h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The universal truth is, sorry to be so unromantic, survival. We spend our lives trying to ensure our survival and the survival of the next generation. In doing this we have found the best and easiest way is through love, most things, from ourselves to the food we grow, animals we eat, our environment and even our planet thrive with a little tender care.
Survival is the ultimate truth, love just makes it a little more palatable.

Sorry to be conflictual welkinhorn but survival is what you do before you "live". When the notion of "truth" enters into the equation then the ensuing search for the meaning of truth sets survival in another context. I don't know if "love" is an adequate explanation either because to me "truth" is a single substance of variagated essence which one compounds and amalgamates with "honour" and "justice". If this is possible to do then all sorts of occulted "truth" becomes visible and the search becomes more than knowing where the closest Big Mac is to be found. I hope I'm not the only one who still reads comics.

Live Love Laugh and be Happy

tzadok

but surely you are both saying the same thing?

Yes, the answer to "whats life all about then?" is indeed survival (as far as I can see) but a far less stark way of saying the same thing is that what life is all about is life itself - not just at the level of survival with all its suggestions of a nasty, short brutish existence - but also at the level of enjoyment, fulfillment and love. Which can be for people, animals, things, art and - well, just life.

Existence, I think therefore I am? is that the 'truth' ? I am in a state of self awareness, although there's nothing to say a single celled amoeba isn't self aware, therefore my interactions with all things external to my self have consequence and reaction to my actions...it's better to have a life full of love, than say, hate (I'm sure you'll probably live longer if you do as well) but fundamentally I still think the idea is survival and certainly by trawling through popular media at the moment, everyone wants to be happier, healthier and live longer, in fact a standard a lot of societies are measured by is the average life expectancy of the populous.
All of the above is a round about way of saying, yes, love is fantastic, yes it would be great if we could all live lives full of love but I can see a future where our planet's resources are stretched to breaking point and an ecological breakdown of our environment is going to force us to face up to our truth, survival...