I can remember the first time when I had my hands on a book written by Albert Camus 'The stranger' It was a translated copy of his original work. I can still feel like what it feels like to be in the mind of the Stranger, who lost his mother. It was exactly what Albert Camus wanted us to feel. Dull Nill feeling of the absurdity of the life. After reading the book I can exactly remember I left with nothing, there was no message. Unlike happiness or sadness curiosity which are the outcomes of the other novels. However, there was nothing gained, nothing lost, by reading the novel. If it is like what you feel like about your life, I would invite you to read the rest of the article.
What Is absurdism?
Recently I learnt the term absurdism. You know what is absurd, wildly unreasonable, illogical or inappropriate. Absurdism is slightly different because it is the term used in philosophy to describe the belief that universe is irrational and meaningless. Imagine this is true, there is no meaning to the happenings in the universe. Then when a rational man tries to find the meaning of an irrational world there will be a clash. Which gives rise to problems. Can this be the root cause of all our problems? It is a good candidate. We will look at this idea further to better understand the world.
Now imagine according to the theory everything happening around you is irrational and meaningless. So, except for the process, which is happening in your mind now, everything else is irrational, this meaning, things including other living beings. This includes everyone else around you are irrational and there is no meaning to what they do. But if you look at yourself from their point of view whatever you are thinking rational and meaningful should be irrational and meaningless too. Is it true? Can we believe what you are thinking now is not logical conclusions about the universe that you made but only a fluctuation of energy in the chaotic universe?
Death and absurdism
In his book, 'The Stranger' Camus talk about death of the Stranger's mother. Where the Stranger did not feel anything, any remorse about mother's death. And during the course of the book, he killed a man. And he was imprisoned for this reason. Did he have any guilt on this crime? I was not sure he did. Death makes our lives absurd as there is no way we could know what is there, afterlife. Life seems to be a fluctuating buoy or a wave of the sea or a random walk, in between the birth and death. How are we going to find a meaning in between when the outcome is not so sure?
Albert Camus -Why absurdism feels so real?
We will do some case studies to find out why Absurdism, put forward by Albert Camus feels so real.
Case of Happiness.
Happiness is good when it lasts, but it often disappears so soon into a memory. So, the chase for happiness is always present. Even when happiness is there I can 100% be sure that it is going to change over time. Over time it will become euthymic and then at some point even turn into sadness. So, 'Pursuit of happiness' is there but not happiness.
Case of Sadness
Like happiness sadness is not going to last. I just compare the sadness, and what we can see is it is also going to change and become happiness. Even if you suffer till your death, death will create happiness then. (or the thought of death) Can you see, it's just the other side of the coin happiness. It just flips around seemly in a random pattern. So, the 'Persuit of the avoiding Sadness' is there but not Sadness, not always.
Similarly, if you look at the world carefully you will see there are lot of similarity. War and peace. Justice and Injustice, Faith and nihilism. We tend to argue about these choosing one over the other. Yet, it seems these are just two sides of the same coin.
What it seems to be true is the coin will be flipped in an eternal timescale whether we like it or not. Whether we prefer it or not. If it is not absurd what?
What if understanding absurdism is the meaning of life?
If this is true, there would be one thing at least which is not absurd. That is 'Understanding everything is absurd'.
Ok, maybe I have confused you enough for a day. If you did not grasp the core messages now is time to re-read. And if you ask me personally whether, I believe absurdism, I say no I do not. What each and every one believe is unique, but there can be only one truth in the world. It's our responsibility, to find this out in a lifetime. That what I believe is the true meaning of life, instead of racing for the moon.
Conclusion.
In conclusion, Absurdism according to some philosophers is the idea that there is no meaning to anything happening around us.
There are solid real-world examples to absurdism like, interchange of happiness and sadness in our lives, haphazardly.
Understanding true nature of ourselves is the meaning of life.
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