To live with some intention, each person must find a meaning for his or her life. Without this meaning life becomes just a series of automatic biological actions, endlessly repeating.
1. The most common meaning is survival, to find enough to eat and avoid predators and natural disasters successfully. This is the most basic level of life, and one that still is the basis for many lives in this country despite the accumulated wealth of the entire country. Components of the economy contribute to this level of meaning, and can have significant economic rewards for doing so. Agriculture and farming, manufacturing and production of goods, healthcare and production of healing substances, housing and construction, —-all these activities are important contributors to the basic level of survival.
2. The next most common meaning is to be part of a supportive social group. This group may include family, local community, religious organization, social organizations, or other groups which share common interests and values. This is rarely in itself the only meaning a person experiences, but is a very important one as indicated by health measures, and the effort made to sustain it. It has been terribly fragmented by the recent pandemic and quarantine. All social and political activity is part of this level of meaning, and is available to persons at any social or economic level depending on the structure and organization of the society.
3. For many, the meaning of life after survival becomes “living the good life”, which means some combination of choices about food, recreation, travel, home and accumulated possessions including clothing. The definition of “good” varies with economic status, opportunities, ethnic and cultural values, and personal choice. But it always implies material accumulation of things. The wide range of this meaning from the exalted life of Pharaohs in Egypt and French 17th century kings to the limited options of minority choices in ghetto communities. The increased sale of non-durable consumer objects for decoration or entertainment is the most obvious example of this lower end. With the advent of digital communication, some of this has shifted to selection of digital choices, which can be delivered by a consistent device, but vary in content. Though more varied, there is no indication that this provides a “more significant” basis for meaning.
4. All religions provide the next level of meaning in life. They combine three features: 1) a set of standards for interpersonal behavior in this world, 2) a solution to the questions of how the world came to be, and what happens to the person after death, and 3) a collection of socially ritual behaviors to reinforce commitment to these beliefs. Religions like Communism provide a similar model, as do cults and other variant forms. It is tempting to scale religions along a measure of viability in evolutionary terms, but the data suggest that other factors are also important.
5. The highest level for meaning in life is the ability to live a life that creates meaning about being alive in the world. The traditional method for this is to participate in some aspect of arts and culture which articulates an expression of meaning in some formal aspect. Although much of this can be “accumulated” in #3, the creation of it goes beyond accumulation, to a different level.
Everyone must choose the levels in which they participate, and how they define meaning for themselves. Failure to do this creates an empty automatic life which is experienced with despair. On the other hand, an obsessive attachment to a particular mode of meaning, as in obsessive collecting of specific objects, narrows the range of meaning and leads to emotional frustration in other ways.
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