{"id":10118,"date":"2016-05-22T17:39:51","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T17:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/?p=10118"},"modified":"2017-05-13T17:16:03","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T17:16:03","slug":"0566-one-must-imagine-sisyphus-lol-ing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visakanv.com\/1000\/0566-one-must-imagine-sisyphus-lol-ing\/","title":{"rendered":"0566 \u2013 one must imagine Sisyphus LOL-ing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life, particularly in modern civilization<\/a>, is an absurd circus.<\/a> We\u2019re all clowns living in boxes<\/a> trying to amuse ourselves in the face of inevitable<\/a> death<\/a> and meaninglessness.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s additionally absurd is that we go through a lot of trouble to avoid facing up to this fact. We avoid discussing it with children because we don\u2019t want to scare or frighten them. We avoid discussing it with our families at the dinner table because it seems rude or impolite. [1]<\/p>\n

Albert Camus wanted to discuss it. He wrote an essay titled The Myth Of Sisyphus<\/a>, about a wise, prudent mortal condemned by the Gods to the most miserable of punishments\u200a\u2014\u200afutile, hopeless, meaningless labor. He was cursed to roll a large stone up a hill, have it roll back down, and repeat the process for eternity.<\/p>\n

Camus uses a lot of words to make a subtle point\u200a\u2014\u200a\u201cIf this myth is tragic, that is because its hero is conscious. Where would his torture be, indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him?\u201d<\/em>, and \u201cThe workman of today works everyday in his life at the same tasks, and his fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.\u201d<\/em> I agree with all of that.<\/p>\n

Camus then goes on to try to make the case that Sisyphus should be happy. <\/em>And this is where I think it devolves into wishful thinking. \u201cAll Sisyphus\u2019 silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him.\u201d<\/em> Really? It doesn\u2019t quite persuade me. I think Camus was getting a bit romantic and prescriptive here. The essay ends with \u201cThe struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man\u2019s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In my earlier reads of the final quote, without the context of the rest of the essay, I misread Camus to be saying that Sisyphus MUST be happy. Only on later, closer reads do I realize he\u2019s saying that WE should imagine Sisyphus happy, for the sake of our own emotional and psychological well-being. Existential Comics riffs off this idea amusingly by introducing gamification<\/a>\u200a\u2014\u200aSisyphus enjoys his meaningless task once meaningless numbers and trinkets are added to the game. I think this captures how most humans deal with the meaninglessness of reality in practice [2], but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s exactly what Camus was trying to do. I think Camus was trying to explore a question that he supposedly raised elsewhere\u2013 should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee?<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If we go back to the Myth of Sisyphus essay\u2013 the honors, gamifications, epaulettes, all of that is distraction from consciousness of the fundamental absurdity of human existence. If Sisyphus enjoys the stickers and stats on his stone, as Existential Comics suggests he might, then he\u2019s (probably) distracting himself from the absurdity of his situation. [3]<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I think: I think that happiness is too much to ask for. <\/strong>I think happiness is a by-product, it\u2019s something that\u2019s realized<\/em> rather than pursued. [4] I think wanting to be happy all the time, trying to be happy all the time\u2013 I think that\u2019s a sort of madness. It\u2019s a very unfair, unrealistic expectation to have, and it guarantees dissatisfaction. A full, rich life would have all sorts of experiences and emotions associated with it. Sometimes we\u2019re happy and sometimes we\u2019re sad, and the sadness is every bit as important as the happiness.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re perpetually sad all the time, we might want to ask why that is, and whether we\u2019re okay with that. If we\u2019re not okay with that, then we might want to do something about it\u2013 change the setting, change the frame<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember who was it where I first encountered the idea\u2013 it might\u2019ve been Elon Musk or some writer or otherwise ambitious or entrepreneurial person\u2013 someone who said that happiness is subtle, fleeting and difficult to pin down, and it\u2019s much better to navigate by excitement. If you\u2019re unhappy (maybe because you\u2019re having a bad day, or a rough time, or you\u2019re tired), but you\u2019re excited about something, then you\u2019re probably doing alright. If you\u2019re happy, but you\u2019re not excited about something, chances are your happiness will fade sooner or later. It\u2019s more complex than that, of course, but the point is that if you have something to look forward to<\/em>, then life becomes less of an ordeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Parallel to that, I\u2019ve come to believe that the only enduring, sustainable response to absurdity is humor. To be reductive about it, either we laugh or we cry, isn\u2019t it? Either it\u2019s a tragedy or a comedy. And finding humor in something is incredibly powerful. If you can laugh after tremendous loss and suffering, after experiencing grave trauma and whatnot, then I believe that you\u2019ll be okay. I mean, you\u2019re going to DIE (sorry), and everything is ultimately meaningless, so you\u2019ll eventually cease to BE at all. But if you can still laugh, then you\u2019ve still got a chance to enjoy the life you have left\u2013 even if it\u2019s painful, difficult, unfair, miserable and so on.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying we should allow ourselves to be miserable, or that we shouldn\u2019t work to correct injustice, or that this justifies suffering. We should reduce suffering wherever we can. But suffering is an unlimited, renewable resource, so there will always be more of it down the road. Like the man cursed by the Gods, we will always be suffering. One must imagine Sisyphus LOL-ing.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

[1] A person could go through their entire life from cradle to grave without ever really thinking very much about how ridiculous life is, or how and why he does what he does, towards what end, for what purpose, in what greater context. Religions are convenient here, and remove a lot of the difficult thinking and grappling required.<\/p>\n

[2] Steve Yegge wrote a great essay about gun collecting and token economies in Borderlands<\/a> that applies here, and Richard Feynman spoke similarly about honors and epaulettes<\/a><\/p>\n

[3] Caveat: It\u2019s possible to simultaneously enjoy the game AND recognize that it\u2019s only a game, ultimately illusory. Alan Watts talked a lot about that. A lot of people choose to do just one or the other\u2013 either throw yourself into the pleasures and riches and pursuits of material existence, or try to forsake and abandon all of it altogether through a life of asceticism. The latter can itself become a sort of attachment to an ideal\u2013 the pursuit of a spiritual goodie rather than a material goodie.<\/p>\n

[4] And there are many parts to happiness\u2013 fulfillment, meaning, flow, pleasure. Each of those things have different variables that influence it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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