I gave up trying to find any external, prepackaged meaning to life many moons ago.

Religion was the first to go. No matter how you approach religion it requires a faith that I just don't have at the end of the day. That is why the word faith is used every other word in any religious tract. Add guys in robes that are holier than thou and know stuff you don't and I'm out of here. I actually envy people who have a strong, simple faith. It must make life simpler and easier to live, but I would be faking it, and God would hate that. Anyone who tells you they know what happens after you physically die is either lying or guessing. Period. End of story.

Politics was next to go. All political theory has basic, contradicting flaws. Looks like the best we can do is a constitutional republic and rule of law, and even they have a limited shelf life and tend to devolve. Large groups of not very bright people tend to choke on freedom and express it in all the wrong ways. But at least it does keep the state in a temporary state of homeostasis and slows the decay of an empire down for a bit.

I have gathered up a pitiful little pile of pragmatic principles I picked up off the street through the years. They have served me well, but I am not the kind of man that builds and maintains vibrant societies and cultures. I am a parasite by nature, the flea on civilization's dog, the cockroach Ippolitovich Komarovsky stuck between the earnestly romantic Yuri Zhivago and the rabidly political Pavel "Pasha" Antipov / Strelnikov. I need you all to live by and believe in your illusions, uh, I mean steadfast truths! Without you I am nothing, comrades.....