The Work of Keeping Meaning Alive: 1 Meaning Does Not Persist

The Uncomfortable Claim

Meaning does not last.

It does not endure by default. It does not stabilise through repetition. It does not carry itself forward simply because it once mattered.

Left unattended, meaning decays.

This is not a moral failure. It is not a cultural pathology. It is not a sign of distraction or corruption. It is a structural fact.

Decay Without Opposition

Meaning does not require enemies in order to disappear.

It fades through neglect, through routine, through the slow conversion of attention into habit. What once demanded care becomes familiar. What was once open becomes settled. What once mattered becomes assumed — and then inert.

Nothing has to attack meaning for this to happen.

Time is sufficient.

Attention as a Finite Resource

Meaning persists only where attention is actively sustained.

Attention is not an attitude. It is not a disposition. It is not a trait. It is labour.

It requires effort, energy, and renewal. It is consumed by use and exhausted by repetition. When attention thins, meaning follows.

This is why meaning cannot be stored.

The Myth of Preservation

We speak as if meaning can be preserved — in texts, artworks, traditions, recordings, archives.

But what is preserved is form, not significance.

Significance is not contained in objects. It is actualised in relation. Without renewed attention, preserved forms become inert. They remain available, but no longer alive.

Preservation delays loss. It does not prevent it.

Why This Is Difficult to Accept

The idea that meaning does not persist is uncomfortable because it offers no security.

There is no guarantee that what matters now will matter later.

There is no mechanism that carries significance forward on our behalf.

Meaning demands to be met again — or it is lost.

Implication

If meaning does not persist, then its survival depends on ongoing work.

Not explanation.

Not justification.

Work.

The next episode will examine the nature of that work — and why attention, rather than insight or intention, is its primary cost.