The Absurd
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1.wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate.
…like this blog post…which you are about to read out of curiosity haha!
I haven’t written here in a while and that is because it has been a really odd few months I’m not going to lie. Since my massive growth spurt at 15, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced as much of a personal growth in such a short space of time like I have in the last 6 months.
I love the freedom of living overseas and the new experiences and challenges I am constantly facing. I have enjoyed embracing my newfound singledom and accepted the challenge of learning how to be happy on my own. Although it can sometimes be lonely and hard I feel like I have learnt more about myself over these past few months than I have done in my whole life. I’m eating healthier, exercising more, I’ve lost weight, I’m feeling more confident and I’m just generally feeling a lot more positive about life so I couldn’t be more proud of my personal development.
Through all the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations that this city and life has thrown at me… my job here in London has been the one constant that I have been able to rely upon for stability – mental, social, financial and otherwise. The routine is comfortable, the people have become my family here. I have met some truly amazing human beings over here who are incredibly wise, supportive and who I can be myself around.
Recently though, I was made redundant. The acquisition of the company I work for by a bigger media conglomerate meant that a large percentage of the people I work with, including myself, have had their roles made redundant. The feelings of rejection that come with this are inevitable. I’ve ultimately questioned my worth as an employee, what I have to offer as a person, and I’ve been forced to stare anxiety straight in the eye. But change is inevitable, it’s healthy and it’s hard.
Yesterday at work, I was lost in deep thought staring into my teacup when a co-worker swung by the kitchen counter for a chat. He smiled at me and asked how I was. We’re the same age and both living away from home in another country so we have a lot of common ground.
He then went on to tell me about a book he’s reading at the moment. This book is by the famous philosopher Albert Camus and all about his theory of Absurdism. My interest immediately peaked. I’ve always been fascinated by philosophy. My guilty pleasure is allowing my mind to wander into deep places that both intrigue and frighten me.
In philosophy, ‘’the Absurd’’ refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any. As such, many people seek meaning through all sorts of avenues and divine mediums, religions and gods.
In this context, absurd does not mean ‘’logically impossible’’ but rather ‘’humanly impossible. The universe and the human mind do not each separately cause the Absurd, but rather the Absurd arises by the contradictory nature of the two exisiting simultaneously.
”The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion” – Albert Camus
It is interesting that this very freedom Camus describes is presented as both a rebellion against as well as an embrace of the absurdity of existence. Many people find the human lack of ability to find meaning or inherent value of life to be extremely un-nerving. I find it freeing. The absence of meaning actually makes me feel good. I think to myself, if nothing matters then I can do anything. It’s as if the meaninglessness somehow makes me more aware of the endless possibilities. After all, without beauty, love, tragedy or danger it would be almost easy to live.
Human beings are social creatures, and as such we are programmed to care about how others perceive us. It’s a primitive thing. If there is an absence of meaning then there is an absence of social pressure. If there is no point, there is no goal and if there is no goal, then there is no reason to care what others think of us. Too old to be single… too young to understand love… ? “The realisation that life is absurd cannot be an end, but only a beginning.”
An Absurd Reasoning: Suicide and The Absurd
”There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. ”
The theory of Absurdism argues that human attempts to find meaning, those either inherent or from one’s self (existentialism), will ultimately fail. This is because existence is meaningless on the grand scale. Camus argues that we should embrace the Absurd (the contradictory co-existence of the value-seeking human mind and the valueless world) and defiantly seek meaning anyway. The search itself is meaningful and the only way to make meaning is to have experiences. Suicide ultimately ends those experiences and under this theory is undesirable because it ends all meaning.
In order to live a fulfilling life we must accept that there is nothing and live our lives in constant rebellion against that very fact. I love this notion. I interpret it as the challenge each day to find joy, satisfaction and pleasure in the little things. To search for meaning (despite the human inability to do so) and in doing so, learning that the search for personal meaning is what truly matters. It’s important to remember that all experiences provide meaning, even the bad ones.
I’m not sure if my co-worker will ever know how well-timed and how much this lunchtime conversation meant to me. It made me feel empowered, mindful and at peace with my circumstances. He gave me a big hug afterward and left me to go back to staring into my teacup.
The Absurd makes me feel more in touch with myself as a person and as a human being. I feel more grounded and more self aware than ever and more sure of my journey here in London and through life. How does it make you feel?
There may be more Earth-like planets in the milky way than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on our Earth. The fact that we all exist on this great big planet in this vast universe could be the result of millions of incredible coincidences, by divine design or perhaps even part of a greater plan. We must accept that we may never know the answer to this. But one thing that is for sure is that this life is in fact… absurd.