Absurdism
It plays games on the mind. It may ask you to suspend disbelief. I was going to write a chapter on illogic, but a study of absurdism is a better illustration of some of the nonsensical stuff that happens in our brain. I have long recognized that my brain generates some illogical and bizarre ideas. I am not alone. The brain seems to create ideas most of which are idiotic or absurd. We say to our brain: “Dismiss”, “Dismiss”, “Dismiss” to these constant idiotic ideas. We try to restrict our thinking to the formal logic that was encouraged in our upbringing. Our education and upbringing encourages us to use words and logic to communicate and ignore the illogic and absurd. We are trained not to say what is on our mind but to say something appropriate. We have learned to reject the absurd.
My brother muttered: “I’m not mad. It’s all the others.”
I can show that I am not alone when illogical thoughts are generated in my brain by repeating the following nursery rhyme:
Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such fun,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
This nursery rhyme gives us the expression: ‘over the moon’, meaning excited and happy as in ‘happy as Larry’, yet another expression of strange origins. We use absurdism without realizing that we are doing so. Yet we may feel a guilty of our ‘wrongthink‘. But, others also have similar illogical thoughts.
‘Diddle’ is defined, in Oxford Dictionary, as either the act of getting “money or some advantage from somebody by cheating them”, or “wasting time without having a purpose.”
In this Randolph Caldecott rendition, a dish, spoon, and other utensils are anthropomorphized while a cat in a red jacket holds a fiddle in the manner of a string bass.
The Bald Twit Lion, by Spike Milligan
Once, twice and thrice upon a time there lived a Jungle. It started at the bottom and went upwards till it reached the monkeys, who had been waiting years for the trees to reach them, and as soon as they did the monkeys invented climbing down. Most trees were made of wood, and so were the rest. Trees never spoke, not even to each other, so they never said much (actually one tree did once say “much” but nobody believed him), they never said “fish” either, not even on Fridays. It was a really good Jungle: great scarlet lilies, yellow irises, thousands of grasses all grew very happily, and this Jungle was always on time. Some people are always late, like the late King George V. But not this Jungle.
My brother’s comment is close to Spike Milligan’s comment:
“I’m not acting crazy — I’m the genuine article”
Spike Milligan’s irreverence was significant. Once, when a journalist greeted him with “How are you?”. Milligan replied: “What a cliched question!”
This reply was not absurd, it was correct. We greet people with “How are you?” when we are not interested in their wellbeing. We certainly do not wish to hear of all their troubles. I often do not reply to this greeting and just look at the person with a smile approaching a grin. I refuse to tell lies — they are hard to live with. I do get forced into a corner sometimes and reply: “Good” without even analyzing my well being. I often give a little speech on the topic and revert people to greeting with “G’day” or “Good morning”.
On hearing Prince Charles declare himself a Spike superfan during a television awards ceremony, the comic legend grinned and said: “What a little groveling bastard.” Utter brilliance and gave the now King Charles another laugh.
A cliché question is one that is overused and predictable, often lacking originality or depth. It’s a phrase or inquiry that has been repeated so often it has lost its impact and expressiveness. Such questions are usually met with predictable or uninspired responses. ‘How are you?’ is a cliched question used as a greeting. I have a policy of never using this expression. Try a policy of using different greetings. You may manage something more inventive than ‘Good morning’. I like to try: “Nice shirt” when appropriate. I sometimes use: “Nice smile”. I occasionally use: “That’s an interesting *****”. A comment about about dress sense is generally well accepted. ‘Goodbye’ can be changed to “Your cheerful smile brightens the day!” or my grandfather’s: “Thank you for being so jolly.” Get yourself educated and do a search for ‘unusual greetings’. Also, don’t forget to give people a ‘hug’ when appropriate. Very often, I just give a graceful nod with respect in my smile. If you think about respect for this person, that respect will show through in your smile. You have to play games with your subconscious for messages to show in your smile.
“I can live for two months on a good compliment.” — Mark Twain
For those of you that have concerns about crazy thoughts in your mind, I give you a bloggers’ comment:
Syahmie:
What’s in the mind of an absurdist? As an Absurdist myself, I would think a lot of things, such as:
- What I’m going to have for my breakfast.
- My workout routine.
- My tutoring schedules.
- Constant suicidal thoughts due to my depression.
- The heated argument I had with my cat.
- And how I’m going to push the boulder up that hill only to see it fall again and again.
