What Constitutes a Wasted Life?

Do you believe that one's life can be wasted? What would constitute a wasted life?

Do we have the right to deem someone else's personal time or life wasted?


These are not intended for bullet-point answers particularly, just general prompts...

There is an answer to this, but I'll have to address it a few hours hither...

Thank you for bringing this up, Vicki

A younger me would have said that a wasted life was one where a person did not pursue happiness at all times. Yes, life isn't all fun and games, but one should and be willing to go through hardships in order to follow their passions, dreams, and make their life better.

Now, this answer seems more complex. The Force is with us all and guides us. So, as a Jedi, no life is wasted. We may not understand the meaning of a person's life, but each and every one serves a purpose. I don't think that purpose reveals itself until much later in life.

I used to think my life was wasted. (I was still young, so much of my life ahead of me. I was foolish ) But then I learned that it was my doing and my example that saved one of my best friends from ending her life. She now pursues her dreams and is happy. I now, previously being single af, now have a beautiful woman who loves me. In essence, if you feel your life is a waste, follow your bliss and see where the Path takes you... you just may find your purpose later down the road.

In short, a life, in my eyes, is not wasted until you decide to waste it. And even then, as a Jedi, that conscious choice to "waste your life" may just be what the Force has in mind for you anyways, thus ensuring you complete your purpose. One should, I believe, constantly strive to better one's own life... but that is just my opinion on the matter.

As per the second question, no, no one has the right to ever deem someone else's life a waste of life. Furthermore, as a Jedi, we must honour all life, and to deem someone else's life as a waste is to do it a dishonour.

*waves at everyone, points at self, laughs slightly to mask self-doubt*

I dont believe any life is wasted. We never really know whos life we may influence even just by being around.
I also dont think we can judge anothers life. what we might see as a wasted life may be seen differently. Its perspective.

Even going down the wrong path isn't a waste if we learn and grow. Even if we think we gain nothing, in the future we may see what we can not see right now in the moment

Concepts cage something in a frame of reference, and have measures of utility (usefulness) from the resultant relative nature of that association. In effect I'd say they form a nature of measurement. That measurement represents the relationship, but not the 'worth' of either necessarily beyond that relationship. So yea while it might be quantitative in its nature and therefore analogous with a 'value', it is conditional IMO (and therefore limited).

So as with any measurement, its only as accurate as its least accurate scale - and that limitation cannot be ignored for accuracy also defines a loss of resolution within the frame of reference! So on two counts we have limits to the applicability of it, and that assumes the frame of reference is adequate to begin with!!

And its possible to even reverse engineer that above mechanism. to try and improve the 'result' by changing ones frames of reference and exploring new worldviews and lifestyles - knowing the concept of result itself is relative, in search of a better 'view' of past, present and future. We cannot change the past, but we can change the way we look at it. So I'd wonder does changing the 'now' in that way change the worth of the past.

Adder wrote: We cannot change the past, but we can change the way we look at it. So I'd wonder does changing the 'now' in that way change the worth of the past.

I was going to reply to this myself, but then I remembered I've wasted my life watching a lot of movies and reading a lot of books, so I'll reply with a quote from somewhere else! :silly:

Sally Jupiter wrote: Everyday the future looks a little bit darker. But the past, even the grimy parts of it, well, it just keeps on getting brighter all the time.

Edit: I also recommend every one play the game Passage (It's free, I'm pretty sure you can either download it or play it online)

Edit: Apparently I've also wasted my life playing a lot of video games.

Edit:

Katsuomoto wrote: The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.

Of course, the above has

Katsumoto wrote: Perfect. They... are all... perfect...

as his dying words, so there's onions there.

I personally think what right do we have to judge another's life? If one is happy in what they're doing, whether it's spending all their spare time doing charity work, or spending it playing games on their sofas, then what is it to anybody else? The only time a life is wasted is if you believe that you are wasting your life by not doing what you feel you want to be doing. Otherwise, it's just the judgement of an irrelevant person.

I say no, because our concepts and definitions are relative. However I do wonder about usefullness, are those who are not contributing to society useless or 'wasted'? Is the Monk so sits in meditation and writes nothing down provide nothing to society, are they a waste, or useless? Is action needed to be usefull?

I'm home now, the elections are over and France has a new president...

From an almost orbital overview of the question "What constitutes a Wasted Life ?", I'm tempted tonight to say rather blithely : "trying very hard not to waste one's Life."

