Dispatch Faith: Absurd Brainrot, by Karen Swallow Prior:
When I began teaching literature at an evangelical Christian university almost 30 years ago, one daunting task I faced was introducing my bright-eyed, biblically trained, often sheltered undergraduates to modern schools of thought that undergirded some of the literary works I assigned. One of these was absurdism.
It was important at that time for my students to understand this philosophy in order to better appreciate the literature we’d be reading. It’s even more important now—especially for Christians—to understand absurdism so as to recognize how it is playing out today in real life.
“Absurd” essentially means “irrational.” As a philosophy, absurdism confronts the inherent irrationality of life. It is most closely associated with the 20th century French-Algerian philosopher and novelist Albert Camus, growing out of existentialist philosophy but parting from it in significant ways.
Existentialism posits that human existence precedes human meaning. In other words, human beings can’t simply assume that God or the universe will confer meaning to our existence, but rather, we are responsible to make that meaning for ourselves. Existentialism has a long history but gained prominence with Soren Kierkegaard, a 19th century Danish philosopher. But the search for meaning goes back much further, of course. The writers of the Old Testament books of Ecclesiastes and Job wrestle to find meaning in the brevity of our lives and the depth of our suffering, for example.
Finding and making meaning is a weighty responsibility that absurdism rejects, saying instead that the search for meaning is futile. Even so, we must persevere, embrace life in its meaninglessness, and even choose to be happy. Camus doesn’t deny that ultimate meaning exists, but he sees an unbridgeable gap between whatever meaning does exist and our ability to know it. …
[F]or the common, everyday person who finds no meaning in modern life—the one who must work long hours without satisfaction or joy in order to acquire food, shelter, and video games—there are easier, more readily accessible outlets for rebellion.
Enter internet trolling, meme-making, and “shitposting.”
While these activities are not identical, the last covers them all. Shitposting (sometimes more delicately referred to as “trashposting”) is, as one source puts it, a “style of online communication characterized by deliberately low-quality, ironic, or absurdist content, often used for humor, provocation, or community bonding.” …
Of course, human existence offers many absurdities. But absurdism as a worldview or philosophy of life contradicts core Christian understandings. The preacher in Ecclesiastes confronts the seeming vanity of life and the limits of human endeavors, but ultimately recognizes that God has a purpose for our existence even if we cannot always see it for ourselves. The book begins with the exclamation,
“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”Yet, it concludes with the essential meaning of human life:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.Likewise, after much suffering and argument, Job finally understands that the meaning of our lives is “too wonderful to know” and is found only in God.
We may not always be able to see the meaning in everything. Camus was right about that. But Christians believe that we can know the ultimate source and end of all meaning—the Creator who became human and entered into this life to experience human existence with us. We can know that truth, goodness, and beauty are worthy of being pursued and cultivated because they reflect the nature and character of God as well as the design for the human beings made in his image. We can know, too, that even the most mundane and futile-seeming tasks, when done to serve our neighbor and to glorify God, matter both now and for eternity.
When the absurdist tears down, we can build up.
Editor’s Note: If you would like to receive a weekly email each Sunday with links to faith posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.