Basically, I’m like everyone else; trying to grind my way through this indifferent universe. But here’s the twist — whilst most people are expecting a higher purpose or meanings for their actions, I don’t. Why? I shouldn’t have one. It’s more meaningful to have no meaning in our lives.
From the excessive pleasure, to extreme pressure, and everything in between, I chose to genuinely enjoy this life despite it all. The burden for me to face all the trials is enough to fill my heart.
Syahmie has issues with thoughts in the mind but reasons to enjoy life irrespective of negativity in some of his thoughts. Syahmie is typically a male name, so I shall assume Syahmie is male. He even mentions a ‘heated argument with his cat’. It appears that even reason is insufficient to rid ourselves of these absurd thoughts and the feelings they generate. Irrational thoughts may convince us of things that are not true. We must accept that the mind may create irrational thoughts. As we dream at night, our dreams may appear true and realistic. It can be difficult to rationalize between thoughts derived from dreams and thoughts derived from reality. In the film ‘The Castle’ Michael Caton as Darryl Kerrigan says: “Tell him he’s dreaming!” When I dream, the action appears real. I wonder if any of the dream remains in the same area of my brain occupied by real memory of past activity. I am aware that each time I recall a past ‘story’, it seems to become more vague as if I draw it out of memory and resave the action. The story of the ‘Holy Trinity’ (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) was decided in a committee meeting around the time of Emperor Constantine about three hundred and fifty years after Jesus. Not accepting the Holy Trinity does not hamper the acceptance of Jesus as a role model particularly for young boys. Even if Jesus was a ‘Father Christmas’ like figure, it does not prevent Jesus from being a good role model particularly for young males in society. Some will claim absurdism is present in the concept of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost which I understand as the core of Holy Trinity. Yet, we do not need to reject the core philosophy of Jesus, which I characterize as ‘Common Decency’, because of some absurdity introduced in the year 325 at the Council of Nicea under the authority of Emperor Constantine.
We need to realize that our morals do not result from logic and reason. Our morals are influenced by feelings. Thus, we are trained to feel bad when doing wrong to others. Trying to demand morals by threat of punishment is not as effective as making people feel good when they act with decency to others. Some religions might teach that persons of other religions are ‘bad people’ and can be mistreated. The core of Christianity is, in my opinion, the insistence upon ‘Common Decency’. This concept is trained into us in our formative years even if we never entered a church. Things taught to us by our mother when very small are difficult to break.
Irrational thinking requires a lack of logic and reason in a person’s cognition. Irrational thinking is the opposite of rational thinking. Rational thinking requires a logical process that demands reason and evidence.
Interestingly, irrational cognition is universal. Everyone has irrational thoughts. We need to understand how we deal with irrational thoughts.
Items that pop up in one’s head are not correct by default. We use rational thinking and experience to filter the thoughts and ideas. My mind generates constant idiotic thoughts. I speak inside my mind in English: “Rid. Rid. Rid.” to dismiss these idiotic thoughts. However, occasionally a good idea is generated. I think this is the advantage the human brain has over other brains, computer logic, and over artificial intelligence. Humans can generate creative ideas filtered out from idiotic ideas.
Some have a tendency to cling to irrational thoughts. Emotion may convince people that inaccurate thoughts are real. Previous bad experiences may make people choose sides even when such a decision is not rational. Generalization can cause irrational thinking. A single experience can not be used to determine all outcomes. Jumping to a conclusions causes problems. Herd mentality leads to irrational decision making. I remember my speedway trainer hammering me with: “Don’t follow the rider in front, you will come second.” He followed this with: “Race your own race.” I use that as advice for life. I avoid following the practices of everyone else. I lead my life as I see best rather than as ‘others see best’, or what I perceive others to see as best. I do not follow common practice but question the appropriateness of common practice.
I shall continue with absurdism in what we are encouraged to believe is a logical brain. Do not attack yourself because you have absurdist thoughts, it is natural and normal. I woke up one day somewhere unusual. I opened my eyes and saw wooden planks. My brain instantly assumed that the planks were the floor and I must therefore be stuck to the ceiling. Logic slowly analyzed the situation to correct the analysis. There are illogical outcomes when persons disqualify the positive. In this scenario, someone discounts their positive experiences or accomplishments. When I look back to my past, for some reason, I remember the things I stuffed up rather than the successes. I’m not sure this is natural or a consequence of a tough education instilling a fear of failure. Thus we analyze the past to make sure we do not make similar mistakes in the future. It is perhaps we tolerate young people making a few mistakes so that they learn to do things correctly. More problems occur when one uses emotional reasoning. It occurs when someone makes decisions based on their emotions rather than logic.
