Ultimate Quest of Life

Reading Reflection 1

The person we are today and the choices we make tomorrow are shaped by our individual experiences of success and failure and what we take away from them. Consequently, no two people are the same. However, we all belong to civil societies, which instill in us common generic social etiquette and ethics, which help us live in harmony with each other. The society we live in today also influences our lifestyles and our purpose, which in this day and age have become increasingly worldly and materialistic. Almost everybody is chasing after wealth, fame and/or power, which go hand in hand with the unsustainable use of our environment. Enough documentaries and articles have been released for us to know we are depleting our resources at an unsustainable rate, yet we continue to do so. Its already been predicted that most of us will die of natural disasters if we continue at this rate. Will material desires still be a priority in the face of death? The thirst for opulence is swaying people towards bending the rules, denying their moral compasses and essentially succumbing to corruptive behavior. Will climbing up the social ladder, earning all the riches in the world and living a life of luxury satisfy us in the end? You cannot have more power, fame and access to riches than a president of a nation. Lets take Saddam Hussien, the former president of Iraq, as an example. He had all the aforementioned, but he so easily lost them and his decease followed, in the form of an execution. Furthermore, when we realize that we need to look beyond materialism to be fulfilled, we begin to question what our ultimate quest in life is. What is it that we want from life and do we all want the same things, considering each of us are unique personas? One thing us humans all have in common is that hedonist motives fuel our behavior and actions. Thus, one may suggest that, if you are content with yourself when your life flashes before your eyes while you pass, you have...