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Outrage!

Life Must Be Understood Backward

by Cristina Cordova
posted on Dec. 07, 2007 - 10:18pm

Police have released a suicide note written by the 19-year-old Omaha mall gun shooter:

"I've just snapped - I can't take this meaningless existence anymore. I've been a constant disappointment and that trend would have only continued."

I'm always suprised by people who have the foresight to put an explanation in writing even after they've snapped...

Sure, we have no fields left to plow. We're no longer building anything (beyond a facebook page or a new website). We're no longer working for anything tangible (hence we've stopped working at all). We're... content? Content in this disaster.

Most of us could have written this note, probably, which is the frightening part.

But who ever said existence has to have meaning?

 

2 Reader Comments

Mai Laoshi (not verified)10:18am
Dec 11
"Who ever said existence has to have meaning?" I've always assumed that existence has to have meaning, and felt failure and despair during the times when life is so grief-laden or overwhelming that it seems without meaning. Is it possible that meaning is unnecessary? That you can just. . . live? (Is this a fundamental question of atheism?) I'm going to be thinking about this question all day. Maybe for the rest of my life. It's rather mind-blowing.
Cristina Cordova09:53am
Dec 12
If we accept that it may not have meaning, then we might not feel so much despair at the loss of meaning.

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