What keeps you going?

[Beeth]

Religious folks have their afterlife, so that is a coping mechanism: they somehow manage to keep in mind that this world is temporary and soon they will be happy with god etc.

What keeps us commies going? For me, it is the thought that someday humanity will be free of war, disease, and poverty. For an agnostic like me, only the idea of humanity's future greatness can be a motivating factor. The present cannot inspire me, nor can selfish goals (since as a mortal, I won't be around to experience anything).

So the only thing that keeps me going is the dream.

[Rusty Shackleford]

my love of history had let me to love experience.

[Dunk]

I kinda enjoy living.

[Prof. Oblivion]

Laughter.





And pizza.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I really don't know, death has never seemed like an option to me. It's something that just happens to you and we all are just living until that happens. Might as well do stuff while we're here you know.

[Silvr]

Alcohol and kiteboarding, mostly.

[black magick hustla]

i don't really grasp at hypothetical utopias to keep living. if you haven't figure out why life is worth living by itself then it is pretty hard to convince you otherwise. THere are loads of interesting things that I want to do.

[roy]

what keeps me going? why, of course, it's the motto: #yolo.

seriously, giving life meaning has never fazed me. i just want to enjoy it as much as possible.

[Comrade Jandar]

You can live without "living."

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

An inherent and deeply embedded desire to exist even if it's in a god-less universe with no defined meaning or purpose.
Also, to teach my son the awesomeness of Transformers.

[Ocean Seal]

Because I'd rather spend my life living than dying.

[Prometeo liberado]

Alimony payments and that enduring belief that no matter how bad things seem to be they can't be as bad as sitting through an entire season of Friends.
http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=I4693923194536919&pid=1.7&w=189&h=145&c=7&rs=1

[Rafiq]

The eternal quest for knowledge. Why do I live? What the fuck? Do you expect me to kill myself because I don't believe I'm going to la la land after I'm six feet under?

I exist, and I am my life. We are devoid of "souls", we are ourselves. When we die, we're nothing, we cannot articulate our deaths, because, well, we're dead. Even if we don't like them, our lives substantiate our existence. I would turn the question around and ask: "What keeps you (religious) going?", since, you know, you're going to an eternal paradise (or shit hole) after you die, why keep on living? Why not intentionally sacrifice yourself so you can escape this shit planet and enjoy the fruits of eternal paradise? Oh wait! Suicide bombings.

[Igor]

living is fun

[RedHammer]

Well, I'm already here, so either I live or I kill myself. I might as well live.

And alcohol.

[JPSartre12]

I think that this thread makes the supposition that we're actually living right now ... who says that we're even alive?

Woops, philosophy flamebait there. Forget it :lol:

[Magón]

We all die sometime, so I might as well do something with my time until then.

And like Lorca said: "As I have not worried to be born, I do not worry to die."

[Ostrinski]

Existential pleasures. Death never has really phased me, I've always figured I'd just go when I go.

[Pretty Flaco]

what keeps me going? hella fuckin coffee.

[citizen of industry]

Knowing I'm a small part of a great movement with a rich tradition and a bright future. Also books, alcohol and the thought of revenge.

[Ele'ill]

the Autumn, crickets, quiet fields, forests, snow storms, thunderstorms, books, tattoos, beer, meeting people who I become really close friends with, huge life changes, wrath, and action.

[MustCrushCapitalism]

Nothing. Life sucks. I actually did have pretty consistent suicidal thoughts until maybe a few months ago. I'm still pretty depressed most of the time.

But I guess everyone has something or another that they desire in life, and continue to live for, not knowing whether or not they'll ever achieve that. I guess that's me now. Death doesn't accomplish anything, life doesn't necessarily accomplish anything either, but... who knows, might as well stay along for the ride.

I sometimes think I may be the walking stereotype of an angsty teenager. :lol:

[CryingWolf]

The thing that keeps me going is the part of my brain that says most outcomes in which I'm dead are highly undesirable.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

Exercise, food and water.

I'm really scared of dying. Even though I've been through horrible things in my life, I'd still prefer a life of torment to nonexistence.

