Topic: The Myth of Sisyphus
RainbowTrout's photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:01 PM
Camus undertakes to answer what he considers to be the only question of philosophy that matters: Does the realization of the meaninglessness and absurdity of life necessarily require suicide?

He begins by describing the absurd condition: much of our life is built on the hope for tomorrow yet tomorrow brings us closer to death and is the ultimate enemy; people live as if they didn't know about the certainty of death; once stripped of its common romanticisms, the world is a foreign, strange and inhuman place; true knowledge is impossible and rationality and science cannot explain the world: their stories ultimately end in meaningless abstractions, in metaphors. "From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all."

It is not the world that is absurd, nor human thought: the absurd arises when the human need to understand meets the unreasonableness of the world, when "my appetite for the absolute and for unity" meets "the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle."

After working where I have for the last year and a half I can't but question if Sisyphus was actually a myth. I have done my best to try to understand the rationale of why I must try to understand the people I work for when they don't try to understand my point of view. Like Sisyphus it has been an uphill battle with a stone of absurdity and just as soon as the rock gets downhill it is a struggle to get the stone back up the hill. I feel like I have tried to be reasonable but it is like the ****ball just goes down hill. There is this constant struggle not to be covered in it. Does intelligence exist at the supervisor level?

no photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:02 PM
Is Sisyphus any relation to Wusyphus? drinker

MirrorMirror's photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:03 PM
flowerforyou I often wondered the same thingflowerforyou

MirrorMirror's photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:04 PM

Is Sisyphus any relation to Wusyphus? drinker
flowerforyou Greek mythologyflowerforyou

no photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:05 PM


Is Sisyphus any relation to Wusyphus? drinker
flowerforyou Greek mythologyflowerforyou


Oh.....indifferent drinker

star_tin_gover's photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:07 PM
Aint never had no sysiphus and if ah did ahda done gone to doc n got me a shot.flowerforyou

Troyd879's photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:08 PM
Most everyone lives under the misconception that everyone else is a moron... There are a few who are correct in this assumption, but sadly enough most of them are miserably wrong... If you could eliminate that stigma from everyone's mind this world would be a much better place...

star_tin_gover's photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:10 PM
Edited by star_tin_gover on Mon 06/16/08 10:13 PM

Most everyone lives under the misconception that everyone else is a moron... There are a few who are correct in this assumption, but sadly enough most of them are miserably wrong... If you could eliminate that stigma from everyone's mind this world would be a much better place...


What a moronic statement! laugh :wink: flowerforyou
Sorry rainbow!flowerforyou I was just funnin'. It's late and the brain cell is fogging up.happy

Milesoftheusa's photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:11 PM
greek mythology.

Is thier more to it than that?

I really do not understand.

I must admit when i first saw the topic my first thought was " what does a STD have to do with religion"laugh drinker

Troyd879's photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:12 PM
noway laugh laugh laugh noway

star_tin_gover's photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:14 PM

greek mythology.

Is thier more to it than that?

I really do not understand.

I must admit when i first saw the topic my first thought was " what does a STD have to do with religion"laugh drinker

laugh laugh laugh drinker

RainbowTrout's photo
Mon 06/16/08 10:15 PM
Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices. "The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious."

Camus is interested in Sisyphus' thoughts when marching down the mountain, to start anew. This is the tragic moment, when the hero becomes conscious of his wretched condition. He does not have hope, but he also figures out the truth and Sisyphus, just like the absurd man, keeps pushing. Camus argues that Sisyphus is truly happy precisely because the futility of his task is beyond doubt: the certainty of Sisyphus' fate frees him to recognize the absurdity of his plight and to carry out his actions with contented acceptance. With a nod to the similarly cursed Greek hero Oedipus, Camus concludes that "all is well," indeed, that "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

:smile: