What Is Absurdism?
Have you ever heard of the term absurdism. No it has nothing to do with an instructional school for clowns. And speaking of clowns, no, neither does it have anything to do with our politicians. Absurdism is a term coined to reflect the writings of the twentieth century French author and philosopher Albert Camus, shown in the image above. It is the belief of absurdism that human beings exist in a purposeless, meaningless universe. Thus, according to the absurdism philosophy, there is something intrinsically “absurd” about the ongoing strivings of a human being to find meaning in their life. The absurdist remedies this tension between universal meaninglessness and the human desire for meaning by revolting against this meaninglessness through “constructed passion” in their daily chosen activity. One could generally say that absurdism is in the middle ground between existentialism and nihilism.
The Fork In The Road
According to absurdism, humans, in some manner or form, attempt to find a meaning or purpose to their lives in some way. Usually this search follows two basic paths…..the fork in the road. The first path is the conclusion is there is no Supreme Being from whence we came — a-theism. The universe has no deeper meaning other than…..it just exists. That is the whole ball of wax so to speak. Each of us must take what he or she is presented with in life and then construct their own meaning, even if that meaning is ultimately pointless. The second path that you can take is that your life has a true purpose established under the auspices a higher power – theism. This requires that you step off the road of logic and take the proverbial “leap of faith”. Camus called this leap of faith “philosophical suicide.”
You Make The Choice Of Which Road You Take
At some point along the road of life, every single person in the world that has the ability to make a choice at that fork in the road, will in fact make a choice. This choice is always made, either consciously or unconsciously, but make no mistake, it is made.
First Choice
Perhaps your life experience has led you to conclude that with all the pain and suffering and violence and avarice and greed and indifference and ignorance in the world, that there is no underlying inherent meaning to any of it. The whole thing, the entire universe is a rudderless ship chaotically bobbing along. When one or more of those things that cause suffering keeps slapping you or a loved one in the face, it is only natural for a human being to wonder……….why? And if nothing has any intrinsic meaning, all that you can do in order to make it through another day is to focus with passion on whatever life activity you are doing because you do in fact exist, you do have life and suicide as an escape or revolt from the pointlessness is simply not an option. The choice of absurdism can be described as human freedom through a “self constructed meaningfulness”.
Second Choice
The other choice that you can make as a soverign being is to go ahead and take that “leap of faith” that there is indeed a Divine Power and that your life has a definite purpose in line with a master plan of this Ultimate Intelligence. Every ripple your life creates is part of “the long game”. Every single event, every single person, every single happening, every single breath, has meaning, regardless of whether you are able to perceive it or not while you live on the earth. If you choose this belief, then when the body finally shuts down, your life continues on in the realm of spirit and your perception becomes clarified.
So what do you think? Is this life truly absurd? Or Is there underlying meaning to it all?