What is life's greatest illusion?

[Let's Get Free]

What do you think is the greatest illusion in life?

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

That it has any inherent meaning.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

The self as anything other than the expression of that which is external to it.

[Brutus]

Religion, as it tries to give life meaning. Well, it did at first

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

Innocence? I remembered that from Skyrim, but it actually makes sense.

[The Intransigent Faction]

Free will!

[LOLseph Stalin]

That capitalism works :laugh:.

[Skyhilist]

Free space and linear time.

[Let's Get Free]

For me, it's that any of this is important or relevant. This is not nihilism, it is the very fact that nothing has any intrinsic value, the fact that nothing is important, that all all things are so beautiful.

[Jimmie Higgins]

http://files.myopera.com/Dava/albums/170157/Moller%20Franz%20Illusion.jpg
Cleverness and originality.

[Mackenzie_Blanc]

The greatest illusion is that there aren't limits on human knowledge and ability to interpret the material world(ex. Nagel's argument of what its like to be a bat).

[Rafiq]

Humanity. Humanity does not exist in the way the term is thrown around. Take a look around too close and you'll find we're no less apes than our chimp friends, as far as appearence goes. I hate this notion that the rest of the hominids are just some kind of "other" from which we are related in some way, as if it's some kind of small side fact you'd read out of some game's loading screen. Seriously... We are hominids. But I am being unfair I suppose, this notion of "humaaanity" is a recent development as a result of Bourgeois liberal humanist multiculturalism with a sprinkle of post 90s religious wipeass.

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[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Once, I went to get a vegetarian hotdog from the hot dog cart in front of the bus station in Toronto. The guy running the cart asked me if I was vegetarian, and I told him I was. He asked me if I smoked, and I told him I didn't. Then he told me, "You have passed life's greatest test." It was weird.

[Sinister Intents]

Reincarnation for me, I do believe in reincarnation but I look at it as more recycling of energies and nothing religious or magical.

[Taters]

Innocence, my brother.

[Pelarys]

This
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYa0y4ETFVo

Or half full martinis glass, why would you fail me like that alcohol, why?

[RedAtheist]

Belief in all powerful magic beings (who just happen to male according to every monotheistic religion.)

[Decolonize The Left]

The self as anything other than the expression of that which is external to it.

This, but taken further to the point of the self as anything other than a linguistic phenomenon.

[DoCt SPARTAN]

Religion. My opinion you live your life for something which I believe is not even real!

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Humanity. Humanity does not exist in the way the term is thrown around. Take a look around too close and you'll find we're no less apes than our chimp friends, as far as appearence goes. I hate this notion that the rest of the hominids are just some kind of "other" from which we are related in some way, as if it's some kind of small side fact you'd read out of some game's loading screen. Seriously... We are hominids. But I am being unfair I suppose, this notion of "humaaanity" is a recent development as a result of Bourgeois liberal humanist multiculturalism with a sprinkle of post 90s religious wipeass.

Since we haven't discovered or created other intelligent life, it seems to me that "humanity" can be defined as the largest possible social grouping, especially nowadays thanks to the increasing spread of communications technology.

That is, if humanity is being defined as something more than simply the sum total of H. sapiens...

[Philosophos]

The greatest illusion..... Oh boy you are messing with my head and I won't be able to sleep again.....

Well it must be the illusion of controling your life... You might die from a car accident, but if the other driver wasn't late for work and driving like nuts because he had a fight with his wife the previous day because their son didn't have good grades and he was yelling while she was trying to be supportive, you wouldn't die in the first place. At the same time you wouldn't have died if the kid was just studying. Also you wouldn't have died if the teacher of the kid wasn't an asshole, something that makes the kid less interested in his subjects. In addition you wouldn't have died if the teacher's parents weren't shitty too and if they didn't mess up their kid.

It just blows your mind if you think of it that there are so many variables that if we knew them we would be schizophrenic right now...

[sixdollarchampagne]

The biggest illusion I have encountered (though a strict Marxist would probably immediately list religion as the biggest illusion), is the notion that the existing political system will give us the solutions we need via this or that pro-war bourgeois plutocrat. There were actually people in the Socialist Party, during the year I was a member of the SP, who wanted to liquidate the party's election campaign in the year 2000, in favor of Nader, the multi-millionaire, union-busting creep. One part of this illusion is the incredible patience of most US working people (in my experience) with the imperialist, pro-war Democratic Party.

* * *


Reincarnation for me, I do believe in reincarnation but I look at it as more recycling of energies and nothing religious or magical.

About reincarnation (which I hope is an illusion, given the way animals are treated, even in prosperous societies like ours [e.g., you can't spring a dog from a doggie jail/kennel with his testicles intact]), I spent a lot of time, a year and a half, helping take care of a remarkable very large dog, and that creature had "interiority" – he had preferences, moods, emotions, memories (e.g., he was jubilant when a friend of mine found the dog's lost Tickle Me Elmo doll), an awful lot of the equipment that makes up personality.

[Orange Juche]

That Santa brings presents to the asshole kids too.

[AConfusedSocialDemocrat]

For me, the inevitability of socialism, or some Hegalian end point of history where freedom is ultimately realised.

[markb287]

What do you think is the greatest illusion in life?

I cannot speak of the biggest illusion, but the most pervasive one, I believe, is the belief in causality. It appears so fundamental to the way we think and speak that overturning it is supremely difficult (yet, I believe, do-able).

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I cannot speak of the biggest illusion, but the most pervasive one, I believe, is the belief in causality. It appears so fundamental to the way we think and speak that overturning it is supremely difficult (yet, I believe, do-able).

How is causality an illusion? It doesn't seem very illusory to me, what with causes always coming before effects.

[Ele'ill]

42

[Raúl Duke]

The biggest illusion in the world is the whole "life having meaning thing" which it appears it doesn't.

