The Myth of Sisyphus

Stu’s comment on one of my earlier entries posed a question "what is comfort?" which in the context of the blog I chose to reinterpreted into What is happiness? My quick answer was “you get to choose” eg whatever you want it to be, which on the face of it looks either flippant or designed to be clever (in the negative use of the word) It was neither and so I thought I would expand on that thought.


Albert Camus (pronounced Kamay) 1913-1960 was a French Philosopher who among his credits was a Noble Laureate in Literature. So he is contemporary (as these things go most famous philosophers are long since dead) and clearly no dummy. He is mostly associated with a theory in Philosophy known as Absurd. As I understand it (I have no formal philosophical training) in a search for the meaning of life there are various ways you can go, one is to look for an external meaning most commonly god. Alternatively you can look for an internal meaning a Platonic view of living a good life as dictated by universal laws (not from god but more from nature) Or you could decide that life has no meaning and is an “Absurd” enterprise.

Faced with the dilemma of a meaningless life most philosophers end up abandoning the idea and arrive back at God or Reason. Camus did not but embraced the idea of a meaningless life and focused on what the logical conclusion would be. Is it suicide for example in the face of futility? Camus uses The Myth of Sisyphus to explore this idea.

Sisyphus was a Greek King who managed to capture and imprison death so that humans would no longer die. The gods freed death and to punish Sisyphus they granted him immortality but he was condemned to roll a rock to the top of a hill only to see it roll down to the bottom again over and over again. Among other ideas explored by Camus he posed the question “what does Sisyphus think on his walk down the hill?” You see in his “free” time of walking down to resume his labours he has two (significant) possible thoughts. The negative option of reflecting on the futility of the task and the doomed existence that is now his lot. Or he can choose to think about a job well done on reaching the top and look forward to the challenge of achieving the outcome again.

The fact that the task is immediately undone as soon as it is completed does not make the task any less worthy. As soon as we are born our life starts to run out with each passing day getting shorter and shorter but this does not negate the value of life.

A lot of life can seem like rock rolling and our attitude to that will be an important part of our happiness with our lot. Even if you do not subscribe to an “absurd” view of life the active choosing to see your rock rolling as a job well done and not a hopeless exercise in never ending futility can’t really hurt now can it. So you choose, choose happiness.