Absurdity of Life

The concept of the absurd and the inherent meaninglessness of life.

Photo from The Public Domain Review

The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.

~ Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

Why do we not all commit suicide?

That seems to be the question at hand for many, and certainly for Albert Camus, a philosopher from french literature with the notion of the absurdity of life apparent in much of his life's work.

It is this question that Camus took to answer in his novel, The Myth of Sisyphus. There is something so absurd about life and the way it is led. We are doomed to pursue these nonsensical tasks, like pushing a rock to the top of a hill, only to have the rock roll back down once it reaches the top--every single time. And so, Camus would ask, what is the driving force at all, that leads us to an intrinsic desire to keep going, even as we know it contains the suffering that is life.

In the novel, he explores the absurdity of life and how life is inherently meaningless, and even then, that we create our own meaning in life. It explores how we need meaning, but that we are met with “unreasonable silence” from the world—and it is this that is the absurdity.

The task that is referred to in Sisyphus (pushing a rock) carries the implication that it is nonsensical and, in the end, does not matter. Even so forth as the rock will fall each time it reaches the top, he keeps going, knowing this. And then what? One might ask. It precisely shows the constant struggle that is life. We will always face the struggle and pain and suffering and hopelessness of life, and we are doomed to this very fate.

To see one's work destroyed in a day while being aware that fundamentally this has no more importance than building for centuries – this is the difficult wisdom that absurd thought sanctions.

~ Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

This is the time that Camus suggests that, if we accept our fate in pushing this rock and accept that it is meaningless, it is then that we can fully appreciate life, and actually approach this nonsensical task with joy and happiness.

He would suggest in his novel that we might approach our tasks with joy. We are all aware of this fate of ours, to deal with the pain of life, and yet, we keep going.

When Sisyphus accepts his fate of meaninglessness, the sorrow of pushing this rock vanishes, and he experiences happiness.

And even then, as we ourselves carry the constant struggles of life, we continue to keep going... and we continue knowing the meaninglessness of our fate.

It is this that is the absurdity of life.

Until next time,

Magnus