A while ago I outlined the importance of having two positions on something at the same time. In that spirit I will now write a post that has a completely different position from the two previous posts, about pointlessness, and more pointlessness. The position of this post is that sometimes you just want there to be a point to it all. Sometimes you want to be connected to a grand scheme in which all the trials and tribulations of the world have some deeper meaning that makes it all not as bad as it might seem.
The simplest method would be to have the great point be that everything exists so that we can love one another. If you can manage that point without getting further I suggest doing that and not reading further. However, many of us when wanting there to be a point want not only a point but that point to be the result of a plan, which requires a planner. otherwise it's just like we're making up the point for ourselves, and that wouldn't be much of a great plan, would it? So the grand scheme often needs a grand schemer to be really emotionally satisfying.
Many, in fact most, people have such grand schemes that they use on a regular basis, but these schemes generally have problems with them such as the problem of evil, or being based on a book that is internally contradictory, or that make claims that are false, such as that if you sincerely pray it will be answered, or that those who believe in this scheme are more moral than others. When trying to solve these problems either one must go through some rather convoluted intellectual leaps to avoid thinking about the problems, or one is left with less impressive schemers with limits on their abilities, or failings in their characters.
My grand scheme borrows from Hindu concepts of the highest form of art being a play, from my principle that the best life is a good story, and from the knowledge that everything we conceive of as real is simply a creation within our own minds (that is probably based on some other level of reality, such as the material world.) My grand scheme is that we have a grand schemer of noble attributes, a thinker and a dreamer of the most awesome and amazing kind. This thinker spends their time deep in contemplation of possibilities, and not just any possibilities but in the contemplation of the greatest art that could be possible. This greatest art would be a moving, living thing in which there are the most dastardly villains and the most pure heroes, the most bawdy gypsies, and the most ridiculous prudes. The piece of art would of course be the highest form of art, the play, in which everyone plays a role for the betterment of the story. The scale would be vast, and the scenery jawdropping. Within this story would be billions of smaller stories, and stories about stories, and even self-referential stories that would have the idea of the great schemer and his scheme.
My grand scheme is that reality consists of this idea of this great schemer. Reality is a work of art of the highest order, a grand story put on as a play by all of matter. There is evil because without evil no story is that interesting. People are flawed because flawed characters are more interesting.
Where do we fit in this grand scheme? Well, we are both the performers and the audience in the grandest art of all. Our role is to notice the great piece of art, the story, to really appreciate this reality in the same way as we might appreciate a Van Gogh at The Louvre. Our other role is to play our parts as well as we can, what ever that part might be. And how dull would it be if everyone was a saint, and everyone agreed, and no-one was a bit naughty once in a while? The two roles are in somewhat of a contradiction, but that is one of the facets of art, a certain suspension of disbelief in order to appreciate the art is necessary or it isn't art.
Feel free to use this grand scheme when you need a point, I think it's a doozy.
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