But when it comes to society, I feel the US's illusion is what I call the "special snowflake." Everyone thinks they're so special, meaningful, etc and believe in things like we can be happy if we will it, "everything happens for a reason," "one true love even if it's rocky/difficult (which equals exciting and passionate)," "my opinions matter/are important," "you can make it!," and so on. All sorts of trite messages, coming out of the mass media and intrenching itself in people under the surface; the spectacle. Although maybe it's a generational thing, either way it's something I noticed.

[Nevsky]

I believe that life's greatest illusion is the autonomy of the individual or the faith in human free will. For example, in a liberal-parliamentary democracy there is supposedly freedom because no government is imposed and the peole can vote freely from a number of choices. What the liberal forgets is that the individual voter is not truly autonomous in his "free decision" as he is not correctly informed about the consequneces of his action. The majority of the people in my country vote for politicians who represent exactly the contrary of their personal beliefs. Why? Because the private owned media pollutes their brains with prejudices.

An individual who isn't really aware of his/her options cannot be considered autonomous in his decisions, thus, "freedom of choices" - even though the individual is not restricted physically - is a myth for the most part.

[markb287]

How is causality an illusion? It doesn't seem very illusory to me, what with causes always coming before effects.

Causality is an illusion because it is not something we actually can experience. It's something we "reason" or believe that we experience (e.g. the force of a rolling bowling ball "causes" the bowling pins to fall down), but is not constitutive of how we actually experience reality.

Reality doesn't operate according to a principle of causality, but a principle of expression. The force of the rolling bowling ball hitting the pins doesn't "cause" the pins to fall down (whatever that means). Rather, the force is the falling down of the pins in relation to the rolling bowling ball. In other words, the force is the expression of the relationship between the rolling bowling ball and the stationary pins. It doesn't "cause" this relationship; it is expressed by it.

However, this illusion - of cause and effect - is so pervasive throughout Western thought (science, philosophy, politics, social interactions, etc.), that overcoming it will be one of our greatest challenges.

[Rafiq]

Since we haven't discovered or created other intelligent life, it seems to me that "humanity" can be defined as the largest possible social grouping, especially nowadays thanks to the increasing spread of communications technology.

That is, if humanity is being defined as something more than simply the sum total of H. sapiens...

Humans are definitely unique, but there is definitely a problem in our conception of humanity. Of course we are a geological factor. But we are not an "external force" regarding animals, we are ourselves animals. The essence of humans as a geological factor is not some kind of "Free will" but a result of an accident.

[xTsengLIVEx]

What do you think is the greatest illusion in life?

Innocence, my brother. :hammersickle:

[Green Girl]

What do you think is the greatest illusion in life?

If you work hard you will be rewarded.:rolleyes:

[Rafiq]

If you work hard you will be rewarded.:rolleyes:

What about bizarre conspiracy theories?

[skitty]

That anything, beyond mind, exists?

[Comrade Nasser]

Liberals

[Johnny Lawrence]

That it has any inherent meaning.
Besides the meaning you choose to give it. So says Sartre.

[Lobotomy]

Humanity. Humanity does not exist in the way the term is thrown around. Take a look around too close and you'll find we're no less apes than our chimp friends, as far as appearence goes. I hate this notion that the rest of the hominids are just some kind of "other" from which we are related in some way, as if it's some kind of small side fact you'd read out of some game's loading screen. Seriously... We are hominids. But I am being unfair I suppose, this notion of "humaaanity" is a recent development as a result of Bourgeois liberal humanist multiculturalism with a sprinkle of post 90s religious wipeass.

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I see this especially in the liberal section of the environmental movement. They are always talking about humans as if we are some external force being thrust upon nature instead of actually being a part of nature

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Besides the meaning you choose to give it. So says Sartre.

Well yeah, one can give meaning, but don't expect the universe to validate whatever meaning one chooses to impose on life. The universe doesn't exist for our pleasure.

[Comrade Alex]

The greatest illusion of life is that we are all different that minor cultural, religious, and language differences justifies the idea that we are all different and with this illusion racism classism and all the destruction and hypocrisy of capitalism and conservatism come about
And with this life itself becomes an illusion

[Deity]

Currency

[Slippers]

Free will perhaps?

[Diogenese]

The Spectacle

[Desy]

Dubstep being considered as music.

[Rafiko Bingo]

Democracy.

[dēmistĕfī]

First is the illusion of existing community. Communism is the formation of the community.

A close second is inherent meaning. Our self-activity provides life with meaning.

[Rayper]

This, but taken further to the point of the self as anything other than a linguistic phenomenon.

[TheYoungCommie]

Childhood, That is all.

[UncleLenin]

Innocence? I remembered that from Skyrim, but it actually makes sense.

Dawnstar Sanctuary door, this popped into my head instantly.

[boiler]

Religion and the belief religion creates that just except the bad in life because it will be ok when you die because you will go to heaven and all the bullshit and crap and misery will be worth putting up with in life.

[nizan]

Whatever the answer may be to this question generally suffices to my ends. No, it is not the formal appearance of illusion that intrigues me, as much may be found anywhere, it is rather the formulation in the response which is of note.

[The real Fabians]

That life has to be hard

[LovingEmbrace]

that what you are experiencing now, in front of the pale light of the computer screen, can be called

life...

[Comrade Jacob]

The ignorant idea that we are all so unique and are the ones that are REALLY important, not like those over there!
It quite sad really.

[DOOM]

probably the illusion of "owning" ground.
Our planet belongs to everyone, property does not exist, nor does it have a value.

[cyu]

That the FBI and the rest of the US security state is defending the interests of the American people instead of just trying to justify its existence.

[Sorry, couldn't resist. Yes I realize any nation is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things =]