There is a story from Greek mythology about two people who received eternal punishment from the gods, Sisyphus and Prometheus. We can read this story in Le Mythe de Sisyphe (Sisyphe's Myth), an essay by Albert Camus which succeeded in catapulting his name in the world of 20th-century philosophy. Camus made it an allegory in expressing his thoughts about the absurdity, the meaninglessness of human life.
First, Sisyphus, he was insolent, rebellious, and dared to oppose the gods. But he is also a warrior and patient. Carry out the punishment gracefully, enjoy it with happiness.
Sisyphus was a king from Corinth. It is said that he often committed crimes on this earth, abusing his power to do injustice. He was not afraid to reveal the secret of the god Zeus who had kidnapped Aegina, Asopus' daughter, and reported it to the river gods. The gods were angry and punished Sisyphus by putting him in hell.
Syahdan, when in hell Sisyphus longed for the earth. Then he intended to deceive the gods by asking permission to stay on earth for a while and promised to return to hell again. "But when he saw the face of this world again, enjoyed the water and the sun, the warm rocks and the sea, he did not want to return to the darkness of hell," wrote Camus in his essay.
Deceiving the gods was the greatest crime in Sisyphus's life. This time the gods were furious. Finally, he punished Sisyphus eternal, namely pushing the rock from below to the top of the mountain. But the stone will roll back down again. Sisyphus pushed him again to reach the top. Every time he fell, he had to push it again, and so on, over and over. What a wasted work. Camus said that the punishment that befell Sisyphus is "an incomprehensible torment in which everything is done for nothing."
In another story, Prometheus also received an eternal curse like Sisyphus. For stealing fire, the god Zeus punished him by tying his body on top of the Caucasian Mountain. He could only remain silent until a bird of prey came and tore his stomach. The bird will only leave after its stomach is crushed. Because it was an eternal punishment, Prometheus' stomach was healed again. And the bird came back to eat its stomach. And every time his stomach healed, the bird would crush him again, over and over, never over.
The Meaninglessness of Life
The eternal punishment that befell Sisyphus and Prometheus is a picture of human life on earth. That life is absurd has no clear meaning. According to Camus, all the efforts of philosophers in finding and explaining the meaning of human life are because of the meaninglessness of life itself. When a philosopher considers himself to have succeeded in finding the meaning of life, it is not objectively true, because it is based on the experiences he has experienced.
Absurdism, the existentialism school of philosophy introduced by Camus, reveals that human efforts to find the meaning of life will end in failure. Human struggles in pursuing their life goals will be in vain. Humans are trapped in the search for the meaning of life, but that is what makes them unable to enjoy life itself.
The events that occur in this world are a form of absurdity. What is in the image and in the human mind does not correspond to the existing reality. The world of ideas is often in conflict with the world of experience. For example, we believe in the concept that religion is a source of peace. But in fact, from then until now, and also in the future, many conflicts on this earth occur because of religion. Various conflicts always come in every time, with new shapes, patterns, and packaging. Or is it true that humans don't resolve the conflict? So what have humans been able to do?
This is an absurdity, the confrontation between idealism and reality. Become a point that has never been reached by humans. Man will continue to walk, but he will never finish walking the endless path. The efforts made by humans to achieve their life goals will never succeed.
Human life is like a tedious routine. For Camus, the human character is nothing more than a mechanical object, more like a robot that works in a certain system and social order. As well as daily routines. In the morning, the adults go to work, while the children go to school, and each one comes home in the afternoon. When the weekends they will enjoy the holidays in their own way. Can stay at home with family, or hang out with friends, or go to a beautiful place with a lover. It's always like that.
But on the other hand, from far away, there is a question that resounds within each of us: Why am I doing all this? What is the goal I want to achieve? What am I really looking for in life? Why am I fighting so desperately for it? Absurd. Only empty space and morning wind.
Become a Foreigner
The absurdity that Camus wants to explain can also be found in the novel L'Etranger. One of the masterpieces that succeeded in winning him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, and made his name admired by many people. Camus indeed prefers to express his absurdism implicitly through literary works, as also found in other novels and short stories, rather than expressing it explicitly. Perhaps this is what makes Camus more exalted as a writer than a philosopher - also no denying that he is a thinker.
Novel L'Etranger tells the story of Meursault, an employee with a lower-middle economy. His income is not enough to support his mother's needs. So he sent his mother to a nursing home. Meursault has a melancholy, mushy nature, doesn't care about the world around him, and -I can call it-has no passion for life. Meursault considers that life feels ordinary, not something special. He does not have clear principles and goals in his life.
