What is important in life?

[johngalthasspoken]

A member of a cabal that "controls the entire US economy"?

There's a lot of truth to that statement. .look at the financial elite in the US, 95% of them are Jews..and one cannot deny the existence of the international Jewry and it's reign of financial terror across the Eurozone & North America.

[The Voice of Time]

That was the "meaning" of life, doc, not the importance. You'll have to wait 10 million new years because you failed giving the proper question

No, actually it was the answer to "The really big Question about life, the Universe, and everything." emphasis on 'everything' which would include meaning and importance. - '42'. - You need to play another 10 million games of solitare.

First they said "what is the answer to... blah blah" and then the machine said something like "specify it" and then they said "what is the meaning of the life, the universe and everything" so meaning was the main part of it!

[Atthet]

Thanks for the replies. I find them interesting.

Atthet: I think I can identify with the opinion, that "I before we". I sometimes try to tell myself, that I can only be happy, if I feel that my surroundings are in harmony. If that's true, then I don't have to feel shame or disapointment, because I don't do charity everyday or something similar. Because if I "just" pursue what I feel is right for me, and what does me well, then I will help others anyway and not become evil or selfish.
The thing that you posted about hating others and seeking isolation and so, has to have an argument. Why do you think, that you want to exclude yourself from others. Why ignore your instincts if they are the only thing you have, and if they are what has created you?

Ignoring your instincts and attempting to change your instincts, are two different actions of self-censorship and emotional suppression. I did not tell you to ignore your instincts. I told you, as a man, that you ought to resist and control them, change them if you want to, or accept them if you don't want to.
You cannot even think of the possibility to "change" an instinct, your human nature, if you ignore instinct. Ignoring instinct, nature, the past, is probably the worst action a man can do in life, the most detrimental to himself and crippling. In knowing your instincts, your nature, your past, know thyself. Only after you are willing to go to the depths of yourself, a complete knowledge of what you want, why, and how you are programmed genetically to fulfill these wants, demonstrates nothing about changing instinct, or having it remain the same.

The instinct, human nature, the past, is the most difficult aspect of humanity to change, if change is even possible.

Isn't it an instinct also to have the feeling of excluding yourself from the "we", because you maybe want to start a new "wave" of thinking or similar to gain power and attention from others? I need an argument.

-Thanks

Yes, if it is the instinct of men to deny instinct, then this fact cancels the action of denying instinct. This means, instinct can never actually be denied or doubted, or ignored. It can only be accepted, and nothing more. It can only be known to man himself, or nothing. There is no ignoring instinct, and any denial is a prevention of acquired knowledge.
Ignoring your instincts must fail, by definition, because instincts guide your actions, and thoughts.

The only activity of instinct worth discussing, then, is whether instincts and nature can change. Many philosophers will say no. This is the philosophy of "realism", which is opposite to the philosophy of "idealism". Realists believe that instinct cannot change, and is permanent. Idealists believe that instinct can change, and is temporal.

[ForgedinHell]

A member of a cabal that "controls the entire US economy"?

There's a lot of truth to that statement. .look at the financial elite in the US, 95% of them are Jews..and one cannot deny the existence of the international Jewry and it's reign of financial terror across the Eurozone & North America.

That's why the richest Americans are not Jews?

Just because you Holocaust deniers are living on welfare, doesn't mean the Jews control the economy or that the Jews are responsible for you being a loser. You want to know who is responsible? Look in the mirror.

[thedoc]

That was the "meaning" of life, doc, not the importance. You'll have to wait 10 million new years because you failed giving the proper question

No, actually it was the answer to "The really big Question about life, the Universe, and everything." emphasis on 'everything' which would include meaning and importance. - '42'. - You need to play another 10 million games of solitare.

First they said "what is the answer to... blah blah" and then the machine said something like "specify it" and then they said "what is the meaning of the life, the universe and everything" so meaning was the main part of it!

NO, that was not in the book, or in the original movie, It may have been in the later 2005 movie, but that movie was as worthless as a pair of Fetid Dingo's Kidneys, As much value as a stinking pile of rubbish, If you enjoyed it, . . . Well that says enough about that. So the question put to Deep Thought was 'The Ultimate Question of Life the Universe and Everything'. 'Meaning' was not stated as part of the question, but would have been included along with 'important', under 'Everything'.

