Абсурд и вокруг: сборник статей

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Vladimir Davchev (Skopje) Technological civilization — civilization of existential absurdity

We can say, that even in the middle of an apparently meaningful, at least ordered universe, human life seems absurd, meaningless, out of joint, useless. The bird-nest may not seem absurd for the bird, but from the human point of view, from the perspective of the only rational creature, who is not satisfied merely to live out the life of their species, the creature who asks more questions than there answers, life is absurd and ridiculous. Of course, the ultimate absurdity of human existence is not obvious, but sometimes when we just walk down the street, we suddenly notice the deep absurdity of the events around us. Such a flash of awareness may move us to laughter, even though the feeling is more tragic than comic. Being laughed at for what we and other human creatures are so busy doing — and talking so seriously — indicates that we have transcended the situation. Evidently it takes a special perspective or sensitivity to see the absurdity underlying the «obvious» organization and purposefulness of human life.

Describing the conditions of existential absurdity depends on metaphors drawn from our experience of ordinary absurdity: any clash, out-of-placeness, or incongruity. For example, finding sleepers in the refrigerator or an umbrella in a bath makes us laugh because these things are out of their «proper» places. When familiar thing are juxtaposed in unexpected ways, the absurd is created, which often strikes us as funny. Actually, a particular situation in real life can be considered as an absurd situation when it possesses discrepancy between our desires and reality. Hence, when we find ourselves in an absurd situation, we usually try to change it by changing our own desires. This, in fact, is an attempt to match reality with our own desires, or to distance ourselves from that particular situation. Naturally, since it is not always possible to distance ourselves from the absurd situation, nor to distance the absurd situation from us, we usually try to imagine a certain change that could prevent absurdity. For example, in the realms of logic, aesthetics, or ethics harmony, it is easy to point out elements that upset proper balance and «fit». Asking for the love life of the moon and earth is logically absurd. Interrupting Beethoven's 9th Symphony for a commercial is esthetical absurd. When a notorious murderer or a criminal becomes the president of a big philanthropic foundation, we consider this act to be ethically absurd. In each of these examples of obvious incompatibility, we immediately know how to correct the clash or disharmony. Ordinary contradictions have obvious causes and solutions.