The apparent absurdity of life

[rousseau]

I hear this thrown around quite a bit through circles of studious people. They spend their lives curious and then eventually conclude that the world and their lives are absurd. I don't buy it anymore.

To start off with the definition of absurd is to be 'wildly irrational'. This isn't only a subjective (and so arbitrary) interpretation of life and the universe, but I'd also go further to argue that life is and works exactly as it should.

And there's the second point. We're a thing called 'life' that's evolved as a part of the universe in which we exist and are a part of. The question then isn't so much 'what's the point'.. it's 'why should there be a point?'. We're a part of the universe that experiences it's transient existence, then we die.

Where people get tripped up, I think, is that they think existence should have some kind of objective purpose, when it clearly doesn't, and shouldn't have to. So because there's no non-transient meaning life must be absurd, the only way people can rationalize the meaningless of it all.

These days I like to think of it instead as a moment of experience, just something that's happening to us.*

*Might have something to do with my sense of self problems

 

[Bronzeage]

The "absurdity of life" is something contemplated by those who have nothing better to do, which is the majority of people today.

Consider the human as an animal. Except for the few who find themselves in a war or a famine, life is not all that difficult. As a species, we have overcome most of the challenges of survival. There was a time when going out to find lunch included the real possibility of being lunch for some other animal. These days, when a human is killed by an animal, it's treated as a freak accident, not the natural course of nature.

This leaves us a lot of time to think, and that's the real problem. Since we have evolved our higher order of logic, which allows us to turn the universe into an endless list of "what if?" and "why not?" queries, we also somehow decided there are answers to these kinds of questions.

 

[4321lynx]

It seems that the only purpose of all life is propagation of the species.

 

[rousseau]

Yea I think a lot of it too comes from people who have time and think of the world as something to be acted on, rather than something they're a part of. Philosophers see themselves as a unique snowflake experiencing and navigating the world, whereas (smart) scientists get that they're just a part of a bigger picture.

 

[fromderinside]

The "absurdity of life" is something contemplated by those who have nothing better to do, which is the majority of people today.

Consider what you just wrote isn't thought by almost all people on the planet. Then reconsider the sentence above. Nothing better to do? Really? The majority of which people, the people at university? Probably not even those.

Most people in my experience don't contemplate. They just use their capacities to keep from harm in near food. I'm thinking of the monk in Bangladesh contemplating. You know what. I believe he's thinking of his next action.

But what the hell. I have nothing better to do.

Tell you what. I do need something to contemplate. How about you generate another of your wonderful poems?

 

[untermensche]

Camus wrote a lot about the absurdity of life.

"The Myth of Sisyphus" is a great short read.

The absurdity is in life's purposelessness and in many human desires and expectations.

 

[Bronzeage]

The "absurdity of life" is something contemplated by those who have nothing better to do, which is the majority of people today.

Consider what you just wrote isn't thought by almost all people on the planet. Then reconsider the sentence above. Nothing better to do? Really? The majority of which people, the people at university? Probably not even those.

Most people in my experience don't contemplate. They just use their capacities to keep from harm in near food. I'm thinking of the monk in Bangladesh contemplating. You know what. I believe he's thinking of his next action.

But what the hell. I have nothing better to do.

Tell you what. I do need something to contemplate. How about you generate another of your wonderful poems?

There once was a hillbilly named Gump,
who caught snakes and possums to hump.
His children had scales
and prehensile tails,
and voted for Donald Trump.

 

[abaddon]

Nothing is absurd except some or many human conceptions.

Camus was writing in light of the “death of god”. So he as well as existentialists rather failed at Nietzsche’s call for a revaluation of all values, because they retained the christian notion that only god gives anything meaning or purpose or a lasting value for being an eternal all-present mind. Strip mind from nature … as if everything has to have been given a conscious, deliberated-upon purpose to count as intelligent or creative … then, oh no, it’s all “absurd” or meaningless or valueless.

With the fantasy of an absolute perfect being clouding the mind, all else pales in comparison. But then, even after deciding there’s no transcendent God-Person, many retain the valuation where nature’s an imperfect and hollow mess of meaninglessness in comparison to the non-existent perfection of that God-Person. Thus is born the conception "life is absurd".

Now, that is absurd.

Maybe also contributing is the unexpectedness of death due to our egocentrism; as if we're only inherently valuable but not also inherently food for decomposers if not for other predators.

There's a book titled “When God is Gone, Everything is Holy”. To my mind, that reaction makes WAY more sense: To see nature as sacred or at least marvelously complete to itself. "Sacred" not in the sense of “divine” but rather worthy of great respect.

 

[fromderinside]

Nothing is absurd except some or many human conceptions.

Camus was writing in light of the “death of god”. So he as well as existentialists rather failed at Nietzsche’s call for a revaluation of all values, because they retained the christian notion that only god gives anything meaning or purpose or a lasting value for being an eternal all-present mind. Strip mind from nature … as if everything has to have been given a conscious, deliberated-upon purpose … then, oh no, it’s all “absurd” or meaningless or valueless.

With the fantasy of a perfect being clouding the mind, all else pales in comparison. But then, even after deciding there’s no transcendent God, many retain the valuation where nature’s an imperfect and hollow mess of meaninglessness in comparison to the non-existent perfection of God. As if it takes an eternal something to confer meaning "from above".

