Life can’t be lived subjectively

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Nowadays a lot of times it seems that most things are subjective and that and a good way to see this is that in TV shows in movies especially the the more modern ones it's like good and bad it's none of these concepts are objective and you see a flagrant example of this is in what's it called that Lord of the Rings shows rings of power something like that where the orcs which are bad in the the original trilogy and there's no way around. It's not like they could be good. It's no, they are objectively bad.

[00:00:39]Well, in this show, they're like, well, maybe they're not and maybe here's the backstory to them. And it feels like a lot of times it's things are always in this gray space of it depends how you look at it, depends who's seeing it's and it's never clear. It's never and you you know we can talk about morality right away but it's shown in this way in a lot of things and but you know looking at a very easy way to understand it's how the villains are never bad and the heroes are never good it's always oh but this was the backstory and oh maybe something happened that we don't know and the reality is that in real life I would agree that you know a lot of times things are not when we start diving into them are never black or white. You know, everyone that's good has bad in them.

[00:01:28]Everyone that's bad has good in them.

[00:01:31]And we can dive into these uh you know what these words mean. But generally speaking, you can look at things that way. And I understand and and sometimes it makes it interesting as far as art goes. It's, you know, it's good to explore these ideas. The problem is that even though we may interpret life in this way and we may be able to dive into these things in this way, this is fundamentally the opposite of how we act. Because when you look at your life, the act of acting, of choosing something, whether that's the size of your coffee that you are in Starbucks all the way to, you know, what what do you believe in? Do you believe in God?

[00:02:09]You not these more, you know, important topics. You're always forced to make a black or white decision. You can't just be here tiptoeing around. If the the cashier at Starbucks asks you, oh, what size do you want? You can't be like there. Well, in between the tall size and the whatever large size, there's potentially a lot of sizes. And you got to choose as the same way when your, you know, faith is questioned or when it comes down to it to do good or bad, you have to choose. Do you do the good action or the not good action, the bad action? You were forced, even though we can intellectualize everything and find the gray in between the black or white, black and white, however you say it, when you act, you have to choose. And in this act of choosing, there is no room for, you know, for these nuances. There is after. And you can interpret it after, but when you do it, you just have to do it. And you know in this manner it's where in my opinion comes the problem because we can look at the philosophers of old and they could spend all of eternity talking about the most minute details of life and never really get to a conclusion that would appease everyone. But then on the other side of of life the acting side of it well you just have to act. You just have to do.

[00:03:30]And in this manner, it may be interesting to go through these intellectual exercises and to see a movie where perhaps the villain is actually the good guy and all of that.

[00:03:41]But I say that, you know, not only have we had enough of that, and I feel like there's too much of of content, of entertainment, of things, everything in general that really doesn't stand on anything and doesn't really say this is good, this is bad. This is what I believe in. So much of it is it's kind of muddy water. It's not clear. It could be this, could be that. And I, you know, I'm a bit tired of that because when you live life and when you are, you know, the more you think about your life and the more you actually try to do something out of your life, you are called to put things very black and white or black or white, however you say it, which is what do you believe in?

[00:04:24]What do you stand for? What is white?

[00:04:27]What is black to you? What are your limits?

[00:04:30]And I believe that the more one tries to improve his life and by consequence everything around them and that tries to live a good life, well, the more you're you're going to have to step away from the gray areas. And you're going to have to know if this moment comes, what do I do? Or when that moment does come, what did I do? And was it good or was it bad?

[00:04:53]It's at the end of the day as I see it, it kind of boils down to that. And if you really get to the core of the problem about making everything subjective, which is perhaps the biggest problem we face now in modern societies, which is that oh my god, I'm missing the word that morality has become subjective and that you see people saying that again like how a villain can be good and the hero can be bad that they start questioning things that perhaps you'd never, you know, even consider questioning. And that, you know, it seems that something good or bad, it's not objective. But I do believe that us not having an objective standard for what is good and what is bad is perhaps the most damaging thing nowadays. And if you adopt this for your life, as in everything is subjective, you will do I'm not going to say irreparable damage, but you're going to do a lot of damage because you can if you assume that things are subjective, especially in a moral context, you can justify anything and you can logic your way to it. You you just can do it. Pick anything, no matter how vile, no matter how out there and crazy. And I'm not going to do it myself, but think about it and you'll find a logic way. You'll find some argument that kind of gets in there and then you can develop from there and you can do that. And again, I'm not here to claim how we should govern our societies or, you know, if we should what whatever would imply. And I'm not also not going to dive here into the deeper side of things of, you know, where does morality come from and how and you know how if something is to be created, well, whoever whatever creates this thing stands outside of it. So, and then we'll dive into God and all of these things that I believe in. But that was not my point here with this video today. The point here is to recognize that we can yap all we want and we can overthink things all we want. But at the end of the day, we have to live in a very black or white type of way. And we have to make choices and we have to make decisions that are, you know, there that they leave no room to interpretation because we are the ones that suffer the consequences of those decisions. And so what I urge all of us and myself too is to stop living in this gray area to think that oh it can all be good and could all be bad because it can't and fundamentally it can't because when we live our lives and we act and we suffer the consequences of our decisions we know if they're good or bad. Perhaps it takes us a while and perhaps we can't understand fully everything right away.

[00:07:35]But we can categorize it as if what we did with the information we had was good or was it bad regardless of the outcome because good or bad as I see it is also not about the outcome. You can do a lot of bad and get good outcomes and get money and get fame and all these things.

[00:07:52]It is not about that and you know it, I know it, we all know it. So what I urge us all is to to to really look at it for what it is. That since we have to live and make these choices and make these decisions that just have to be made and making one decision implies, no matter how inconsequential it may seem, implies that I'm not choosing anything else and I'm rejecting all the other possible decisions. Well, then I ought to think about what is governing my life. What am I? What is the north star that is guiding my decisions? What is good for me? What do I believe in? What do I stand for? What would I if it came to that? What would I die for? What is worth more than my life and just me preserving my life?

[00:08:40]We ought to all question those things because, and I hope it doesn't come to that, but it might. There's plenty of people all over the world in wars and conflicts and in much worse areas of of the world than you and me are that are having to make those decisions. and are having to be like, well, do I renounce my faith or do I die right now?

[00:09:02]What would you choose if that was you?

[00:09:03]What would I choose? And so, let's stop tiptoeing around these things. Let's stop thinking everything is subjective because it is not. And life cannot be lived subjectively. So I think it is about time that we really start thinking about it a bit more objectively.