But I'll be a little more sincere than that. There is really only one way to truly waste one's life and that is by killing oneself. Now, naturally, I'm not talking about euthanasia in the cases of terminal and painful physical illnesses from which one is going to die almost assuredly anyway. All that would be is wasting the opportunity to live a very limited while longer and miserably in pain. It would be a Waste (the ruin of) one's Life to cut it off short merely out of disappointment about something that we considered an opportunity that never comes to fruition. But therein is probably more the focus of the question : "what are our wasted opportunities ?"

As with any question, approached philosophically, we need to come to an agreement about what our terms denote : what is it to "constitute" a Life ? What do we mean by "to Waste" (and more specifically, 'to Waste one's Life') ? What is our "Life" ?

Last things first : when we are talking about our 'Life' in this sense, we are more likely concerned with the phenomenology (rather than the biology) : what our "life experience" feels like to us. That is a pretty vast playground ; there are something like seven nebulously (in)distinct branches of "phenomenology" to get a good run and jump at. So, let's just leave it as "what opportunities do we think - if chosen and properly executed - will make our lives "not Wasted" ? Then again, luck and experience (empiricism) aside, how capable are we of recognising such opportunities ? There are some choices that are easier to make than others with respect to what we think will make us happy, but even these aren't fool-proof. If I order a pizza from the menu in a restaurant, then I have effectively "wasted" the opportunity to have something else... It is a bit like the German notion of Futterneid (literally "food envy") when we feel that others are enjoying their food much more than we are enjoying our own selection. Of course, this doesn't apply to only food choices, but to all the things that we do not choose to pursue. Food is pretty easy ; one could just go back to the restaurant the next week and order the menu item one didn't order the last time. There, the "Wasted" opportunity isn't so tragic. But, say I were to envy someone's success in a domain - sociology maybe - that had been laid before me at some point and I refused it, thinking that "now just isn't the time" or "I'll surely find something better later on". This can provoke a pretty severe case of existential angst -- and there you go : we're back to phenomenology.

These sorts of "Waste" (namely "wasted opportunities") are not necessarily a "Waste" of one's whole Life. Any choice we make "wastes" all the opportunities that would have arisen from the things not chosen. And when one really gets a good surrounding of the question, how do we know what pitfalls we could/couldn't overcome along those Life-paths ? We may not have as much to envy as it appears : the coveted menu item that your friend was having seemed so much better than my pizza -- 'til later that afternoon when he fell terribly ill with food poisoning (just an example), or the sociologist who hasn't been published in forever because Humanities Funds are dried up (yes, even university professors get existential angst !) In short, every taken opportunity wastes another one. It isn't that others do not have aspects of their Lives that we would like to enjoy in our own, but it is truly a very rare human being that has an overall enviable Life. Furthermore, even when we feel that we would certainly like having their problems instead of our own, we're forgetting that to them, those are still big, nasty, ugly - perhaps devastating - problems they have to deal with (and maybe consider suicide over). And now, once again, we're back to phenomenology ...

A funny question that I was pondering during a brief moment that I had to "ponder" this topic this afternoon was : what do we mean by "constituting" a Wasted Life ? Does a Wasted Life have a "constitution" ? Does Life in general have one ? But that constitution is going to be merely perspective ; it is going to be drawn from a pool of hegemonic, culturally/socially/educationally/Et Cetera-lly inculcated influences about what is desirable ; it is going to be our value judgements about what we experience - even the choices that we have to or get to make and their consequences (...and back to phenomenology )

So, basically my answer is that nothing Constitutes a Wasted Life. Just by being Living Beings of, in and with the World, we are going to go through some existential angst (Erklärungsnot ~ not having any clear answers to some big questions) that make us wonder from time to time if we haven't wasted - or aren't wasting - our Lives. But I feel that just being able to pose the question is a pretty solid indication that one does not have a duly Constituted Wasted Life. Do we cock up some pretty attractive opportunities and do we also make less-than-the-best choices from time to time ? Well, sure -- everyone does. Can we admit that happiness is not a static state ? that some things suck, but they won't forever ? can we have some faith that other opportunities will come along if we're not trying to build castles in the clouds to the extent that we don't see what is right in front of us ? Long story short, Humans have been "laying waste" to things ever since we got down out of the trees... even 'laying waste' to humanity itself. Some things about Life are bound to be Wasted, that is just part of being human at all. But we are never going to find that thing that is going to make us immortal, permanently happy, totally fulfilled nor put an end to all our wanting the experience of Life to be richer. Riches don't do it, Lovers don't do it, Status doesn't do it ...

... and it is in pursuing the ersatz of the Non-Wasted Life that provides the firmest Constitution of one that may be eventually considered (mostly) Wasted.

"Serve God,
Love me
and Mend." ~ Much Ado about Nothing, Senior Benedick (to Beatrice), Act V, Scene ii