When you are young, deontological ethics are all you have. All kinds of adults tell you what you should and should not do, and you lack the experience to do otherwise. Unless you take a serious approach and read the good books, which very few people read in their life, much less at their young age. In summary, you lack the perspective to define your own values, call it autonomous ethics, intrinsic, Übermensch, or whatever you prefer.
When you are old, “you know better”. You have accumulated the experience of a lifetime, you can predict the consequences, and you can judge actions based on their consequences, even if in many cases you will not be facing them. If you are really old, any long term planning is purely altruistic. From a purely egoistic perspective, any and all ethics are meaningless when the end of your lifespan is imminent.
Some people transition from the former to the latter. Some are stuck in one of the two. Both are the result of a lack of perspective. A proper perspective should be valid at the time you are born and at the moment of your death. In my opinion, that perspective is given by ethics virtue (aretaic). At all times you are becoming and you are being, the only question is “who?”. It is a question to which several generations have been exposed at young age, with the caterpillar of Alice in Wonderland. “Who are you?”
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. — Matthew 7:16–20
You are what you do, for the good and the bad. Principles and consequences are important to guide our actions. Principles are important, as they set example, which leads and propagates indefinitely. Consequences are similarly important, as their consequences (higher level consequences) also propagate indefinitely. Both meet in actions.
We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.― Chuck Palahniuk
If the impact is not global, it may be local, and as local as it may be, its ripples may propagate further in time than some global but easily forgotten event, like most popular songs nowadays.
You are alive for a few years, that is your time to make your move, then you are an ancestor for the rest of the time of the universe, and it will be settled. Ultimately, it is as meaningful as you choose it to be. It is your life, and your choice.