We can find out in the first paragraph of this novel when he got the news that his mother had passed away. Then he came to the home, sitting in front of his mother's coffin without feeling anything. No sadness, no sobs, no sad voice. For whatever he cried, after all, his life would not change even though his mother was gone. Camus is quite dramatic in expressing it, "That this time mother has been buried and that I will continue my work." There did not sound gloomy, nor could you see the spirit of life.
He has a strange habit of looking at the highway through the glass in his apartment. It seemed that people were busy with their work, the roar of vehicles passing by, and the towering buildings seemed to want to scratch the sky. There he seemed to see a theater performance. Meanwhile, he acts as a spectator, separate, and not one with that life. He doesn't do his busy life like everyone else. He became a foreigner and rejected society's environmental system.
Meursault is unlike other people, having no goals and dreams in his life. While still staring at the streets, Meursault was often confused and brooding. Why do people seem eager to pursue their goals? Why are they so enthusiastic about carrying on such a boring routine? He muttered, questioned himself, and guessed all the possibilities.
One day while on the beach he shot someone with a gun. He didn't know why he wanted to do it all of a sudden. Strangely, he did not regret that act. When the court and prison held him accountable for his actions, he did not defend himself in the slightest. He seemed resigned, had no desire to dodge and break free. What will happen to him, for him becomes commonplace and nothing changes in his life.
When the execution of the death penalty came to him, he was not in the least bit anxious, worried, afraid, goosebumps, like ordinary people. In the last part of his novel, Camus writes a mumbling of Meursault skillfully, "So that everyone gulps, so that I don't feel too lonely, I just hope that many viewers will come on the day of my execution and that they greet him with shouting insults."
This is the absurdity that Camus describes. Meursault is a human who lives in the present. Not regretting the past and expecting nothing in the future. He chose to live life as it is without considering life as something special.
And in the end, "Life is not worth living," said Camus in the novel.
Facing the Absurdity
Now we return to the story of Greek Mythology. In the final part of the Myth of Sisyphus, Camus writes, "The struggle to the top itself is enough to fill the human heart, one must imagine Sisyphus being happy."
Was Sisyphus happy to push stones over and over? Yes, he was happy even though the punishment that befell him was a futile act. The struggle was what made her smile. Pessimism and despair are not the answers that humans must-do for the meaninglessness of life.
Sisyphus and Prometheus had different attitudes in carrying out their eternal punishment. When he realized that his sentence would never end, the thing Prometheus wanted most at the time was death. He gave up and gave up hope. According to him, suicide is the best way.
In contrast to Sisyphus, even though he knew that his work would be in vain, he still lived it with grace. Keep fighting hard and don't give up on achieving your goals. Sisyphus also tried to correct every mistake by finding which path was easy to pass so that the stone reached the top of the mountain quickly.
So it is with humans in the world. Everyone is Sisyphus who has his own stone. The stone is like a goal and a principle that must be fought for in life. To achieve this, it takes effort and hard work.
But when it succeeds at one goal, the stone rolls down again. Humans will seek another meaning in life and will strive to achieve that goal. The search will never be finished. But it is the struggle and the momentary success that sometimes makes us happy and this life feels precious.
In the face of this absurdity, humans will not be separated from three choices. The first is suicide. According to Camus, that action shows human helplessness and is not the way to go. Humans are nothing more than cowards running away from existence. Furthermore, namely rejecting the ability of individuals to find meaning rationally. Or in Camus' language, philosophical suicide. Humans are looking for a handle to find the meaning of life by relying on their lives on religion, ideology, and others.
In the third option, the solution offered by Camus is to accept and admit that life is indeed absurd. However, humans must continue to live this life by giving meaning to their lives. Because life is meaningless, and we ourselves are able to give that meaning. Even though the meaning is subjective, it is what makes our life meaningful.
Like Sisyphus, who continues to struggle even though her work is in vain. Because he realized that there was a goal he had to strive for in his life. He enjoyed it. It's not like Prometheus chose death. Although in the end Prometheus was helped by Hercules, he did not want to fight against this absurdity. He just gives up and depends on other things that are not from him. He can live thanks to other people, not because of his own existence.
By giving meaning to each other's lives, humans will feel that their lives are worth fighting for. As Camus said, “I believe that the world has no ultimate meaning, but I know that there is something in this world that has meaning, which is human. Because humans are the only creatures who insist on making meaning. " At this point, we can smell Camus' existentialism.
We can give meaning to our lives if we rebel against absurdity. In order to find meaning in life, we must free from any bondage. Release the chains that hold our bodies. Because if "I rebelled, then I exist (exist)," said Camus a Digium. That way, what we do - even though it will end in vain - will keep our lives meaningful and worth living, at least for ourselves. And we will feel happy about it.
