The Myth of Sisyphus

Many many years ago college students were quite taken with Albert Camus.  His philosophy of the absurd appealed to them.  (I should say us.)  There is no god.  There is no purpose to life.  We are like Sisyphus, condemned to push the boulder up the hill, only to watch it roll down again and start over.  

I thought about the myth of Sisyphus the other night when our daughter called.  She had been reading a review of a book about the attorney Clarence Darrow and pointed out that a century ago Darrow was facing many of the same issues we face today--intolerance of immigrants, racial bigotry, religious stupidity, the dominance of big business.  Here we are, a century later, and nothing has changed.  This is absurd.

Camus asked if the only answer to absurdity is suicide.  He said it wasn’t.  The answer was to revolt.   Like Sisyphus, we must roll the boulder back up the hill.  To quote Camus, “the struggle itself...is enough to fill a man’s heart.  One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”  When I read that, it was hard to imagine Sisyphus happy.  “Resigned” is the word I would have chosen.  Nevertheless, we need to continue to roll that boulder up the hill.  As liberals we are condemned to do it over and over and over.  And we must not give up.