We often do illogical things, even when they oppose our own wishes and even when they harm us. I remember having words with a girl that was drinking alcohol as she told me that she was pregnant. Her view was that she could do as she wishes. Her view was that it was none of my business. I pointed out that the rest of the society has to cope with the problems thus created. The same occurs for persons taking drugs. In items like this, they think they are exercising their freedom but the costs are socialized.
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In Plato’s fourth book of the Republic, he tells the story of Leontius and the corpses. Passing along the edge of Athens’ city walls, Leontius sees some dead bodies lying on the ground at the place of an execution. He looks at the dead bodies. At the same time he is disgusted at their sight. He dithers and covers his eyes. In a while, his curiosity causes him to move to stare at the dead bodies, He says: ‘Look, you wretches. Take a really good look.’
Plato uses this story to demonstrate his theory of the divided soul. We are all driven by appetites and desires, whilst at the same time by our spirit and will. Occasionally appetite and willpower will go to war with each other.
- Advertisers recognize that there is a balance between desire and reason. Consumers are caught in a dilemma. In the 1970s, Salman Rushdie described fresh cream cakes as “naughty, but nice.” Consumers must balance logic against compulsive power of appetite. This compulsive appetite would usually be termed an addiction.
- St. Paul writes, “For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15). Paul says that what he wants to do, he knows that he is not practicing. Logic and illogic are fighting each other.
- Freud puzzled over our neurotic thoughts, obsessions, and worries. Why are these harmful to us?
We must be aware that our irrational desires are capable of overriding our reason.
Sometimes, we fail to resist our appetites. Overeating is a problem. I am trying to loose ten kilograms so that I can go faster on a motorcycle, yet I am convinced that I write better when I have food, particularly something with sugar. I have just made another hot chocolate. I mix cocoa powder two parts to one part Cadbury’s hot chocolate. I make it with hot water rather than milk. Apparently, the brain uses a lot of sugar. I must reason that this sugar is helping me concentrate on these words I am typing in a Kyiv hotel room where yesterday I could hear the explosions of drones being shot down. I reasoned that more people die falling off bicycles than from drone raids and so I slept well.
I am in Reykjavik, Iceland. On the plane from Bristol, I was seated next to Tom who mentioned his favorite humour was absurdism. We mentioned Monty Python. I realized that this was a better representation of what happens in a human brain than using a title of illogic.
Absurdism arose from the human experience of anguish and confusion stemming from the Absurd. To some, there is a meaninglessness in an existence where humans are compelled to find meaning. Humans are constantly striving towards a life that has meaning and significance. We wish to gain a meaning in our lives. We are in an area of dangerous thinking. I was talking with a girl who was struggling with purpose. She had been sleeping under bridges at one stage from which I conclude a lack of family or friend support. This may have been due to some inappropriate habit on her part but I was not aware of this. On reporting to me casually about her progress one day as she knew I cared for her welfare, she said: “Oh Andy. I was in this room with some people and I felt justified in being there.” I was dumbfounded. How could anybody not be justified in their right to existence? She had a bit of fun style humour in her which I encouraged. A few weeks later, on the question: “When you walk into a group of people these days, how is it going?” She replied: “Andy. They love me.” What a change and she thanked me for my assistance. I explained about the male thinking. She knew I liked her figure and her fun approach to life and she played up to me knowing that I like looking at her. I explained that what a male interprets as beauty in a woman is not just figure. The male analysis is subconscious. Looks are important in that it is a test of virility of the female for the betterment of the species. But what the subconscious is telling my male brain is whether the mind perceives the girl to be a good mother. So pleasant characteristics are an indication that the mother will be wonderful at bringing up the children. The mind is telling us that the girl would make a good mother and the mind creates the ‘beauty’ and makes us attracted to the girl. This girl was now well rounded with a fun approach to life containing compassion and interest. Gone were her scowls and anxiety. She replied: “Is that why I am getting marriage proposals?” She had changed into a female character that was now highly desirable. Her thanks and smile showed her thanks for the regular chats that transformed her. A central theme had been ‘Creating an Aura’. The process of ‘Creating an Aura’ was used as the core of another chapter.