[RedHammer]

I'm really scared of dying. Even though I've been through horrible things in my life, I'd still prefer a life of torment to nonexistence.

I feel the same way. As much as I may hate life sometimes, non-existence is a terrifying concept. To be honest, I'm really hoping that there is an afterlife. It's wishful thinking, yes....but still.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

I feel the same way. As much as I may hate life sometimes, non-existence is a terrifying concept. To be honest, I'm really hoping that there is an afterlife. It's wishful thinking, yes....but still.

This.
Death scares the shit out of me, which is stupid, because I'm death and won't know that I'm death. But still, the thought of non-existance, is scary for living persons. They better make a live-forever pill soon.

[Silvr]

I've never understood why anyone would want to live forever. The thought of that is much more terrifying to me than the thought of death. Not because I hate life or something, but because life can be pretty rough and its a constant struggle, which I can handle now, but I imagine if I make it to, say, eighty or ninety years old, I will be thoroughly exhausted with the whole experience and ready for it to come to an end. I'm not really scared of 'being dead', though, more of the events that could potentially precede my death, or the thought of outliving everyone I loved and dying all alone. That in particular scares the hell out of me.

[ВАЛТЕР]

The hope that one day I may get to shoot capitalists in their faces motivates me.

Boxing really keeps me going. I've been doing it for so long I can't remember what life was like without it. The idea of not getting up in the morning and running, going to the gym, sparring, etc. Scares me.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

I've never understood why anyone would want to live forever. The thought of that is much more terrifying to me than the thought of death. Not because I hate life or something, but because life can be pretty rough and its a constant struggle, which I can handle now, but I imagine if I make it to, say, eighty or ninety years old, I will be thoroughly exhausted with the whole experience and ready for it to come to an end. I'm not really scared of 'being dead', though, more of the events that could potentially precede my death, or the thought of outliving everyone I loved and dying all alone. That in particular scares the hell out of me.

On the flipside, I've never understood why anyone wouldn't want to live forever. In fact I personally believe it's a bit of intellectual dishonesty.

You can't logically prefer nonexistence over eternal life because, well, you don't exist. It's probably why so many people are religious, too.

[bluepilgrim]

A combination of things -- orneriness, the biological tyranny, and someone has to feed the cats. Or just a habit. A lurking curiosity and hope that I can figure what this is that I'm in -- some kind of weird dream maybe, or a 'disturbance in the force', or a pimple on the backside of existence?

It's mostly moment to moment, and looking forward to the next cigarette and cup of coffee. And feeding the cats. Or it's I just don't know.

Even if there is no god that doesn't mean this is all there is, and if not I want to move into whatever there might be having done what I could here and now as best I can, and it's a matter of 'integrity' in that while I have a self-identity it seems better to hold it together in a decent way while I can rather than let it all fall apart from neglect or not paying attention, which would be meaningless -- and there is an urge, from some mysterious place, to create or find meaning.

[Jazzratt]

I don't really understand how there being some magical better place that people go to after they die being incentive to live. Surely the only logical thing to do would be to seek death as quickly as possible in order to escape this, relatively, toss existence in order to live forever in a glorious fog of happiness.

Personally I died a long time ago but my body is kept animate by the energy given off when alcohol is converted to rage. Or, being more serious, I keep myself going for the same reason a lot of people have aluded to in this thread: habit.

[Amon]

My reason for continued existence is solely to do my best to diminish the sufferings of others. Too long has our global system trampled on everyone, I am here to participate in the liberation of the people, however small that may be on my part, although I desire to see change on a mass scale.

Basically I'm hoping to see the destruction of the bourgeoisie, I'm hoping it will happen in my lifetime.

[kuriousoranj]

The knowledge that any useful part of my being is shared, and thus, ever lasting.

[freethinker]

For me there is so much to learn and to see. To me the lack of a god rejuvenates me because I know I am free

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

Revenge. Revenge for the 1 Billion humans who are permanently severely undernourished today. That and Fascists. I dream of playing psycho games on fascists, putting them in a cell and faking executions to then force them to read Karl Marx and gain an ounce of humanity.

