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Raygunn13 t1_j9xgd56 wrote

At 1:09:55

"...it gets into a subject that really has not much to with me but has to do with humanity. a great lack in America... the great ^(uhh) belief that ^(uhh) was a flaw: once we lost our Christian background or whatever the fuck we had, we never as a country tried to figure out what the meaning of life is. We still don't. All these issues about terrorism, race, [inaudible], school prayer... it'd be a lot simpler if we had a meaning of life going for us. Not that that's easy to achieve but.. nobody seems to be looking! Am I with my busywork seeking to inject meaning into my life? ^(the fuck is the marinara sauce..) The way I choose to function is to pick an arbitrary stupid goal, become totally involved in it, and pursue it with vigor. And what happens to you in that pursuit is your life. Understand that it's stupid but not stupid to pursue because it's the only way you can inject meaning into your life. Otherwise you're left with this great 'why bother?'"
[I did my best to transcribe what I thought he was saying]

I'm getting Myth of Sisyphus vibes from this. The man has some pretty interesting insights for sure, and it's even more interesting to see his philosophies contextualized by the way he lives his life. Watching this doc I get the distinct sense that this is someone who knows himself very well.

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thorneparke t1_j9xsy2y wrote

Filmed shortly after 9/11, I thought his insight that (to paraphrase) "after all this, the next enemy is destined to come from within" was really astute. He definitely was a philosopher in his own way.

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Raygunn13 t1_j9xwdp6 wrote

yeah absolutely! followed immediately by the title- that was a moving sequence for sure

2