F*ck It Friday- Absurdity, Absolutes and Amaranthine Loveliness

Inspired by a book a friend had suggested I read I decided what better way to start off the Easter weekend with thoughts on Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus. The essay touches on futile attempt in finding meaning and clarity in one’s life in the wake of an unfathomable world absent of a God or eternal truth. The essay reveals the crippling vulnerability of humankind and its inability to accept the utterly tragic purpose of life; life has no predestined absolute, simply being has neither intent nor reason, rather, it is an existence that is entirely subjective. Absurdism embodies this concept; one will inevitably fail at any attempt to find a rational explanation of the existence of humanity within an immeasurable world.

How delightful isn’t it? Why is it I find such a bleak and devastatingly bold theory to be incredibly romantic? Camus made several things clear throughout this essay that spark my pessimism into a new level of superiority over those who believe in a higher power: the absurd arises when humans feel the need to justify the purpose of tomorrow, the absurd man should live through action not rational thinking, one must relieve oneself from false hope, and finally, much like the mythological Greek myth of Sisyphus, one must acknowledge the tragedy of life’s immeasurability in order to be content. That seems fair enough right?
For F*ck It Friday I couldn’t help but see the incandescent truth that emits from such a dismal, yet entirely reasonable, theory and want to share it’s gloom and doom with the world. However much I’d like to live in a world where my fate is predestined to a life amongst fairies and clouds I find it highly unlikely, more so, sitting on this notion seems anything but didactic towards humanity; perhaps it is no more than a misleading concept that keeps people cozy in their delusional world of spiritual hierarchies and periwinkles… yah, I said periwinkles what of it? I'm not trying to be too extreme here, I do believe extreme positions are only ever followed by contrary extreme positions. I suppose I just want to glare into a world where the medium of time and meaning has disappeared; it seems it is only then when everything backwards becomes rather lucid to me.

F*ck It Friday... Religion is a Pill you must Swallow without Chewing

“Faith means not wanting to know what is true.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

However much I’d like to believe in a higher power, to be oblivious to the realities of the world must be rather easy living, I can’t help but fail to comprehend the dim-witted agenda of such an outrageous concept. Religion tends to advocate notions of happiness and peace, claiming a believer is far happier than a skeptic. Ummm…What!? To say a skeptic is less content with their life than a believer is no more to the point than the fact that a drug addict is happier than someone who is sober; the happiness of gullibility is a cheap, spent piece of used jet trash that is utterly dangerous. You get what I’m sayin?

For “F*ck It Friday” I decided to showcase an author/journalist who is the star of the league of new Atheist writers. Seen as the bad boy of modern Atheism, Christopher Hitchens regularly stumbles into literary conventions unshaven, a lit cigarette hanging provocatively out the side of his mouth and a glass of scotch in his hand. However unconventional his appearance and demeanor may appear he is a brilliant, and civilized, writer. Hitchens will always casually say whats on his mind without pausing for a thought and embellishes his claims with sonnets of Shakespeare... see, Atheists can be romantic too.
His most noted work, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons everything, claims the days have long past when major religions were selling, successfully, their bogus beliefs. Ultimately those were the days when there was nothing better to offer other than the tranquility of an afterlife; a crude and ridiculous explanation of the world was far better than no explanation at all.

Interesting isn’t it? Perhaps it is time we recognize religion does three distinct things: indoctrinates, controls, and most importantly, divides people. By creating a fictitious figure (Gawwwd…) that has the manners and morals of a spoiled child is rather dangerous. Is it not enough to look at the world in its pure beauty without having to credit the picturesque image to a benevolent being, or that there are little angels beneath the ground that are watching our every move to determine whether we will be going to burn in the pits of hell or not?! As far as I am concerned, the world has suffered far less from ignorance then the pretentious notions of believers. It is not skeptics but ideologues who threat civility and progress. No atheists ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured those who oppose their views. I believe the bible to be nothing but a fairytale book of rules and laws that indoctrinate the naive which in turn has helped create war, hatred, oppression, discrimination and judgment.

Say Whaaaa? Wednesday... The Somber of Sober Artists

I found this fantastically interesting article regarding the coincidental downfall of writers after they sober up. It seems there is a common trend in the quality of art, music, and literature after the artist becomes sober; temperate rock n’ roll, poetry and paintings just aren’t that great.
Look, I get that drugs and alcohol has robbed us of a score of greats – Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Keith Moon, Dinah Washington, John Bonham. I know a lot of artists have converted to a clean and sober life and continue to rain in the success of their creativity, however, the absence of that “self-destructive art” leaves out the romanticizing and soul-crushing feed we all want to indulged in; Highway to Hell type gig you feel me?

There is a famous quote by Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud about making oneself flourish by “an immense, long, deliberate derangement of all the senses,” and it appears plenty of artists follow that handbook. Gregg Allman even said “just leave your mind alone and just get high.” Whatever side your on you can’t deny the fact that some of the greatest music of all time came out of the maddened minds of artists under the influence.
Whether their creative product was amazing may have just been a coincidence but its fun reveling with the devil; sometimes we want to believe living a straight life leads to another destruction of the body besides death and sometimes that is much worse.

(Link: "When Novelists Sober Up" By Tom Shone; moreintelligentlife.com)

http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/content/tom-shone/when-novelists-sober

(Photo: Jack Kerouac)