A shared cultural system stabilizes human interaction, but is also a system of value—a hierarchy of value, where some things are given priority and importance and others are not. … In the absence of such a system of value, people simply cannot act. … Worse yet is the fact that the meaning of life without positive value is not simply neutral. … Because we are vulnerable and mortal, pain and anxiety are an integral part of human existence. … We must have something to set against the suffering that is intrinsic to Being.

Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antido…, loc. 83