I sometimes stay in hostels. I notice that people are whispering and never greet nor cross eyes with strangers. I tend to change this by starting conversations and saying ‘g’day’ as I walk past people. I must implore you to recognize that indifference to the human lives around you will give the individual that is questioning their role no assurance of any such meaning. It will cause a dread within themselves. We all seem to need justification and connection to justify our existence. Whenever I meet somebody, I aim for the smile. I aim to extract a smile from them ― a meaningful smile at that. It is a competition for me. I almost always succeed except with persons that want to play status and superiority games with me. Even then, I can often squeeze under their protection with some little gesture or quip. I rely on instinct to provide this as my neocortex is way too slow and then throws negativity in the way.
Albert Camus: When the desire to find meaning and the lack of meaning collide, this is when the absurd is highlighted. The suggestion is that you won’t find the ‘meaning of life’ by looking for the ‘meaning of life’. Don’t fret over the meaning of life, just find a way to be useful. I brighten people’s day. One trip, I concentrated on ‘hugs’ whilst writing a chapter on hugs. When girls that I met on casual meetings at cafes, railway stations, or elsewhere, I might ask: “What about a hug.” They were invariably keen to embrace.
“The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find any foot-hold. It is a fact that we are suffering from nihilism.” ― Albert Camus
“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend” ― Albert Camus
“At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face.” ― Albert Camus
Be aware that those around us, who may appear to be full of confidence may be ‘winging it’ under the concept of ‘fake it until you make it’.
The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus and is considered as one of the most popular existentialist works of the 20th century. It gave rise to the philosophy of Absurdism, sharing some concepts with Existentialism and Nihilism.
The fundamental concern of the book ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ by Albert Camus is the notion of the Absurd, which may be described as:
“the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life, and the human inability to find any in a purposeless, meaningless, and irrational universe.”
So, be aware that people may believe they are living a purposeless life in an irrational environment even if they are joking. Where I am able, I like to inspire. So, show interest in persons in a manner that shows that you are learning from their life experience and that you value them enough to share some of your life experience. I met an incredibly shy girl the other day. She was winging it as much as she could but I could see it in her eyes. I explained that as men, we have thoughts that a shy girl is exceptionally exciting. Her inability to hold eye contact and constantly looking down were giveaways. I explained that her shyness should be used a a weapon to weaken men. She only needed to engage a conversation and play the full ‘shy’ look to make a man weak to her influence. At that, I suggested a hug, which happened instantaneously. It was a lingering hug with meaning. Another girl told me later that the shy girl was ecstatic. She was so thankful for what I had done in that few minutes. I had given her a power she did not know she had. I often explain the power of shyness to girls.
Logic simply cannot answer some questions. These questions include: ‘What does the future hold?’, ‘What shall I do today?’ These are items where there is an element of randomness. There are other questions that logic gives little assistance, or worse, is more dangerous to our mental wellbeing. ‘What do think of me?’ ‘What is the purpose of life?’ Our neocortex was never designed to answer such questions. Our ancestor, the reptile, has no neocortex and does not ponder the meaning of life. The cow in the field does not ponder the meaning of life. You are better dismissing such questions just as you dismiss other irrational thoughts. Some of the thoughts I have are simply not good for my mental health, so I dismiss them. I just looked down from the balcony of this seventh storey hotel window. A thought of falling sent shivers through my body. I gripped the rail tightly and stepped back. I shook myself and forced my brain to think of something else. Learn what thoughts and questions to dismiss as they are unhealthy to your mental wellbeing.
The reality is that we have negative thoughts. We generally like to live in a civilized society involving cooperation. Before civilization which was of the order of twelve-thousand years ago, and before we invented speech, which was about seventy-thousand years ago, we had no nation-state laws, nor justice system. We had no ability to communicate any moral code usually associated with a religion. There were no rules about theft, murder, thuggery, and rape. We thus had no moral code as we think we have in the modern world. Even today, the moral code is different in different religions particularly in how we are allowed to trick, steal, and deceive people from other religions or regions. As Christians, we primarily follow the New Testament or New Covenant as taught us primarily by our mothers backed by fathers. The Old Testament was the Jewish testament which I believe we should reject. It contains a lot of what we consider to be evil. Deuteronomy is the speeches of Moses. Moses is still the main man to the Jewish people. It is a reason that we keep falling out with ‘the Jews’. This is from chabad.org:
Moses (מֹשֶׁה or Moshe in Hebrew) was the miracle-working leader chosen by G‑d to take the Israelites out of Egypt more than 3,300 years ago. The greatest prophet who ever lived, Moses transcribed the Torah (also known as the Five Books of Moses), the foundational text of Judaism.
