[Link] Peer-Reviwed Piece on Meaning and Purpose in a Non-Religious Setting

Growing up myself in a communist regime, I am curious about how much of the contribution of the clubs to "meaning and purpose" was their intended function, and how much was a subversion of it.

Some context for those who didn't have this experience -- imagine living in a country where, as a first approximation, all poweful people are paranoid, and everyone else is depressed. So there are many rules to make sure that no one is doing anything that could potentially be a threat to the people in power, but also most people only do a half-assed job in making sure the rules are followed. From the paranoid point of view, every activity is suspicious, unless planned and controlled by state. But most of the time, the control was super lazy; the supervisors usually didn't have faith, they merely wanted to stay out of trouble.

To imagine how it was, if you would try to make a LW meetup in a communist country, most people would discourage you, saying that it's either illegal, or you can get into big trouble even if it is technically legal. (It was perfectly normal for the regime to make something officially legal, but then punish everyone who participated.) On the other hand, you could subvert the system by saying that you want to invite a group of friends to discuss e.g. how Soviet Union is the best country of all... and after getting the official permission, you would in fact organize a LW meetup, and if everyone would keep their mouth shut, no one would care at all. (Actually, some bureaucrat would be happy that you helped them to fulfill some quota on bullshit activities; and even if the bureacrat would have a suspicion, they would probably let it be because they wouldn't deeply care. Worst case, they would require you to send them notes from the meetup, and you would make up some stuff.) The government would provide you a place to meet, and possibly even a little money for your activities.

For example, I was a member of a mathematical club, which officially was a part of the "pioneer movement", which officially was a youth organization preparing future Communist party members... but in reality, we mostly did math. And when we had debates that provided us some "meaning and purpose", they were often the kind that could get us (and especially our club leader) into big trouble if someone would find out. So, it was kinda supported by the regime, but only because we subverted the original purpose.

Firstly, I was really curious to know the content of this article because of the title until I read through this post, I like the way the writer expresses his idea on self-reflection on a sense of meaning and purpose, community bonds, and serving others. These combined do have a vital role in getting a purposeful life and by being rational following these I can achieve a lot of things hopefully..

There is a rather large pachyderm in the room: the communist ideology which provided non-religious meaning and purpose for a great number of people.

And if you want to talk about how rejection of this particular meaning and purpose pushed people into looking for alternatives at the small-community level, well, there are more interesting examples than student operas.