About meaning of life, so many people nowadays are just cynicists, crying about their life, how they are slaves of the system, pretty much depressed.
This is why I find the Character Ethics so interesting, values like:
- patience (everything of value needs time to create)
- compassion (reduce suffering of oneself and others)
- courage (standing up for your own beliefs)
- integrity/honesty (actually act on what you know/believe, what is knowledge/belief worth if somebody doesn't act on it)
- growth (growing to become more socially interdependent and independent/self-differentiated)
- excellence (only in a specific field, since nobody can know everything, resulting in interdependence)
- service (actively helping a cause, which increases the wealth of society and always comes back to oneself)
- potential (everybody starts small, it takes effort to grow)
- nurturance (help others grow and release their potential)
If ones character has those values, that person simply can't be a slave by definition. Rather being a interdependent part of the whole.