In 1942 Albert Camus wrote a book called “The Myth of Sisyphus”.
Camus describes those moments in our lives when our ideas about the world suddenly don’t work anymore, when every daily routine — going to work and back — and all our efforts seem pointless and misdirected. When one suddenly feels foreign and divorced from this world.
In these frightening moments of clarity we feel the absurdity of life.
Reason + Unreasonable World = Absurd Life
This absurd sensitivity is the result of a conflict. On the one hand we make reasonable plans for our lives, and on the other hand we are confronted with an unpredictable world which does not comply with our ideas.
So what is absurd? Being reasonable in an unreasonable world.
However, instead of denying that the world is unreasonable or abandoning reason all together, Camus suggests we should do three things:
1. Permanent revolution: We should constantly revolt against the circumstances of our existence and thus keep the absurd alive. We should never accept defeat, not even death, even though we know it can’t be avoided in the long run. Permanent rebellion is the only way to be present in the world.
2. Reject eternal freedom: Instead of enslaving ourselves to eternal models we should hold on to reason, but be aware of its limitations and apply it flexibly to the situation at hand — or put simply: we should find freedom here and now, not in eternity.
3. Passion: Most importantly we should always have a passion for life, love everything in it and try not to live as good as possible but as much as possible.
“Is It Worth the Trouble” by Ralph Ammer
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