[The Voice of Time]

It was in the book, I read it this year. I can't find it on the web, but it's there, I'm certain. Anyhow, until neither of us have the book we'll never be certain for sure.

[thedoc]

It was in the book, I read it this year. I can't find it on the web, but it's there, I'm certain. Anyhow, until neither of us have the book we'll never be certain for sure.

I HAVE THE BOOK IN FRONT OF ME, and just read the section in question before my previous post, Your memory has failed you. 'Meaning' was not in the book, chapters 25, 26, 27, 28, pages 170 - 187 in my edition. I also had the video of the original movie and am planning to buy it again on DVD. That word may have been used in the 'rubbish movie' of 2005, but that movie is not worth considering as valid.

[thedoc]

No, mention of 'meaning',

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltm583i6Gek

On very rare occasions, and on a few limited subjects, I know what I am talking about. I watched the original movie on PBS and read the books as they were published, and re-read them a few times after.

[Bernard]

I think that choosing which instinct is best to rely on at any given moment has a lot to do with a sense of humour. Something that is instinctually very important but which you don't also feel a complete sense of ease about taking on once you've faithfully weighed up all the options is usually poison in the end. A sense of humour is also an acknowledgement of madness.

Two cows are in a field. One turns to the other and says, 'have you heard about that mad cow disease that is going around?' The other cow says, 'what do I care? I'm a helicopter.'

Hi.
I am a man who seeks inspiration with the question: What is really important? I sometimes think, that everything we feel is important is decided by instincts and not by something else. Maybe it is all right that all I do, we do, is decided by instincts like every other creature, but when people say, that "this can't be defined" or this is above life as we know it", then I try to figure out what "that" is. What is it that is above life, if there is anything? Maybe it is okay with "just" the instincts, but then I want to know what instincts to follow. The instinct of seeking relationship? The instinct of pursuing what I find beautiful and interesting? The instinct of using surpression to solve problems? I feel insecure and akward when I try to ignore instincts as shallowness and so.

_Esben Due Yding

[The Voice of Time]

sure there's nowhere written "what is the meaning of it all!?" and then they say "the life, the universe, everything!"?

in that case, I guess I must be mistaken...

[thedoc]

As I stated upthread it may have been part of the 2005 movie, but that movie was so awful compaired to the book and the original movie I had difficulty watching and listening carefully. It's a good thing I have a strong stomach or I'd have been throwing up watching it.

Vogons do not live on Vogsphere they had all migrated to the Megabrantic Cluster, just another gross misrepresentation of the 2005 movie.

[The Voice of Time]

I haven't seen the movie.

[thedoc]

I haven't seen the movie.

As you have read the books, I would not recomend seeing the 2005 movie, I would recomend the 1981 BBC TV series that is avalable on DVD. It was from the book and it had to skip a lot, but what it had was faithful to the book. Unfortunately it only went to where Arthur and Ford were stranded on the prehistoric Earth with the Golgafrinchans. Well worth watching if you liked the books.

[duszek]

I think that choosing which instinct is best to rely on at any given moment has a lot to do with a sense of humour. Something that is instinctually very important but which you don't also feel a complete sense of ease about taking on once you've faithfully weighed up all the options is usually poison in the end. A sense of humour is also an acknowledgement of madness.

Two cows are in a field. One turns to the other and says, 'have you heard about that mad cow disease that is going around?' The other cow says, 'what do I care? I'm a helicopter.'

There are different sorts of humour, though.

A satire, as practiced by Jonathan Swift, was not really funny.
Neither is sarcasm or cynicism.

And:
Do you imply that life is terrible as it is so we need humour in order to survive without getting depressed ?

I am working on other strategies, apart from making jokes.

One can put oneself under unbearable pressure by trying to be witty and cool all the time. That´s why I tried to go in the opposite direction and see what happens then.

[chaz wyman]

There really is only one way to 'see' The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and that is by listening to the original version - the Radio Serial. It is available on audiobook.
Its great for long car journeys or in a context where you are using your eyes for something else but are able to listen, such as housework, painting, etc.
You miss the sound effects with the books, and the TV and cinema can never really replace the imagination.
The film was a travesty though it had its good points - but you just cannot condense 4 seasons on radio in to 90 minutes.