It’s just a fact of existence. You could be the most famous person of all time, and eventually everyone who has ever heard of you will either die or forget about you. I’m not saying it’s a pleasant fact, but it’s a fact, and seems pretty low on the list of facts about existence that are bothersome.
What am I missing?
Comments
📣 Reminder for our users
>1. Check the rules: Please take a moment to review our rules, Reddiquette, and Reddit’s Content Policy.
>2. Clear question in the title: Make sure your question is clear and placed in the title. You can add details in the body of your post, but please keep it under 600 characters.
>3. Closed-Ended Questions Only: Questions should be closed-ended, meaning they can be answered with a clear, factual response. Avoid questions that ask for opinions instead of facts.
>4. Be Polite and Civil: Personal attacks, harassment, or inflammatory behavior will be removed. Repeated offenses may result in a ban. Any homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, or bigoted remarks will result in an immediate ban.
🚫 Commonly Asked Prohibited Question Subjects:
>1. Medical or pharmaceutical questions
>2. Legal or legality-related questions
>3. Technical/meta questions (help with Reddit)
This list is not exhaustive, so we recommend reviewing the full rules for more details on content limits.
✓ Mark your answers!
>If your question has been answered, please reply with
Answered!!to the response that best fit your question. This helps the community stay organized and focused on providing useful answers.I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
something being a fact doesn’t really make it any easier to swallow. i think this is just really tied up in the overall fear of death that most people have. one day we, and everyone who ever knew us, will be gone, and that’s a difficult truth so people really like the idea of leaving a mark on the world in a more permanent way. everything that we’re doing with our lives being forgotten and rendered meaningless after we die is not a super uplifting thought for most people, regardless of how much our legacy and memory really matters in the grand scheme of things
We’re hardwired to not want to die. As humans we have the intelligence and knowledge that it’s certain that we’ll die no matter what we do.
So people cope about this by believing they will live on in an afterlife or through their legacy.
The village in Coco is really nice but when they no longer remember you, you have to leave.
People seem to have a lot of trouble with not existing in general, despite eons and parsecs of practice.
We still remember Plato and Socrates, DaVinci, and all of the Ninja Turtles.
Ego
At first the bonobos were irritated by the tall wall being built, but eventually they learned to enjoy the shade it provided during the warm Summer months.
The fear of death or being dead and gone can only exist while you’re alive. The thought ruins being alive, so stop worrying about it.
It’s not important as by then you’re nothing anyways
Yeah, I’ve never understood why people get so upset with things they can’t control.
I guess those people don’t believe in afterlife or inherit worth every human. So you need achievements of some type to justify your existence. Impacting lives of others can be seen as achievement
Ha! Jokes on you, nobody remembers me now!
People like King Tut, Julius Ceasar…I’m among the unbothered. The only people that matter to me are the ones I love. If you’re among the people who are bothered, do something memorable. It can be horrible, (Adolph Hilter), noble (Confuscius), scientific (Pythagoras)…just do something.
All we know is existence. People can’t really fathom non-existence, even those of us who accept that it’s a thing. All we know about every aspect of existence, from the smallest insignificant minutiae to the grandest cosmic questions, we know because we have consciousness.
When we die, consciousness is gone, and the universe effectively ends.
That’s a lot for some people to handle.
Because how else could you argue for trying at anything or not going complete existentialist
It doesn’t bother me. I’m a researcher historian so I have an idea somewhat of just how many people are not remembered but still lived meaningful lives (eta: at least in my areas of research).
I don’t care if everyone forgets about me now, let alone after I’m dead.
The only thing that bothers me is the possibility of a long, painful, lingering death.
I would like my future children and grandchildren to remember me but after that I don’t care.
I’m not sure but I do think Elon relates to this question 1,000% if he is popping up in so many X DM’s asking random women who seem to fit his standards if they will produce him another son.
Because we like to feel that our lives have meaning and a common sign of that meaning is being remembered and not forgotten. Eventually all people will be forgotten, some names have continued to live on, but who the person intrinsically was has largely been forgotten and with enough time their names will pass on from memory as well. Meanwhile, we may not realize the impact and difference that we have had or will have on others and the ways that we may be making a difference to others. To everyone you may be nothing but to someone you may be everything.
They’ve seem Coco
Given the inevitable heat death of the universe, everything we do is ultimately pointless.
I don’t know, I have always wondered about that too. To me, it feels like focusing on the wrong thing. HOW would you be remembered is more my thought. Did you leave the lives of others better or worse? Were you happy?
Noone wants to think they are so inconsequential
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
-Percy Bysshe Shelley
I heard one theory about the afterlife where you go to a waiting place after you die, where you stay until there is no one left on earth who remembers you. Then you move on to wherever you go. So I guess Genghis Khan is going to be there for a long, long, long time.
