Meaning of life, short discussions

Anon: Hello. I wanted to ask a question, what's the reason for living? I've been looking into this, and, can there even be a reason other than happiness and pleasure? Meaning maybe? But to my knowledge meaning gives happiness, so it's just happiness in disguise.

 Me: The reason for living is whatever you make it, the meaning of your life is what keeps you going and why you think you are here

Anon: Yes, but that's not really what I am looking for... For example, if we imagine life being a videogame, why should you play said videogame? Just a very simple question but it's important.

Me: The reason you play said videogame is for whatever in the game makes you want to play. Despite the fact that we are basically forced to play it we keep going for one reason or another that makes the game worth it to continue

Anon: I am trying to figure out if happiness is the only rational goal in life. It really appears to be so. It isn't a bad thing, I am asking this because if it's rational to seek happiness, why is it rational to sacrifice said happiness? To get more happiness later, sure, but beyond that?

Me: The way I see it, the meaning of life is what gives you happiness, and that it’s something you hope to do because it fills you with happiness and meaning, and your meaning being happiness itself is a good meaning and I can’t say it’s not because I still believe everyone is entitled to make their own meaning, so yes, if you believe happiness is your meaning, you’d be correct.

Anon number 2: Happiness should be the goal of nobody. Happiness cannot be achieved by positioning happiness as a goal in and of itself.

Anon: Well, that isn't the consensus among philosophers in my knowledge. I've seen this argument before.

Anon 2: Bourgeois philosophy is dumb. Also, who cares about consensus in philosophy, lol?

Me: Do you want to make your opinions based on a consensus? Thats just forcing yourself into a group blindly without thinking about why you think that, not actually giving your own beliefs any thought. 

Anon 2: Philosophy is not a straight line from ignorance to knowledge. Nothing is. Not everything is logical formulae or an argument.

Anon: No, that is just a good baseline. I am not ruling out this just because it goes against the consensus.

Anon 2: It is not a good baseline unless you are bourgeois and thus mainstream philosophy and the consensus therein is serving you.

Me: Why do you consider the consensus to be a “good bassline?” Is it because thats how you start your thinking? Or is it that you need to feel the thinking of a certain group? I dont get what youre trying to say but if you want to start thinking critically, youre going to have to rid of this whole “consensus” and it being a “good bassline” process, because nothing critical really comes out of that

Anon: Alright, consensus wasn't my argument, so I do not wish to dive into it now. I get what you're saying though, and I guess that can be true. Anyway, clearly some happiness can be achieved by setting it as your goal. The real question is, is putting happiness as your goal detrimental to maximizing it? I believe that it's not the case. At least, you can have happiness as a goal in the back of your head, from which your other goals come from. So, you would have a goal of getting a job, but that's because you wanna get happy. I've been thinking like this for a long time now, and I don't feel unhappy or anything...

Me: I guess that no, setting your meaning as happiness would not be a bad thing, and I cant argue with you if or if not you decide to set that as your meaning because everyone should choose that meaning.

Anon: In my mind, there are different layers of meanings. The first one is your current short-term goal, the second one is your long-term goal, and the third is happiness. I believe that ultimately, that is the only reason for existence.

Anon number 3: I think there are bad meanings of life to choose - if I got to the end of my life and discovered that I had just caused misery for myself and others, I think I’d have regrets

Me: The idea of a meaning to life doesn’t mean good or bad, and the double edged sword of the fact that anyone can choose their own meaning of life means that it can be anything. The meaning of life is not a matter of morals, just again why you keep going.

Anon 3: Well presumably it’d be better to choose a good meaning

Me: Yeah obviously lol. Everyone should try to choose a meaning that is a good one, but since everyone can choose their own, you would always have that bad option.

Anon 3: Ah, well I agree there, people are certainly able to choose bad ones - can’t argue with that

Ending it here just because after this it becomes not about the meaning of life but instead the validity of choosing your stances based on your own thinking versus claimed experts and professionals. Also I didnt participate in that convo because I didn’t say anything since it wasn’t interesting to me LOL.