Now, that is absurd.

There's a book titled “When God is Gone, Everything is Holy”. To my mind, that reaction makes WAY more sense: To see nature as sacred or at least marvelously complete to itself. "Sacred" not in the sense of “divine” but rather worthy of great respect.

Its a game. Is that absurd?

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Nothing is absurd except some or many human conceptions.

Camus was writing in light of the “death of god”. So he as well as existentialists rather failed at Nietzsche’s call for a revaluation of all values, because they retained the christian notion that only god gives anything meaning or purpose or a lasting value for being an eternal all-present mind. Strip mind from nature … as if everything has to have been given a conscious, deliberated-upon purpose … then, oh no, it’s all “absurd” or meaningless or valueless.

With the fantasy of a perfect being clouding the mind, all else pales in comparison. But then, even after deciding there’s no transcendent God, many retain the valuation where nature’s an imperfect and hollow mess of meaninglessness in comparison to the non-existent perfection of God. As if it takes an eternal something to confer meaning "from above".

Now, that is absurd.

There's a book titled “When God is Gone, Everything is Holy”. To my mind, that reaction makes WAY more sense: To see nature as sacred or at least marvelously complete to itself. "Sacred" not in the sense of “divine” but rather worthy of great respect.

Its a game. Is that absurd?

Needs a patch or two.

 

[abaddon]

Its a game. Is that absurd?

Yes if you mean that's what "life" is or is like rather than just saying "I personally like to treat it as a game". Games have intelligent designers. Strip them out of the metaphor and you're left with the incomplete and pointless, and therefore "absurd", metaphor.

 

[DBT]

''It's like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again.''

 

[untermensche]

Nothing is absurd except some or many human conceptions...

Yes, the absurdity is not in the world, the absurdity is in human actions, desires and expectations when compared to the world as it is. The absurdity is human consciousness in the world.

Every human action when looked at from a certain perspective can be seen as absurd. The entirety of human activity can be looked at as one big absurdity.

A bunch of noise and a lot of pain signifying nothing.

Until the inevitable big bang.

Or for the individual the big sleep.

 

[iolo]

As they used to sing in the First War, 'We're here because we're here because we're here because we're here'. Why on earth should there be any purpose beyond what we may choose?

 

[rousseau]

Nothing is absurd except some or many human conceptions.

Camus was writing in light of the “death of god”. So he as well as existentialists rather failed at Nietzsche’s call for a revaluation of all values, because they retained the christian notion that only god gives anything meaning or purpose or a lasting value for being an eternal all-present mind. Strip mind from nature … as if everything has to have been given a conscious, deliberated-upon purpose to count as intelligent or creative … then, oh no, it’s all “absurd” or meaningless or valueless.

With the fantasy of an absolute perfect being clouding the mind, all else pales in comparison. But then, even after deciding there’s no transcendent God-Person, many retain the valuation where nature’s an imperfect and hollow mess of meaninglessness in comparison to the non-existent perfection of that God-Person. Thus is born the conception "life is absurd".

Now, that is absurd.

Maybe also contributing is the unexpectedness of death due to our egocentrism; as if we're only inherently valuable but not also inherently food for decomposers if not for other predators.

There's a book titled “When God is Gone, Everything is Holy”. To my mind, that reaction makes WAY more sense: To see nature as sacred or at least marvelously complete to itself. "Sacred" not in the sense of “divine” but rather worthy of great respect.

That's where I was at for a while. Now I'm starting to negate even that. The world is definitely worthy of great respect in a karmic sense, but if you move far enough into the materialist world-view it starts looking like we're a rational being living in a rational system. Nothing grandiose or romantic about it, just the beauty of life and our experience of it.

In that way I'm starting to tend toward some of the Asian no-self, don't cling to desire, nothing to add, nothing to take away philosophies. For a good guide on how to be look at the tenets of Buddhism. For a good life you need to make the right decisions and be a good person.

 

[Perspicuo]

Human beings need "meaning".

So-called "modern life" does not give meaning anymore, and that's because we don't live for tribe, village or extended family any longer. A meaningful life is connected, working towards something greater than us, yet enjoying the small things in life.

Certainly it's quite better than the life "poor, nasty, brutish and short", but who says we can't have the best of both worlds?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

You are a fluke of the Universe....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFLvhKv-Lbo

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

What we all call life is just this complex evolved chemistry that for many parts has come to see itself as something separate from the rest of the universe. Now that's quite absurd imho.

I always liked Sagan on this point, that we find ourselves saying we are inhabitants of planet earth when in fact we are the planet Earth.

In the end if you think you're connected to nothing but yourself, maybe life does seem absurd.

 

[Learner]

I always liked Sagan on this point, that we find ourselves saying we are inhabitants of planet earth when in fact we are the planet Earth.

In the end if you think you're connected to nothing but yourself, maybe life does seem absurd.

I remember Allan Watts said something like this." The earth gives birth to humans" Not quite word for word but I was a fan back then.

 

[Thomas II]

I always liked Sagan on this point, that we find ourselves saying we are inhabitants of planet earth when in fact we are the planet Earth.

In the end if you think you're connected to nothing but yourself, maybe life does seem absurd.

I remember Allan Watts said something like this." The earth gives birth to humans" Not quite word for word but I was a fan back then.

The word is "people-ing"