WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSTOOD

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Camus Absurdism vs Marx Leftism

Encountered the following challenge on an Absurdist forum:
do you not think reveling in absurdity and meaningless is a luxury you can afford if you dont have debt and work and struggle to get by every day?
if i stopped giving a fuck, which i wish i could do, i'd lose everything materialistic and financial. id be kicked out of my course.
"Schopenhauer was laughed at for praising suicide at a laden table [but he was technically right]"
He was maybe right but he still could afford the luxury of that being one of the only proper worries.
i cant imagine myself exactly being relaxed and happy and accepting about being homeless or out in the cold and the rain.
TLDR: If you can't avoid work/money/housing related anxiety, it's very difficult to be content in the absurdity and meaninglessness of it all, even if you're aware of it.
or maybe i'm just an idiot

Twofold Response:
1. This rings similar to the concept of a rollercoaster effect, where lower income brackets are statistically less likely to commit suicide because they are working toward something and have a direction of progress. Once you "make it to the top" and see that you have no more fulfillment than you did when you were climbing, you become depressed and have no where to go but the "steep drop" into oblivion.
Absurdism (I think) is supposed to help you see this steep drop before you begin climbing, so that you don't waste time "climbing the ladder of success" with expectations of fulfillment, only to confirm the meaninglessness that you knew was there all along.

2. Another point is that the concept of "not giving a fuck" in absurdism doesn't translate to "not caring about physical sustenance." It's more like "acknowledging that you are forced to care about physical sustenance as an animal organism even though you know it's all futile as a human being. And rather than ending it all, you decide to accept this and fall prey to your physiological needs because you don't give a fuck."

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