Camus' Standpoint

Now that we are more familiar with the background and historical knowledge behind Carpe Diem and seen a few examples of how the concept can change from one person to the next, let’s analyze the rhetoric of Carpe Diem used by Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus. He outlines how to achieve absurd freedom and the possibilities that comes with achieving absurd freedom. Camus identifies three consequences of trying to live with the absurd: the revolt, freedom, and passion.

Camus’ writing is centrally focused around the absurd and the revolt. He tells us from a philosophical stand point about the way we live and the problems that arise from how we decide to live our lives. He speaks about the perception of freedom that we think we have and explains why “suicide” is not an alternative for when life becomes too much and the reasoning behind it. In the final chapter Camus tells us a story of Sisyphus, a true absurd man and how he revolted even though he was punished for all eternity with a cruel meaningless tasked and how he overcame it. Albert Camus repeatedly talks about how we live what he calls an Absurd Life and by that he means that we are constantly trying to find the meaning of life and gain clarity as to what life has in store for us or what role we play in this world. The search for meaning usually results in one of two conclusions: that life has no meaning or the life we live has a purpose that was set for us by a higher power. With that said, Camus begs the question, are we really free if our purpose in life is given to us rather than letting us explore and live life how we see fit? He argues that we live a mechanical life, essentially living our everyday life like a machine. Camus explains that we are unconscious and unaware; we do as we are told without questioning why we are being asked to do it. He wants us to accept the absurd and revolt. Accepting the absurd and continuing to live your life knowing that your time on this earth is limited and eventually your time on earth will come to an end is a way to achieve absolute freedom and really life to its fullest. Revolting brings value to your life and reaffirms that the certainty of death takes away from the mystery of life.

Camus raises the question as to if we are living day to day in search of answers only to never gain any clarity in regards to what the point of life is then why not commit suicide? Camus does not believe that anybody should choose suicide as an option when life is simply “too much” because when you take that “leap of faith” you’re basically giving up and did this to find an easy “way out”. Camus says “It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had to have a meaning to be lived. It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all the better if it has no meaning.” (Camus 479) He explains that if we accept the absurd and not commit “suicide” (both physical, deciding to there is no longer meaning to life and voluntarily terminate it or philosophical suicide, intellectual suicide, suicide of the mind by completely shutting down) rather live life day by day making the most out of the time we have and not being worried about the future we will be much happier. This relates directly to Camus’ final consequence of living the absurd, Passion. Having a passion for life is simply living in the present and not being concerned so much about the future. He explains that the present will be much more enjoyable and meaningful if you aren’t constantly concerned with what would happen in the future.

Camus ends with a story about Sisyphus who is an absurd hero. Sisyphus was punished for eternity in the after world with the meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a hill until he reached the top and once he did the boulder would roll back down the hill and he would have to repeat this task for eternity. It was said that he was punished for a few different reasons: Withholding information of from the Gods as to who abducted one of the Gods daughter, defying the Gods and put death in chains so that no human would be put to death, and when it was time for Sisyphus to die himself he tricked the Gods to allow him to leave the after world and as a result he tried to escape and was later captured. The three rumors as to why he was punished all share a similarity, he loved life so much he ultimately chose that over the Gods and that was extremely frowned upon. Camus explains how in the midst of this horrible punishment that Sisyphus retained happiness. Camus says “Where would his torture be, indeed, if at every step the hope of succeeding upheld him?” (Camus 491) The mere thought of successfully getting this boulder up the hill and spitting the Gods all while doing it kept Sisyphus happy and positive. Camus tells us this story to compare it to our daily lives. He speaks about how a majority of people aren’t happy in their every day to day life performing the same repetitive meaningless tasks with no sense of accomplishment. He gives us insight to find something inside that will keep you happy and motivated to continue to do what you do and not give up. Like Sisyphus finding the thought of succeeding and angering the Gods by his success to keep him happy, we need to do the same thing and find anything that will keep us happy.

Camus rhetoric of Carpe Diem can be persuasive because the journey in which he took us through appeals to our ethics, emotions and logic; the three main essential strategies to persuasion. He shows ethical appeal by using arguments and counter arguments to show the love Sisyphus has for life and hatred for death which kept his happiness throughout the fate and punishment in which he had to endure. He appealed to our emotions by the story at the end he told about the cynical punishment he was faced with and how descriptive he was in how bad it really was. It really made us think about if we were in a situation like that and if we could do what he did or not. Finally he appealed to our logic through all the situations he suggested that sounded unpleasant (i.e. why not commit suicide) he always gave us an alternative to a bad situation or things we could do first to avoid even being in a situation like that. Or if you are already in a bad situation he gave us things we could do to be like the absurd hero when living our daily life to remain happy and avoid living what he called the mechanical life. The rhetoric of carpe diem has been so persuasive and evolved so much over time that we can’t go a week without hearing, seeing or reading something pertaining to seizing the day.