Are We Doomed To Live An Absurd Existence?
Acrylic on canvas
200cm x 150cm (+ 2 cm tray frame in black)
Albert Camus used the word "absurd" to refer to the human being's basic position in the world, and to be precise the plight of a transcendent, meaning-seeking being who must live in a world that has no meaning. We are moral creatures who demand that the world supply a basis for moral judgment-that is, a meaning system in which is implicit a blue-print of values. But sadly the world does not supply one: it is entirely indifferent to us. The tension between human aspiration and the world's indifference is what Camus referred to as the "absurd" human condition. What then are we to do? Are there no guidelines? No values? Nothing right or wrong? good or evil? If there are no absolutes, then nothing is more important than anything else, and everything is a matter of indifference.
A human being, according to Camus, can attain full stature only by living with dignity in the face of absurdity. The world's indifference can be transcended by rebellion, a prideful rebellion against one's condition. "There is nothing equal to the spectacle of human pride." 'There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn." In his novel Camus began from a position of nihilism - a position in which he despaired of the lack of meaning in the world (and, thus, lack of purpose and values)- to then produce a system of personal meaning, -a system that includes several clear values and guidelines for behaviour: courage, proud rebellion, fraternal solidarity, love, secular holiness. What is important for Camus is that people realise that you have to invent your own meaning (instead of discovering the meaning of God or nature), and then fully devote yourself to fulfilling that meaning: It is good and right, into the stream of life. Yes, dreams are the kind of communication between objective reality and our subconscious. Perhaps absurdity will never leave us, because it is absurd in the first place, isn’t it?
Even Samuel Beckett still seems to be waiting for Godot? Our Pregnant Girl seems not to be afraid of the absurd. Neither Cardi B, who feels in sync with her wishful simulation of an eagle, the archetypical symbol of freedom. A yellow rubber duck is riding a pink elephant. Nothing wrong with that, right? Just normal. Next, we find the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. He stated that a belief in anything beyond the Absurd requires an irrational but perhaps necessary religious "leap" into the intangible and empirically unprovable. However, Camus regarded this solution, as "philosophical suicide". Rumble in the philosophical jungle, right? Cardi B seems enjoying her existential take off, and why not. The Fates, or Moirai, couldn’t be missing, they are a group of three weaving goddesses who assign individual destinies to mortals at birth. Their names are Clotho (the Spinner), Lachesis (the Allotter) and Atropos (the Inflexible).
SHARE
