The Existentialist

The Existentialist

By: Valred Olsim

There is a self in us that that longs to make sense of day and night; that self which pulls itself into a distant, strange, yet, familiar encounter with the absurdity of our existence – of being born, of eating,  aging, working and ultimately, dying. There is this stranger in us that feels this boredom of human routine, the one that seeks meaning and asks why? And what? And who? And back to “why?” again. “Why do I exist? Who have put me in this world? Why was I not consulted? If I have something to say, To whom shall I take my complaint?”

Most people regard Existentialism as a very high thought. This philosophical thought which contemplates on our existence and our struggle to find “meaning” in this, suppose to be, meaningless existence. During the past fifty years, it has influenced mainstream culture, revealed itself through arts, the media and even through music – from Pollock’s paintings to the Matrix movie, from Goth music to Sponge Bob square pants. It has become a house hold term, however, portrayed as an evil thought, associated with cynicism and atheism. It has been misunderstood, not by wrong reasoning but of ignorance – only a few people seem to care about philosophy and metaphysics anymore, most will choose to play video games than to get a book to read, we refuse to neither ponder nor even care to know about Nietzsche, or Sartre, or Camus. We are in this industrial world after all, a profit-centered society, of practicality – a culture that forces us to escape philosophizing and choose to be oblivious to these ideas and thoughts.

Existentialism is not actually those “never-ending questions” or those lots of whys’. It is only the gate to a deeper understanding of life before we live it. It is a consciousness or awareness of facing the emptiness or void of our existence and struggling to find “purpose” to fill that void. There is this myth of Sisyphus, who was punished to roll a stone forever in never ending drudgery of pain and boredom. “What then is there left to do?” Revolt. Find meaning behind that senseless rolling of stone, make a purpose out of it; That, is existentialism.

Humanism is existentialism; it is a revolution to confront the absurdity of human existence. Unlike Sisyphus who is pointlessly chained to roll a huge stone FOREVER, humans only live TEMPORARILY, we only live once. We are only a shooting star who will be brilliantly luminous and beautiful for a short moment of time. We are born, we grow up, meet people, will work, experience things and will, ultimately die. That is human. Humans will struggle and live behind the emptiness of it - they will find meaning to what they are doing; Find meaning in human activities, find meaning in work, in school, find meaning in their dreams and goals and everything that humans have come up with so that they will be happy or at least to enjoy this short and temporary thing called life.

Humans will revolt and will struggle to find meaning even in the smallest and most insignificant things; behind the repetitive cycle, behind the boredom, behind the angst, behind the drudgery, behind the absurdity...they will. That is Existentialism - Humans will struggle to put meaning and purpose on this short and absurd life, they put colors in it. They struggle to be happy and search for happiness behind life's gloom and bleakness. They will Revolt, and they will Struggle...That is existentialism.