Some people truly think the world revolves around them.
We’re animals, and animals are hardwired to not die. This anxiety is literally ingrained into our psyche.
Also, we are a social species. It is also ingrained into our instincts the need to be perceived and remembered – if you’re remembered, your pack mates will share food, help you, watch over you when it’s your turn to sleep, etc. Being forgotten is a death sentence.
So, basically, dying + being forgotten = the worst thing a social creature’s instinct could possibly imagine.
I don’t understand either why should I care if I’m remembered or not. I actually prefer not to be remembered at all.
They are uncultured. Otherwise they would focus on upholding cultural memory type things like museums library and archives. Where even the most random uninteresting person can be remembered for decades.
Because being forgotten is how you bury someone a second time.
Tbh i would prefer to be forgotten as soon as possible instead of causing any pain to my loved ones.
Death gives meaning to living.
To fear death is to fear living.
Because as human beings we have a need to feel important and relevant and memorable. That’s why power is so addictive.
I have no idea. Good question. Most of us will be eventually forgotten. It doesn’t bother me one bit.
because we look for meaning in life in wrong places. we wanna be more than ourself but in a wrong way and forgetting about enjoying this moment that we have
I’m fully aware that, in the course of all things, I’m a nobody. I’m perfectly comfortable with that. I wish to be a positive element jn the life of my loved ones. If I’m remembered only by my family and friends, that’s good enough.
I don’t know, it doesn’t bother me in the least. I’m an introvert and I don’t even want people remembering me right now.
My wife and kids will remember and the interactions I have with them while alive will echo through eons in the interactions they have with others. My influence will live eternal but my memory will not, and that’s okay. I wasn’t meant to be here forever, I was just meant to be here right now.
Cheers, stranger!
Legacy means fuck all to me when I believe Earth and our species will expire.
I like the scene is midnigjt mass where we will live on it the ether in trees and shit.
Ego’s a bitch.
People invented religion to cope with the fact of death, making up stories about an afterlife that can never be proven and using misrepresented anecdotes to bolster their claims. Humans are natural story-tellers, and this is great for culture and bonding, but sometimes gets taken way too seriously, and now we have a plague of superstition in our civilization where acceptance of a magic invisible sky fairy can mean you live or die horribly. We make laws based on the opinions of this magic invisible sky fairy. We terrorize our children with threats from this fairy – whose ‘love me or suffer’ behavior and demands are exactly the kind of thing you’d hear from an abusive father or husband – and go to war with people who have a different flavor of fairy from our own.
The sheer incomprehensible pain and agony we have inflicted onto ourselves and others – all for the sake of a story that promises eternal life after we are dead – is astonishing.
But, that’s human arrogance for you. Everyone thinks they’re god’s special little guy and everyone deserves to live – and be remembered – forever. Some people go the extra step and actually do something that leaves a memory of them behind – inventions, discoveries, books/stories, black-listed infamy, becoming famous etc – but most just think having children is enough; pass on the name (important to men only, and why they’re so fking psycho about paternity and women’s purity) and genes.
Because most people aren’t ambitious enough to do anything noteworthy in this life. And that includes writing a journal on physical paper for future generations to learn about them. If you leave no “footprint” you will very quickly vanish from anyone’s memory.
I am Ozymandias, king of kings!
It empowers me. Everything I do and say will be forgotten, or at least everything but the most important things. Which shoe did great’great grandfather put on first in the morning? Exactly. Do what you want, the world will digest you as well, given enough time.
Because we are taught that we are special and yet most of us are just average normies living an average life. Average isn’t a bad thing it’s just a common thing
Don’t care, no one knew of me before I was born and same to when I die. Will I care about being forgotten when I’m dead … probably not…. Why because I’ll be dead.
Why?
Ego.
That’s also why it’s healthy to kill yours.
In this day and age because of the internet we will at least be remembered longer. Even for people who never use the internet, now a days you can at least Google their obit. Facebook accounts are often saved as well so you can at least see what the person was like.
There was an episode of The Orville where one of the crew members fell in love with someone from this century just from the contents of her cell phone. Much of our lives are on these things. This may not give us immortality because who knows how long the internet will be around in the future? It may be replaced by something completely different in a few thousand years. I guess it’s something though.
People who died in my family when I was little or decades before I was born long before the internet. I’m pretty sure anyone they knew are all gone too. I being the last in my family tree can only go back so far. I know there are some branches that will remain nameless and forgotten.
It doesn’t bother me. I don’t care about “muh legacy” or what will happen after I die because I will be dead. I’m just trying to have a good time while I’m still here.
I personally don’t worry about stuff that happens after I die. I’m dead then. Why would I care.
Like someone asked about what happens to my collectible stuff after I die – how will someone know what to do with them. Or that I should sell them before I get too old to avoid that. I just reply that I honestly don’t care as I will be dead then. Total “somebody else’s problem” to me.
