Trigger Warning: Mention of Suicide
This article is entirely based on a piece of theoretical work by Albert Camus and only includes assumptions/suppositions about the Absurdism Movement that emerged as a backdrop of the Second World War.
With works The Stranger (1942) and The Plague (1947), Algerian-born French writer and philosopher Albert Camus concerns himself with the absurdity of the human condition. Camus, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957, has said that the philosophical origins of his work lie in ancient Greek philosophy, Nietzsche, and seventeenth century moralists. The essay “Le Mythe de Sisyphe” in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) expounds upon the notion of acceptance of the absurd. Albert Camus believes suicide to be the one true serious philosophical problem. He said that the fundamental question of philosophy was to determine whether life itself was worth living or not. Camus’ work was fundamental to understanding the Absurdist viewpoint in philosophy. Even though Absurdism finds its origins in the Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, in the aftermath of the Second World War, the conversation was revived as certain lines of philosophical thought from Existentialist theory (from which Absurdism finds its inspiration) were discarded by Camus in pursuit of the philosophy of the Absurd.
Absurdism and Nihilism both share the belief that there is no purpose to life. However, while Nihilists do not move beyond this fact, Absurdists struggle with the question of humanity’s need for meaning when the world, as it stands, lacks to provide one for us. This dilemma strikes an existential crisis in many, and the subsequent result is anxiety and/or depression. However, realizing that there is no objective meaning does not mean that the mind cannot locate subjective meaning in random moments of existence.
In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus uses the mythological figure of Sisyphus as a symbol of the human condition. Sisyphus is condemned by the Gods to roll a boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down each time he reaches the top. This eternal, repetitive task is absurd because it lacks inherent meaning or purpose. Similarly, Camus argues that human life is absurd because we constantly seek meaning in a universe that is indifferent and does not provide an inherent purpose to its beings. Sisyphus is Camus’s absolute ideal, his absurd hero. For Camus, Sisyphus holds bearing at the exact point in time where he pauses before returning to the plain to push the rock to the summit again. It is in this pause that Sisyphus is made aware of his absurd fate; he is forever destined to push the stone back, and in so doing, perpetually participate in this unending torment. It is for Camus, the hour of consciousness, for as Sisyphus takes the steps again and again, back to the plain, “Sisyphus is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock.”
The reason Sisyphus is a tortured hero is because he has consciousness. Sisyphus is wholly aware of his treacherous condition. And it is exactly because he is full of scorn for his fate that Camus imagines Sisyphus happy. In his rebellion, Sisyphus claims an absurd victory in the face of his nightmare.
The central question Camus poses is whether one should embrace the absurdity of existence or rebel against it. Suicide, for Camus, is the ultimate act of rebellion against the absurd. However, Camus argues against suicide as a solution to the absurd, suggesting that choosing death over life does not truly address the underlying philosophical dilemma.
Camus proposes that instead of succumbing to despair or seeking external meaning, individuals can revolt against the absurd. A man’s fate is of his own making; the struggle is what makes him human, and his actions are sealed by his death. One will always find burdens. Sisyphus raises the loyalty of the rock, i.e., towards one’s purpose and not to the Gods. The revolt of man involves acknowledging the lack of inherent meaning in life but finding purpose through one’s actions and choices. Camus advocates for a conscious and authentic existence in the face of absurdity, embracing the challenge of meaning-making itself. This happens to be quite phantasmagorical in itself.
“If the descent is thus sometimes performed in sorrow, it can also take place in joy.” Perhaps Camus’s greatest lines. Suicide very much lies in the territory of the absurd. Life is completely arbitrary and our decision to exist, live meanigfully, is entirely upon us. It is absurd to be in the dark, without an ascetic support or some form of entity guiding us through this sphere but that does not make it meaningless and it doesn’t make something not worth doing for it’s own sake. Maybe you just keep yourself going so that you can drink your next cup of chai at your favorite reading nook or keep going for the sake of petting every stray cat you happen to meet. Isn’t that reason enough to keep continuing? To keep on living?
I think it’s worth to keep fighting till the next time. I think there is something beautiful in that. After all, one must always imagine Sisyphus happy.