosophical onion we find only more collective human assertions and all 
political/religious/... struggles are concerned with retaining or replacing 
those assertions as the logics by which we lead our lives.
         Personally I'm a marxist because I believe that the supercession 
of capitalism is necessary for the harmonious development of our species, 
(increasing our ability to be good to each other).  "Socialism or 
barbarism" remains an inevitable fork in the road IMO.

And a pleasant weekend to all of you....

Mike