(1) Death and despair is a priori: that’s built into our consciousness.
(2) Ambition (pushing the rock up the hill) is separate from death and despair. This is what is known as “trying to make it.” At a certain point, one realizes that one is not immortal, continuing despair. Does this thwart’s one’s ambition?
(3) You have the opportunity to present you videos here. You may continue to become more well-known…same with me. We’ll continue “pushing upward.” Maybe we’ll be satisfied with our accomplishments, maybe not. DEATH IS A SEPARATE ISSUE. Despair does not negate the ambition. I knew a famous literary critic (Leslie Fiedler), and I asked him why he wrote so many books. He was making a statement, “I was here.”
Many people would say that it is precisely BECAUSE our consciousness of death that we want to accomplish what we need to accomplish.
(4) The use of Sisyphus as a metaphor BREAKS DOWN ENTIRELY because once you die there will be NO MORE ROCKS TO BE PUSHING UP. One is done with the entire “spear chuckin’ scene.” No more pushing, no more problems. The Sisyphus Myth if exactly the opposite: because Sisyphus has ETERNAL LIFE because he’s going to push the rock up FOREVER.
(5) The key to life is that we only have to PUSH THE ROCK UP FOR A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME, then we are RELEASED from pressure (this is what Freud called Nirvana, or the death instinct). In fact, I think the fact that we know we are going to die…means we are more willing to exert ourselves…because we WON’T HAVE TO STRUGGLE FOREVER.
(1) Death and despair is a priori: that’s built into our consciousness.
(2) Ambition (pushing the rock up the hill) is separate from death and despair. This is what is known as “trying to make it.” At a certain point, one realizes that one is not immortal, continuing despair. Does this thwart’s one’s ambition?
(3) You have the opportunity to present you videos here. You may continue to become more well-known…same with me. We’ll continue “pushing upward.” Maybe we’ll be satisfied with our accomplishments, maybe not. DEATH IS A SEPARATE ISSUE. Despair does not negate the ambition. I knew a famous literary critic (Leslie Fiedler), and I asked him why he wrote so many books. He was making a statement, “I was here.”
Many people would say that it is precisely BECAUSE our consciousness of death that we want to accomplish what we need to accomplish.
(4) The use of Sisyphus as a metaphor BREAKS DOWN ENTIRELY because once you die there will be NO MORE ROCKS TO BE PUSHING UP. One is done with the entire “spear chuckin’ scene.” No more pushing, no more problems. The Sisyphus Myth if exactly the opposite: because Sisyphus has ETERNAL LIFE because he’s going to push the rock up FOREVER.
(5) The key to life is that we only have to PUSH THE ROCK UP FOR A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME, then we are RELEASED from pressure (this is what Freud called Nirvana, or the death instinct). In fact, I think the fact that we know we are going to die…means we are more willing to exert ourselves…because we WON’T HAVE TO STRUGGLE FOREVER.
Best,
Richard