no lullabies

Well, I'm not going to lie to you. You're right; life is essentially meaningless, humanity is overwhelmingly horrible, you're not all that special, and things are mainly going to get worse.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There's all sorts of terrible things going on that you don't even know about. There are millions of people in the world whose lives make even yours look good. And I'm not just saying that to make you feel better - thinking about such things can make you even more miserable because 1) it may make you feel guilty for being so self-centered, and/or 2) no matter how terrible you already think the world is, it's actually much worse.

This is when I'm supposed to zing you with the "But cheer up!" twist. Sorry, that's not what this is about. This is about me not lying to you. I'm not trying to trick you into being happy again, or change your outlook, or give you a pep talk. This is just me saying: yes, you're right. There really is no fundamentally persuasive reason to be happy or hopeful.

Many people have no hope, and little enough happiness. Many people just keep going, without thinking too much about such things. Many people are so afraid of losing the shaky grip that they have on life that they make themselves satisfied with easy answers and distractions. Even thoughtful and complex people tend to end up with nothing more than overly complicated easy answers and distractions.

You only feel alone because you are alone. Whether you're actually isolated or surrounded by people, you're alone. Even if you're lucky enough to have someone whom you know and trust, they can still so easily betray, forget, or simply never really understand you. You're actually lucky in a way if they happen to die on you - which they certainly will, if you live long enough.

Because people die all the time, and you will too. There's no getting out of it. And, let's face it, there's no good reason to think that there's anything afterwards. You probably have a handful of decades to experience life, and the cruel irony is that it's both far too brief and yet also plenty of time to get acquainted with how horrible an experience it can be.

If you're not struck down prematurely by any one of a multitude of accidents and diseases, you will eventually get weaker and stupider, filled to overflowing with pain both physical and mental. If you thought you were lonely before, picture outliving the few people who have any reason to care about you, and being a pathetic, disgusting joke to most everyone else.