[Thirsty Crow]

Religious folks have their afterlife, so that is a coping mechanism: they somehow manage to keep in mind that this world is temporary and soon they will be happy with god etc.

What keeps us commies going? For me, it is the thought that someday humanity will be free of war, disease, and poverty. For an agnostic like me, only the idea of humanity's future greatness can be a motivating factor. The present cannot inspire me, nor can selfish goals (since as a mortal, I won't be around to experience anything).

So the only thing that keeps me going is the dream.
Escape, friendship, love, detestment.

I enjoy some computer games and, luckily, can't get lost in them. I also enjoy literature (it can be a form of escape even if it is "socially relevant"), music and movies (music greatly, movies to a somewhat lesser extent). I also tend to try to write :lol: The following two are pretty self-explanatory.

And detestement? Well, I guess it is pretty self-explanatory, but maybe I should add that my personality actually doesn't allow the possibility of anything other than such a negative attitude towards reality of life. It can be valuable and invigorating if managed properly.

[Rafiq]

If we're talking about whether it's better to die, instead of being in a really, really shit situation, and when I'm in one, I always know I'll find my way out. Always do.

[RedHammer]

The hope that one day I may get to shoot capitalists in their faces motivates me.

This.

Also, another thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that there is fascism and backwardness out in the world and it's almost a duty for me to stick around to fight it. It's a war of attrition.

[Silvr]

On the flipside, I've never understood why anyone wouldn't want to live forever. In fact I personally believe it's a bit of intellectual dishonesty.

There is nothing dishonest about it. If I had the choice to live forever, I would turn it down in a heartbeat.

[Fourth Internationalist]

Living is itself a reason to live. :)

[Flying Purple People Eater]

There is nothing dishonest about it. If I had the choice to live forever, I would turn it down in a heartbeat.
Why? Would you enjoy not existing? Because you really can't, nor could you like or hate anything when you're dead.

[Silvr]

Why? Would you enjoy not existing? Because you really can't, nor could you like or hate anything when you're dead.

Yeah, no kidding. I didn't say that I would 'enjoy not existing', but that I wouldn't want to exist forever, I think it would be miserable. I have known several elderly people who are/were tired of life and ready for it to end, and I think everybody would get there pretty quickly if they lived long enough, TBH.

[#FF0000]

there are a lot of things that are more interesting to experience than being dead. so that's why i like staying alive.

[Beeth]

The universe is so vast and mysterious that we have something to learn and discover all the time. So boredom won't be possible.

[levyel]

Marijuana, nicotine, and caffeine mostly these days.

But in all seriousness, I think it's an important question to ask and attempt to answer. A bit of my resolve comes from a restlessness I feel virtually 24/7. It's sort of an anxiousness resulting from constantly feeling as if I am wasting what ever little time I have here and often (mis)measuring myself and my accomplishments versus those of my peers. I'm never content. None of this is unique in anyway, and I figure it applies to most younger people with slightly above-average intellect and ambition.

Napoleon quipped that he was lonely among men, and I find that to fit my outlook at times. I assume a lot of you probably feel that way too. Most of my research and readings are pulled straight from the 18th or 19th centuries, so yeah, very few people I have face-to-face contact with share the specialized interests that we do. This can be a drag, especially when it comes to sustaining romantic relationships.

If you want a direct answer to your question, I guess the desire to be remembered well when I am dead and, again, marijuana. I'm here, I've spent enough time asking How? and Why? about this circumstance or that injustice, and now I seek to do things to alter outcomes...albeit by way of nonprofit work.

[Rugged Collectivist]

A while ago I came up with two solid reasons to live.

1. Existence is more exciting than nonexistence. There are few situations where I feel death would be preferable to life.

2. Suicide would devastate the people who care about me. I couldn't do that to them.

[Ele'ill]

1. Existence is more exciting than nonexistence.


Is it? How do you know? I think potential existence and the perceived excitement that follows it is a non-issue for the non-existing.

[Rugged Collectivist]

Is it? How do you know?

Because you couldn't experience excitement if you ceased to exist.


