Reply to How Much is Your Life Worth?

*I couldn't figure out how to put the label on the comment, so I'm reposting my reply here.*

“Most would say [life is] priceless yet we are constantly putting a price on it.” I totally agree with you here. People are always worrying about how other people are spending their time and whether they're doing it the “right” way, while not considering that everyone is different. What is valuable to one person may not be valuable to another. Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

But since value is arbitrary, who’s to say what it is? I would say every individual. There will always be social contexts to base one’s judgment on, and those can definitely come in handy. Everyone wants to feel accepted in his or her society, and if people have to conform to some standards to be accepted, so be it. But it’s dangerous when people conform so much that they lose their true sense of self. And that’s why I argue against the idea of one strict value on life and how to live it.

Of course it makes me sad when I think someone is wasting his or her time when he or she could be "living life to the fullest"--but why do I get to say how that person should live his or her life? I don’t, so I shouldn’t try. The people I’m disagreeing with may very well feel they are living their lives to the fullest. I think it's an interesting thing to think about. And I also think it's important, because once people realize that everyone views life in their own terms, they become less judgmental. It’s hard to judge someone once you think of him or her as having equal rights as you. And we each know WE should be allowed to make our own decisions about what to do with our lives! Why not apply that idea to others? Amazing things could happen if everyone got to that place.