Reading George R.R. Martin's fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire offers ample opportunity for the modern reader to reflect on the many advantages he has over the characters depicted. Martin writes genre fiction, and the kingdom of Westeros includes dragons and witches and wights and other elements that mark it as not from our world, but he has mentioned in interviews that the inspiration for the wars that anchor the plots of the books is England's medieval War of the Roses.
Our 235 year-old experiment in representative government is not perfect. It is barely functional on quite a few major issues these days, but it is still a marked improvement from the days when serfs hacked each other to death because their respective landlords received conflicting messages from God regarding who should be king.
The only nagging complaint I have about the books is the relentless description of the various articles of clothing and accouterments that ladies and lords happen to sport during their feasts, jousts, trysts and beheadings. It would bother me far less if any of the characters happened to reflect even for a moment on the nature of their preening and warring and religious fanaticism and political intrigue and look either inward or outward to see the bottomless hole at the center of their brinksmanship. Then again, if they had the ability to reflect like that, they probably wouldn't be leaving each other's corpses strewn about the countryside for daws to peck at.
One time Luis had an existential crisis. He told me life was pointless. I kind of laughed and said, "I know. Isn't it great?" To be born at the end of history is a great gift. We get to vote and have a say in the decisions that govern our lives. We don't starve to death very often. We figured out a decent system for keeping our feces and drinking water separated. Compulsory religious fervor is limited to the self-selected saints. We get to look at the universe very clearly, comprehensive of our poor capacity to influence or control its workings, and play the ruleless, victorless game of life hard and clean.
Life IS pointless. This doesn't mean you can't have a good time though. As you said the fact that it is pointless is pretty great, because you can make of it what you will. Reality depends on your perspective. Since we each have our own unique one, it's up to us as individuals to figure out how to be happy and enjoy our fleeting interaction with consciousness.
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