One commenter states “Moses command people to kill all men of opposing tribes and non-virgin women (while virgins are fine for the taking); command total destruction of opposing tribes. Some people say “well, they were different times”; but Moses not only commanded this, but actively punishes people that don’t kill and rape.”
Here are some words from Moses:
“Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. “The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)
Here is some more baby killing:
“The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will die at birth or perish in the womb or never even be conceived. Even if your children do survive to grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone. I have watched Israel become as beautiful and pleasant as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children to be slaughtered.” O LORD, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don’t give birth and breasts that give no milk. The LORD says, “All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels. The people of Israel are stricken. Their roots are dried up; they will bear no more fruit. And if they give birth, I will slaughter their beloved children.” (Hosea 9:11-16 NLT)
Moses advocated genocide. This still has a religious following. We cannot assume that others follow the Christian philosophy of ‘common decency’. Jesus took us away from this Old Testament approach with his simple rule of ‘be good to others’ which is the core of the New Testament. Even a non-Christian might say: “Do the right thing.”
So, what was life like in pre-history?
Written analysis tends to suggest that death by violence was at least fifty times more common among ancient peoples than it has been in the modern world. This is revealed in studies of human remains found in ancient burials. Still older prehistoric societies had violent death rates thousands of times higher.
I conclude that our modern civilization is worth protecting. Modern civilization is my main protection as it means that others are caring for my safety, not just me. Twice, yesterday, shopping security advised me that my bag was not fully closed. My safety and security has become the responsibility of moral or law-abiding citizens around me. I only need to look out for the few that don’t follow civil society’s norms. I recognise the preciousness of civil society. I recognise the evil that occurs when civilised society breaks down as in war and civil unrest. I like to add my bit toward maintenance of civilised society. The ‘Thugs’ were another group that ritualised murder under the implementation of their religion:
The thuggees, which can be translated from Hindi to English as “swindlers” were a sect oriented towards the veneration of the Hindu goddess of destruction and renewal, Kali. The first known record of the so-called thugs dates back to the 14th century.
The thugs made friends with merchants, investigated more about their possessions and then ritually suffocated them using a yellow rumal. The thugs kept the victims’ belongings and prepared the bodies of the deceased for a ritual ceremony in honor of Kali. They broke all the joints in the limbs of their victims to speed up the decomposition process and then buried them. According to the Guinness Book of Records, this cult took the lives of around two million people.
The Thugs had many leaders throughout their history, but their last and most lethal leader was a man known as Thug Behram, who by the age of 25 had become an accomplished killer and eventually became the leader of the cult. But with the entry of the British Empire into India during the 19th century, everything would change for the Thugs. In 1838, Thug Behram, the leader of the Thugs, was found in his native Jabalpur. He would be arrested and later confessed that he and his group had murdered approximately 931 people, of which 125 had been executed by himself.
Thug practices were eliminated under British rule.
The Meaning of Life
Here is a good explanation by a blogger:
Softserve:
Existence precedes essence. You exist before having any concept of who you are. You become who you are by making decisions, choices, and actions. Because we have no given purpose, we have to give one to ourselves. You decide what you value and what your passions are, that becomes the purpose of your life. The meaning of life is to be alive. The purpose of life is whatever you make of it. Because it is yours, and only you can make your decisions.
Thewigon:
Here is a post that has stuck with me to this day, it goes something like: “Life is a beautiful thing, and while it’s easy to get lost in the middle of everything it throws at you, you keep pushing to make the most of it. At the end of the day, you have an eternity to be dead, but only a small fraction of that to experience everything that it means to be human.”
Softserve:
Your peers and culture have an enormous influence on who you are. But in the end, you get to decide who you want to be and make choices to get you there.
I sometimes say as a conversation starter: “Life is a competition to have more fun that anyone else.” However, doing the things that one enjoys, like racing motorcycles, does not necessarily bring happiness. What I have found is that to be happy, one must make others happy. I’m not condescending. I sometimes have to give people a ‘kick in the ass’ to do the best for them. A shy person does not like to have the shyness they are hiding pointed out. However, if I explain how shyness is a fabulously exciting attribute to a male and how they can make good use of their shyness, you may get the prolonged hug from the shy girl! I explain that they do not need to say a word, just stand in somebody’s way and they will have to talk to get past.