I think potential existence and the perceived excitement that follows it is a non-issue for the non-existing.

Of course, but it would presumably be an issue for someone in the moments leading up to their potential non existence. In the moments when they're debating the pros and cons of existence and non existence. Death is a permanent state, the idea of the loss of experience could persuade someone to preserve their life.

[zoot_allures]

The idea that "someday humanity will be free of war, disease, and poverty" is wildly optimistic in my opinion. I don't have any faith in Progress. Indeed, I think there's strong evidence that (1) many steps on the roads of civilization and technology have resulted in more poverty, more disease, lower living standards, shorter life exectancies, etc; and that (2) global societal collapse may occur in the next few decades.

What keeps me going? Well, there are lots of things about life that I enjoy. For me, there are far more positives than negatives.

[Let's Get Free]

Knowing that it'll be over one day.

[Art Vandelay]

Hm mostly what keeps me going is my seeming inability to end it. Like Valter said though, the idea that I may one day get to shoot capitalists and fascists in their face is definitely motivating. Alcohol and drugs help me get through the days too. Books. I don't know really. Non-existence has always seemed like it would be peaceful to me, just like a never ending nap.

[ComradeOfJoplin]

Coffee & doughnuts

[Os Cangaceiros]

The idea that "someday humanity will be free of war, disease, and poverty" is wildly optimistic in my opinion. I don't have any faith in Progress. Indeed, I think there's strong evidence that (1) many steps on the roads of civilization and technology have resulted in more poverty, more disease, lower living standards, shorter life exectancies, etc; and that (2) global societal collapse may occur in the next few decades.

What keeps me going? Well, there are lots of things about life that I enjoy. For me, there are far more positives than negatives.

There's strong factual evidence that humans have been experiencing progressively longer life expectancies since the industrial revolution. There's also a pretty strong argument to be made that humanity is in general a more peaceful species than we were 1,000 years ago...(by that I mean that less people die violent deaths per capita...the 20th century definitely experienced the biggest wars of extermination the world has ever seen, but it was offset by a population boom)

[zoot_allures]

There's strong factual evidence that humans have been experiencing progressively longer life expectancies since the industrial revolution. There's also a pretty strong argument to be made that humanity is in general a more peaceful species than we were 1,000 years ago...(by that I mean that less people die violent deaths per capita...the 20th century definitely experienced the biggest wars of extermination the world has ever seen, but it was offset by a population boom)
Here's what I said: "many steps on the roads of civilization and technology have resulted in more poverty, more disease, lower living standards, shorter life exectancies, etc"

Both civilization and technology existed long before the industrial revolution. They existed long before 1000 years ago, too.

Reductions in life expectancy and general living standards came with the Neolithic Revolution, and then again when we began living in cities. Both of these developments brought much more work, poorer and less stable diets, and proliferation of disease, to name the primary problems. See for example "Health and the Rise of Civilization" by Mark Nathan Cohen and "Plague's Progress" by Arno Karlen for discussion of these issues.

It's widely accepted in anthropology (and has been for decades) that hunter-gatherer life is reasonably good compared to many cases of civilized life.

Admittedly, for those of us living in reasonably rich countries, this is probably one of the better times to be alive. I love my current life and I wouldn't want to give it up. But I don't think that there's some mystical force of history called Progress that's brought us here and that guarantees that things will keep getting better.

[Os Cangaceiros]

So you're talking about something that happened when humans began gathering in towns and cities, and abandoned the hunter gatherer lifestyle? The technological advances I'm refering to w/ the industrial revolution seem a lot more relevant to the present day than the agrarian revolution. Humanity is never going back to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

I actually do believe in something called "progress". Personally I think that the technological advances of the modern era hold much more promise than looking back with misty-eyed nostalgia at an epoch of human history that took place thousands and thousands of years ago.

