EDITORIAL

by Peter Jukes

Take a Sad Song and Make It Better

Albert Camus’ 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus attempts to tackle that great existential of dilemmas we humans find ourselves in: how do we live if we know we will die?

For Camus, the tension caused by our desire for meaning, purpose, and reason, and the inherent lack of this in the world around us, can only be calmed by freely accepting our fates – the pointlessness of it all, as Camus sees it.

Invoking the Greek myth of the man condemned to forever push a boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down again, “one must imagine Sisyphus happy”.

Camus’ ‘happiness’ is devoid of any notion of escaping one’s lot, either physically or through leaps of faith. Hope of any kind – a form of “philosophical suicide” – is not prescribed.