The Either/Or War
Updated: Jul 21, 2022
It is in the air...
Can you feel it??
There’s a fight for meaning going on.
Two different belief systems going to war.
On one side,
We have the people that believe that this life has meaning.
And on the other side,
There stands those that believes life is meaningless.
It’s a war zone,
And it's been going on for thousands of years.
Kierkegaard drew a line in the sand for us,
With his ‘Either/Or’.
We stand on one side,
sometimes, unknowingly-
and that side influences how we see reality.
These nihilist slowly walk forward
Unflinching
Like zombies
And the arrows from the other side
Pass right through them
Their stride never hesitates
For if life is meaningless
Then so is their death
Or so they think
They aren’t really fighters
They just are
And
They aren’t
It’s a black and white world for them
No room for the light
No room for the mystical
They rage against the mystical
And with their dead eyes
They stare straight through to the other side.
And across that line
Stand the believers
With their war drums
And their chants
With their flags
And their faces painted
They rage against the ‘Either’
The army of the ‘Or’
They find the meaning in life itself
With every breath
They believe
They are proud fighters
The rational and the objective bullets
Don't phase them
They press on.
But sadly...
The line stays in the middle
But with every era
It moves an inch
One way
Or
The other
Only little battles are won,
In this war of all wars.
It’s the war over the soul
The war over life
The war over death
It’s the war for meaning
And for thinking
It’s the objective versus the mystical.
Do you know what side you stand on?
Like Kierkegaard declared
You cannot stand with one leg on either side
You either
believe this life is meaningless
That we are just animals
With no special importance
And when we die
We die
And that’s it
Or
You can believe that the mystical does exist
And our lives do have meaning
If you believe
In anything
Bigger than yourself
Then you stand on the side of the mystics
This isn’t a war fought with our guns and our bombs
But with our brains and souls
I think I'll try to move that line an inch
With the time I’ve been given
For
I cannot ignore this war
If I do
Then the fight will kick down my door
And I will be another pointless causality
Of the forever war.
-C.H.