[zoot_allures]

So you're talking about something that happened when humans began gathering in towns and cities, and abandoned the hunter gatherer lifestyle? The technological advances I'm refering to w/ the industrial revolution seem a lot more relevant to the present day than the agrarian revolution. Humanity is never going back to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

I actually do believe in something called "progress". Personally I think that the technological advances of the modern era hold much more promise than looking back with misty-eyed nostalgia at an epoch of human history that took place thousands and thousands of years ago.
I'm interested in thinking about all of human history rather than restricting myself to the last few hundred years. I think that's the only way of determining how much faith we should have the very recent progress we've seen. It seems to me that things sometimes get better and sometimes get worse. I don't think there is, in the long-term, a trend of increasing improvement.

What exactly makes you think I'm "looking back with misty-eyed nostalgia"? (I described hunter-gatherer life as "reasonably good compared to many cases of civilized life".) Nor do I want to go back to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (in fact, I explicitly stated that I wouldn't want to give up my current life). Even if I did want to, at this point, it just isn't possible.

Our modern technological advances do hold promise - I never denied that. The massive population boom that modern technology made possible perhaps suggests that there's something fundamentally different about it. However, I'd make two points here: (1) although modern technology has in many ways matched or improved on hunter-gatherer life, in other significant ways it still hasn't: for example, an average working-class person living in modern Britain works more than an average hunter-gatherer. And (2) we face a variety of serious problems which could lead to societal collapse. Blind faith in Progress isn't at all helpful here. Technology has done great things - but we're beginning to pay extraordinarily high costs.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I think most of the problems of industrial civilization or whatever has to do with social attitudes, like viewpoints towards property, sexuality, work etc. There are some who think that these views are simply intrinsic with class society, the agrarian revolution and the rise of the early state (and that the Marxism most people on this site advocate for will not solve these problems, because it will not abolish labor, merely regiment it in a new way), but obviously I don't agree with this analysis or else I couldn't hold the beliefs I do.

But yeah, there are times and areas of the world in which standards of living decline, things get worse etc. But the fact that we can gauge this means that we can also gauge when things get better, and that's progress. Progress manifests itself when people stop storing corpses in their drinking water, etc. That kind of stuff is important.

[zoot_allures]

I think most of the problems of industrial civilization or whatever has to do with social attitudes, like viewpoints towards property, sexuality, work etc. There are some who think that these views are simply intrinsic with class society, the agrarian revolution and the rise of the early state (and that the Marxism most people on this site advocate for will not solve these problems, because it will not abolish labor, merely regiment it in a new way), but obviously I don't agree with this analysis or else I couldn't hold the beliefs I do.

But yeah, there are times and areas of the world in which standards of living decline, things get worse etc. But the fact that we can gauge this means that we can also gauge when things get better, and that's progress. Progress manifests itself when people stop storing corpses in their drinking water, etc. That kind of stuff is important.
Oh, I definitely don't agree with their views. I'm not a primitivist or anything like that. I think primitivists do have some interesting things to say about civilization, but I just as often find their criticisms unconvincing (and as a program for future change, it's utterly absurd - returning to a Paleolithic way of life is impossible, because humans have changed the planet so much since then. In my opinion, we need to work to develop new technologies and we need to figure out how to apply technology in radically different ways... current technology is not "ideologically neutral" but that doesn't mean we can't direct future technology to better ends).

There is such a thing as progress. By almost any standard you want to use, progress does happen sometimes. But there are many people who seem to have a real faith in it - they think that, in general and in the long-term, life has been getting better and will continue on doing so indefinitely. I don't share this faith.

[skitty]

What keeps me going? I can't think of anything better to do!

[Althusser]

Though it might sound selfish. Hopefully living to see the day..... and being right in the thick of it.

[doesn't even make sense]

Habit

[Mr. Natural]

I keep going as I understand the organization of life, community, and revolution, and persuade myself that it might be possible to introduce, develop, and practice a revolutionary organizing theory at RevLeft.

This usually seems to be a forlorn hope, though, and so I got myself a hella good dog!

My red-green, dogged best.

[cyu]

Anger.

I would love to say idealism, or wanting to save the world, or helping my fellow man, but to be honest, when it comes right down to it, I find I'm most motivated when I'm pissed off - and it's usually something I can attribute to the capitalist system and the power structure it forces on me. Even when it's not capitalists in my personal life that's pissing me off, people attempting to shove pro-capitalist opinions down my throat does pretty much the same thing.

