The answer I found in Camus

To say that existentialism is not the happiest kind of philosophy would be an understatement. It is quite the shady picture that we brushed through the class after all. We talked about despair, ambiguity, bad faith; about how God is dead and the idea of what humanity is supposed to be with him; about how we are trapped in an absurd life, in a Sysyphus myth that will end in the void of death. We learnt that our life has no meaning anymore or, at the very least, that its meaning is no so easy to find now.

I would say that existentialism made a great job to destroy our preconceived ideas and our illusions on death and life. We can’t say nobody warn us, that we didn’t know now, can’t we? The existentialist philosophers are fascinating for that reason, I think, but they also let one’s alone, asking oneself the question: how are we supposed to carry on with life when we are facing such a dreadful destiny?

I cannot know for sure if it was on purpose or not, but reading Camus’ myth of Sysyphus, as a conclusion for this class, makes me think a lot about the answer to that question. In a way, I find this text to give the perfect solution to our now-meaningless-life.

WE ARE CONDEMMED TO BE FREE.

Existentialists taught us a lot of things, but mainly that we are free and that our lives will eventually end in death; and it appears to me that Camus cared about our freedom first and foremost. Freed from God, from the authority of our presupposed destiny, our “essence”, we are to be the only masters of our lives. We have choices to make and we are responsible for their consequences. Basically, we construct our existence, our surroundings according to our linking, without restraint. Sysyphus, even if he’s forced to roll his rock to the top of the mountain for the rest of his existence, his the master of his environment.

He’s the master of his own body, of the rock, the mud, the sky and the grass; and he is free to make his choices – hasn’t he been punished, after all, because he made his own choices? Obviously, this absolute freedom is both terrible and empowering. We need to make choices that nobody will do in our place, and this might be scary, because we fear the consequences that we will be the only one to bear. Sysyphus made a choice to defy the Gods and thus he must face the consequences of this choice. But still, while he is facing the tedious task he had been assigned to as a punition, Camus points out how he stays the master of his life and his environment.

HAPPY SIMPLE MINDS

Should we hope to escape from this terrible truth of our conditions? Maybe, if we don’t know about the reality of our existence, it wouldn’t be so terrible? Maybe if we ignore the fact that we are free and carry on with our life in a blissful ignorance, we will be ok, right?

On the contrary, Camus advices not to be a “happy simple mind”, but rather to be conscious of your humanity, in all its complexity and pain : you exist only thanks to hazard, there is no higher plan or destiny that define your existence and you are doomed to a death that will make all your life achievements useless and quite absurd.  Yes, it might be depressing, but you should not escape the truth. You should be aware of it so you can transcend it. If you accept the condition you are somewhat trapped into – the mortal death – you can thus build the lifestyle that suit you the more and make you the happiest, without being blinded by illusions or ideals that will set unrealistic goals for your existence.

CARPE DIEM

I found Camus’ intakes on the myth of Sysyphus to be an incitation to enjoy the everyday life and every moment it gives ourselves to express ourself and confirm our existence. To accept that we are mortals who will ultimately disappear and to find happiness in the futility and the absurdity of our existence, that must be the key of a-somewhat-meaningful-life.

If you are a nietzschian, you might find this happiness in art, as it is a way to both face the despair inherent of human lives and to transcend your self through a process of creation that result into a piece that will remain long after your death and will contain your subjectivity, as if you were defying death.

If you are a sartrian, you might find happiness in engagement, in fighting oppression and in being in action in society, as you will use your freedom so you can rebuilt in a way it will stop closing possibilities to people because of their gender, race or class. Once again it will help you transcend your self by using your freedom not only in your daily life but also in a bigger prospect, to find the universal freedom.

Perhaps you will find happiness in others things, in friends, love, family, education; in the smallest or the most important things. The key, in the end, is not how you succeed to find some meaning in your life. The key is to to find joyce into our condition so we can accept the oh-so-terrible destiny we discover this semester.