Icelander said:

everything is absurd

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I use to hold this view point, but then I realized that saying everything is absurd is a meaningless statement. Something needs a context in order for it to be absurd. A clown at a wedding is absurd because it doesn't fit the context. Saying the Universe is absurd because it exists doesn't really make sense. We don't know whether it should or should not exist, so we have no context to put the universe into to, as it is the only thing that does exist. For something to be absurd, it would need an opposite of something that is rational and makes sense. I'd say the Universe is neither absurd nor rational. Saying that 'everything is absurd' is just as silly as saying 'everything is love'. It becomes meaningless. Might as well say 'everything is broccoli'.

White Beard said:

A clown at a wedding is absurd because it doesn't fit the context.

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And here I was thinking that you'd have to be a real clown to get married.

Icelander said:

If everything is absurd how can there be bigger fish to fry?

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Quote:

The meaning of life

According to absurdism, humans historically attempt to find meaning in their lives. Traditionally, this search results in one of two conclusions: either that life is meaningless, or life contains within it a purpose set forth by a higher power - a belief in God, or adherence to some religion or other abstract concept.

Elusion
Camus perceives filling the void with some invented belief or meaning as a mere "act of eluding"—that is, avoiding or escaping rather than acknowledging and embracing the Absurd. To Camus, elusion is a fundamental flaw in religion, existentialism (Atheist existentialism however does not include "Elusion"), and various other schools of thought. If the individual eludes the Absurd, then he or she can never confront it.

God
Even with a spiritual power as the answer to meaning, another question arises: What is the purpose of God? Kierkegaard believed that there is no human-comprehensible purpose of God, making faith in God absurd itself. Camus on the other hand states that to believe in God is to "deny one of the terms of the contradiction" between humanity and the universe (and therefore not absurd), but is what he calls "philosophical suicide". Camus (as well as Kierkegaard), though, suggests that while absurdity does not lead to belief in God, neither does it lead to the denial of God. Camus notes, "I did not say 'excludes God', which would still amount to asserting".[16]

Personal meaning
For Camus, it is the beauty which people encounter in life that makes it worth living. People may create meaning in their own lives, which may not be the objective meaning of life (if there is one), but can still provide something for which to strive. However, he insisted that one must always maintain an ironic distance between this invented meaning and the knowledge of the absurd, lest the fictitious meaning take the place of the absurd.

Freedom
Freedom cannot be achieved beyond what the absurdity of existence permits; however, the closest one can come to being absolutely free is through acceptance of the Absurd. Camus introduced the idea of "acceptance without resignation" as a way of dealing with the recognition of absurdity, asking whether or not man can "live without appeal", while defining a "conscious revolt" against the avoidance of absurdity of the world. In a world devoid of higher meaning or judicial afterlife, the human being becomes as close to absolutely free as is humanly possible.

Hope
The rejection of hope, in absurdism, denotes the refusal to believe in anything more than what this absurd life provides. Hope, Camus emphasizes, however, has nothing to do with despair (meaning that the two terms are not opposites). One can still live fully while rejecting hope, and, in fact, can only do so without hope. Hope is perceived by the absurdist as another fraudulent method of evading the Absurd, and by not having hope, one will be motivated to live every fleeting moment to the fullest.

Integrity
The absurdist is not guided by morality, but rather, by his or her own integrity. The absurdist is, in fact, amoral (though not necessarily immoral). Morality implies an unwavering sense of definite right and wrong at all times, while integrity implies honesty with one's self and consistency in the motivations of one's actions and decisions.

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Icelander said:

everything is absurd

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Kickle said:

Icelander said:

everything is absurd

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I've walked through the last couple days completely out of it. As in, where and the heck am I and how did I get here? Dream haze yo.

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I've lived the last several years in this fashion.  No answers, no hope, just life to be lived.

Kickle said:

Icelander said:

everything is absurd

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I've walked through the last couple days completely out of it. As in, where and the heck am I and how did I get here? Dream haze yo.

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