[Karabin]

It just seems like the right thing. I often hear things that I find absolutely disgusting and abhorrent (Such as private international airports and hospitals, for an example) that other people find normal. I don't see how anybody could possibly want to live and work in a system where they are commanded by a director/manager and have no real part in the decision making process of their enterprise.

[citizen of industry]

Watching workers organize collectively, seeing solidarity, and fighting, win or lose. Real people, real class struggle. The ideas and effort that go into the fight, the pain (and scorched earth mentality) when it loses, the joy when it doesn't.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

A laundry list of mind-altering substances, love, learning and self-created superficial happiness.

[Crimson Commissar]

Because as much as I might sometimes love to be able to "just stop caring" and live life as carefree and obliviously as I did some 2 or 3 years ago, I just don't see myself ever giving up my beliefs when so much about the world in it's present state disgusts me on a daily basis.

And like Cyu said a few posts ago, anger and other strong emotions play a large part in it too. I'm not known to have a very good temper and I have to admit this plays into my personal beliefs sometimes. But I feel like this also creates a lot of passion for the ideals that I stand for and the experiences I've had, and therefore provides me with motivation.

And I'm not the type to get to the point of depression over politics anyway, not yet at least. I've never known anything other than western neo-liberalism and capitalism, and I wasn't alive to see the revolutionary struggles of even just a decade before my birth that ultimately failed. So for now I'd say I do pretty well with myself, even if things might not be all perfect all the time.

[helot]

I see little point in providing some post-hoc justification for continuing to live. My heart beats and my blood flows, that is more than enough to continue.

[TheRedAnarchist23]

Videogames! And spreading anarchism, which is something I love to do. And getting into huge discussions with marxists here on revleft.

The first one helps through rotine, the second one feels like I am accomplishing my duty of teaching my "anti-statism of farcical proportions" and getting as many people as I can to be anti-fascist, since getting them to be anarchist is much more difficult. The third one reinvigorates my dogma, and makes me realise why I did not become an anarchist. Above all I never want to end up as an extremly dogmatic marxist.

Also, heavy metal music to help me think.

[hetz]

Hope for a change

[TheGodlessUtopian]

The belief that this world can be so much better than it currently is, that someday there can exist no arbitrary hatred between humans and all social vices can be eliminated. Life under a just system where we live one with the earth and advance technology ending poverty, ignorance and disease.

[Human Lefts]

Sometimes I laugh a lot; other times I like laying in bed under the blankets and rubbing my feet together. Every once in a while, I hear a joke that I want to tell others about. My favorite is when people try really hard at something they are terrible at, but aren't scared of failing. It tells me that it's not a big deal and what matters is that you feel good about yourself. Oh, I love pizza parties and when people are ridiculous. I saw one of the worst presentations today and couldn't hold my laughter. This guy would literally put a slide up, read and memorize it, then tell us the information on it, no more no less. So, there was a pause every time he changed slides. The idea that an audience is wasting their time paying attention to that crap seemed so absurd. Everyone would have been more productive if they would have spent that time holding their breath.

Looking at what I wrote, I live moment to moment. Sometimes shit sucks and other times it's good. Either way it's shit, so whatever. The guy in the pool is a nihilist.

[bifo_161]

Keeping going is in our essence innit. constantly striving for the good life and hoping to see the grass on the otherside someday. enjoying the immediacy of events and losing oneself in those.

[ellipsis]

I feel way more fulfilled when politically active. I like being around comrades.

[Benjamin Check]

Large amounts of marijuana. Sometimes I get so upset with the complaceny and acceptance of the status quo that I can't even sleep, which ironically, is how I found this site. I'm getting more and more pissed off at society as a whole. The greed, the lies, the hypocrisy, the false morality.....it's really getting my goat.

[Beeth]

I'd like to thank everyone for responding. It helps one understand how different we all are, how different things motivate us from time to time.

[GoddessCleoLover]

Hope that things will change.

[Thelonious]

My children.