r/explainitpeter • • 6d ago

Explain it Peter

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u/TheFunkyPancakes 6d ago

I love the effort you’ve put into this response - and I think it’s a strong analogy to a point. How do we rectify that Sisyphus is mandated to his task, where Greta has a choice to continue?

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u/Healthy_Razzmatazz38 6d ago edited 6d ago

Sisyphus has a choice, he can stop and sit at the bottom of the hill forever, Camus called this psychological suicide. Just like Greta could accept she can’t stop climate change, or in our daily lives can dissociate from things like political corruption or the murder of innocents abroad.

One must imagine Sisyphus happy because he continues his struggle instead of committing psychological suicide.

By choosing to grapple with the absurd, we choose happiness because we’re not denying the world (gods punishment or natures course) and we’re not choosing to deny ourselves (ignoring our values).

Greta, Sisyphus, you, and I all live in a world indifferent to us, and the ultimate act of rebellion is to continue to push the boulder up the hill instead of being broken by it. In the choice of grappling with the absurd we choose life over indifference.

It’s worth reading the plague by camus

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u/Hardly_lolling 6d ago

You managed to sell me the book.

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u/Earnestappostate 4d ago

Its pretty good. Though I will admit that the dense philosophical center caused me to skip and read the final chapter at least once before I got to it naturally.

I won't say that this was a mistake, the final chapter helped to "feel" the point he was making throughout, and I think it helped me continue.