Life is just a sickness of matter, as my high school biology teacher said a long time ago. That is quite good reminder of the grand scale of things.
A Funny store that is relevant. There was a big donation campaign for the repair of a local old sports arena and they wanted (demanded!) names of donors to make a marble wall of names there. I gave my cat’s name. My already dead cat is now eternal in that marble wall of names. I think the cat didn’t care either. It is really there in the wall of names as I once checked – all those names of people and then “housecat xxxx”. Well, he was a good cat. I still miss him.
Some people have a need for wealth, power and fame. I guess those people worry about such things.
Once the last person who knew you dies,you have been forgotten. Know body will ever care you exsisted
It is the most common argument i get when i tell people i am child free. They can’t fathom me being okay with dying and “leaving nothing behind”. Most people seem to have an obsession with feeling important.
If no one remembers me after I’m gone, my life didn’t matter.
I didn’t matter.
Because they live lives appealing to other people.
Never heard of this before. Is there any study or proof of this sentiment?
As for me, I want to be forgotten.
There are people who live their entire lives in a ‘forgotten’ state. From it, you learn how much your opinion of yourself means.
Self esteem might play some sort of role into that.
Not being forgotten is their way to never fully die. Their body may be long gone, but if they have a legacy they can live on in the minds of people who still live.
I understand it as way to cope with the fact of life that at some point you won’t be here anymore, and I know it has helped people that I know are dying because it means that they won’t just poof out.
The ego. Simple.
I guess it’s tied up with our fear of death, which is normal and an evolutionary necessity, we all know we have to die, but we know we’ll live on a little longer in other people’s memories… But not that much longer.
I do a lot of genealogical research, and I’m sometimes overcome with a sense of melancholy when it occurs to me that for some of these people I’m looking at in records, I may be the first person to pay any kind of conscious human attention to this person’s life in a very, very long time. Some of them had no children, or they have no descendants alive today, so nobody’s looking for them. Everyone who knew them or even heard anything of them second-hand may have died a century ago, they may not have a marked grave.
The only memory of them are a handful of administrative records, and the only reason anyone stumbled upon their existence is that I’m researching my fourth cousin twice removed, and they happened to be a lodger in their house.
My Dad never got over my sister dying at a young age leaving behind a baby. He begged me to remember her and talk about her. Her and and my children have a very sense of who she was. I have always told stories about her, funny ,sad, they know her favorite songs, food, best friends, and her regrets.
Too many motivation videos on YouTube
“Dust in the wind” isn’t even a good way of describing just how infinitesimally small we are…in reality it is only ourselves who have the power to create meaning in our lives.
If you want meaning in life you must be the creator of it. Meaning isn’t something that we are just given its something we create and define for ourselves and it’s why liberty is so important in our values…because we are the creators of our lives and our destiny.
It’s because people are driven by their egos. In reality we are about as inconsequential as ants.
A girl once asked something similar on a date. She asked me how I cope knowing everything I’ve made will be surpassed.
I answered saying nothing I have made could have been made without those before me, and that I take great comfort knowing that the work of those who come after me will be influenced by me.
Anecdotally, once I had kids, that feeling disappeared entirely. I’m not saying it’s rational or anything, but deep inside my soul I feel like I can’t really die because my kids will out live me.
Again, I know it’s not rational. I also don’t know if my kids will have kids or how long my blood line will continue, but I don’t really care. I just feel at peace that I’ve completed my small part of continuing human evolution.
I don’t want to die any time soon, but I don’t feel any sort of dread about it. And I don’t care if I’m remembered or not.
Yup, I’ve been through this line of thought. I was really stoned one day, randomly concerned about my mortality a few days after my son was born. I am more afraid of the length of time dying would take. I think it’s vanity, or something of that nature.
Narcissism thrives these days
I hope some of the projects I built will be around long after I die.
Im trying to be forgotten now
It does not bother me a bit.
I’m dead and I won’t care.
It would be nice to have things to leave to people but there isn’t anyone. I enjoy what I have and maybe someone somewhere will find or want these things I have.
I mean, you could always sell shitty copper…
You will be forgotten that is the case
I want to be nonexistent because I hate this world.
Yeah, I’ve always found that kind of comforting, honestly. The pressure to leave some grand legacy fades when you realize everything fades eventually. Just makes the time you do have feel more meaningful.
Being famous is in It`s way immortality. But Its very hard to achieve those things.
Doesn’t. I’m glad to be here now and I think when dead it won’t matter
I can’t care less unless it’s family/friends
Speak for yourself
There are some people that are very ego centric. Like all that matters to them is themselves. Normal people can’t even imagine it.
They realize they are not the main character of the story. That is deeply disturbing to some people who haven’t realized it before.