What makes you think you can’t leave a significant positive legacy?
You can get involved with your neighbors. Invest in your local community. Adopt an orphan or volunteer at a women’s shelter.
There’s a million things you can do to make a significant impact. Every person you invest in is another person who can go and invest in others.
This idea that anything that’s below the national or worldwide level isn’t significant is a cancer on society.
There are people who lived hundreds of years ago who, sure, you’ll probably have never heard of if you don’t live in the same area as me, but who have had huge impact on the community. The same is true for where you live. I promise you.
Bring your eyes down, and look to make your legacy local. I promise you it’s possible. And I promise you that it’s significant.
No. I’m here while I’m here, and I do my best to help people, when I can and am capable anyways.
There’s no stopping the clock, everyone has their time…
I think part of life is learning that there’s nothing wrong with living a simple/normal life, and that there is a beauty in it too.
ikr being a public figure and leading a high-stress life seems pretty hellish tbh.
“Rage against the dying of the light”…
… can look like being the best person you can be, for your own sense of morality/justice, for whatever you believe in, for whatever you feel is what, and how, a decent person should be.
Even if someone says that altruism is nonsensical or strictly meaningless/impossible, the fact that somebody even aimed toward it is remarkable nonetheless.
I’m gonna do it, I’m bustin’ out the Architect scene:
Neo
walks to the door on his leftchooses to reject the false dichotomy he has been presented.The Architect: Humph. Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.
Neo: If I were you, I would hope that we don’t meet again.
The Architect: We won’t.
No. I think too many people obsess about what happens after they’re gone rather than living their life to the fullest. One doesn’t need to make it into history books to leave an impact on the world around them.
The following is a story I was told as a child that I think puts some if this in perspective:
One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”
The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”
“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said, “I made a difference for that one.”
Lol, I’m probably dead in 30 years or less. I’m over half way there because of a major health condition I lost the genetic lottery on. It is what it is. I like to think I’ve raised a child capable of empathy, that’s all I can do.
Nope.
Don’t care about legacy either, just hope the people I care about have happy memories if they think about me until they pass away. No need for my memory to pass on to future generations or anything.
In a couple of generations all memory and signs of your existence will be wiped out anyway. Enjoying what’s in front of you now and doing the good you can for the few people you can affect is easily enough.
You know, I may not make a lot of difference in THE world, but I can make a difference in SOMEONE’S world and that’s how I live my life
Not really. It’s mostly old age I worry about - not dying.
I’m however slightly optimistic that I might be able to reach so called longevity escape velocity during my lifetime due to advances in medical science and life extension therapies.
I agree. Dying is way, way less scary to me than a slow decline with dementia or a long, painful battle with cancer. No issues with death, I just hope it’s quick.
I don’t care about leaving a legacy. I’m here to enjoy myself as much as possible in this very fucked up world.
Most everyone has an innate urge to live forever somehow. It’s an expression of our fear of death. They make children, or inventions, or buildings, or artworks, or whatever “legacy” they can think will persist after their death.
It’s natural to feel this way. We’re wired for it.
The cruel trick is that nothing lasts forever. We yearn for things we can’t have.
It’s not that hard to leave a significant positive legacy. It only needs to be person-sized. Did you have one pretty good child? Congratulations, you did it! Did you have, like, three good friends? Give yourself a big ol’ check.
These aren’t easy, but they aren’t in general un-do-able.
I don’t care. Our civilization will collapse, the earth will become uninhabitable and the universe will die at some point. So whatever we leave behind ultimately doesn’t matter anyway. I try to make life as enjoyable as possible for myself and my GF and try to be a positive influence for my friends, family, colleagues and neighbourhood. When it’s over, it’s over and I’m not going to worry about what I’m leaving behind. I’m an insignificant speck in the grand scheme of things and I’m just fine with that.
No kids and no legacy to worry about sounds quite good to me actually.
I’m kinda sad that I probably* won’t get to see how this story ends. Do we make it as a species? Do we end up in the Star Trek utopia, or do we wipe ourselves out with our own hubris? But I’m not sad of afraid of dying itself. My legacy will be doing right by my kids and hopefully setting them up to live better lives than I did, and I’m OK with that.
*If I do live long enough to see us wipe ourselves out that will be pretty shit, ngl.
I’m more upset about everything that’s going to happen in the far future that I won’t get to see
And I’m over here feeling dread on my children’s behalf for the same time period.
I may have, at one point. Then I realized that the only reason anyone leaves a ‘positive legacy’ is because they actively sought to paint themselves that way. In other words, they managed to trick you and everyone else into thinking that it was their singular will that manifested all of this positivity.
Positive legacies are not the product of any one person, they are a collective effort, and the collective shares both the credit and the spoils.
You have to keep in mind, what is a positive legacy? Is it simply being remembered? No, because I’ve surely planted many trees (I drop seeds where I go) — will anyone remember the man who dropped the seeds?
When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.
— God, Futurama
Depends on your definition of “significant positive legacy”.
If you’re drawn to the fame and notoriety of public figures as a template for this legacy, then I’d say these types of people already put their lives out in public for you to follow as a template. You will likely be seen as a narcissist in some circles.
On the other hand, many games and thinkers instill the rationale that you are the sum of your choices. Your karma - or action logic perhaps - will ripple around you with consequences - intended or not. These choices raise a new legacy of being an example.
A lot of people want to just live their lives in their own peace, make a living, do what they can to support their people. Such folks receive no fame, and no notoriety. They do everything necessary. There’s no thanks expected. But they make human life worth it. I’d rather be a part of this example.
Together
Everyone
Accomplishes
MoreIn many ways, we all entered the same game with the same example of team. We all wake up, work, transit. Everything has to come together in order for us to get back home safely. It has inherent value, and is a “legacy”. What I think of as “legacy” is also your heritage and your birthright. You inherited someone’s legacy to be possible and to be here.
There are forces that threaten this example. People who want to do violence to it, destroy it, pillage it, profit from it, you have to choose to protect it. They don’t want you to see your own worth. They don’t want you to see the value in others. They want you to stay small, and deny your heritage. How you protect this example, and the vulnerable, is up to you.
EDIT: I’m just using the terms you and they in a generic sense. I don’t literally mean you to single any specific person out. Similarly, I’m not literally talking about “they” like some kind of secret cabal reference. They is an ever changing reference to any kind of opposing force - be it person or system or effect.
