An Article About the World

I think this world is very weird, especially when you look at it through the eyes of an autistic philosopher. That is because of how absurd existence is, theoretically, along with the fact that most of us grow to accept it.

Philosophically, the fact that we just come into the world is weird. No one asked us whether or not we want to come into the world, and we are neither asked where or to which family to be born, what education to receive, or which genes to possess. We just do, without making sure we permit it, even if we could. We are all forced to initially live until we may carry the courage to do otherwise, and venture into the complete and yet inevitable unknown of this world.

What is even stranger about this world is that we are demanded to meet specific expectations, again, without caring about our consent. We are expected to behave appropriately, do our homework, and later in life, have a job and raise our own family. We are expected to repeat the same involuntary sequence we experienced ourselves, all to either be left alone or to try our luck at finding some happiness and/or meaning within existence, because we do not necessarily know better.

The thing is, no one tells us why all of these things are important. We are just told we need to do them in order to survive, even though we are not told exactly why surviving is important, let alone being born. We just have to accept that we exist and focus on the things we are required to focus on, whether that's work, higher education, or any recommendation of any authority we find valuable to us.

There are also many ceremonies and traditions the world maintains to preserve itself. These are minor or even grand events that we are required to follow and repeat day after day, again, without telling us why exactly. This is because philosophical inquisition is largely tiring for most people, as I have witnessed myself when attempting to figure out the answers to the world’s absurdity.

These traditions are just being done, usually every year, in an automatic-like attitude, mostly to mention something that happened sometime in the past, without necessarily asking ourselves why such rituals are necessary, when we can just remember them and carry on, like we carry on with everything else in life.

Thus, when you think about it, this world is very weird, very mechanical; a world that always advocates us to do things, to experience and to achieve things, without necessarily telling us why are these things are important to be done, to be experienced and to be achieved. Perhaps the biggest motive to many of us comes from the fear of being far from the norm of our society; to be too abnormal to be treated with the respect and appreciation we wish to receive from others, hence why we do what they say, so we won't be outcasted.

When the world does tell us about the motives of doing things, it always has to do about this vague definition of “success”. What is “success” exactly? How is it achievable? Why is it important to be achievable? The final result would be “to survive” - but why is it important to survive? What does “survival” even mean?

We are born into the world and we are told to do things as if we already know their meaning and their purpose - except we largely don’t. I don’t know why I should live a social life; I don’t know why I should “open doors” to new opportunities; I don’t know why being in my 20's is important for my success, when I already succeeded and am sufficed; I don’t know why I should continue to study after I finished school.

These are all valid questions, and there are no easy answers. Ultimately, it is up to each individual to decide what is important to them and what they want to do with their lives. There is no right or wrong answer, and there is no need to feel pressured to conform to society's expectations. The most important thing is to find what makes you happy and to live your life on your own terms.

I don't know why romantic love is such an important feature in human life. I don't know what it means to "be a man" when I'm already a man. I don't know why it's important to be happy. I don't know why I should be rich when I prefer not to. I don't even know why I should care about the personal and intimate happenings of famous people, let alone gossip about it to friends I don't know why I should be having.

Given the absurdity of life, and the general pretentiousness that it isn't, I find this world to be extremely weird. Because of this, I also find the world to be scary, because it seems that no matter how smart I will be regarded as, the world by large would still remain an absurd, illogical mystery to my autistic mind. What I am certain about, however, is that naivety is more of an obstacle in the quest of understanding the world, than it is of usefulness. Thus, innocence is, to a large degree, an enemy of the philosopher, even if it appears friendly.