It seems a good time to consider life’s absurdity as we convict and simultaneously absolve persons of crimes and we find ourselves suspended between the two poles of life’s magnificence and its fundamental ridiculousness. As Bernard de Fontanelle observed, “the magnificent and the ridiculous are so close that they touch.”
Any human that has ever asked an existential question has encountered this proximity and noted that this relationship makes it clear that absurdity is like a Bowie knife… any way you swing it you will find a sharp, cutting edge.. Absurdity can move in two essential arcs, one positive and the other wickedly destructive. A move in one direction and we will find laughter, nuance and creativity. Reverse the slash and we find conspiracy, demagoguery and deadly certainty. One side gives us Who’s on First and the other will assert that the holocaust is hoax. We must be careful. We must be deft because our absurd nature is unique. We possess as Thomas Hobbes put it, ” the privilege of absurdity, to which no other living creature is subject, but man only.” Yes we own this and we have seen it recently with great clarity.
We are hungry for meaning, so hungry that absurd assertions are often taken as truth. This misapprehension does not always come from laziness or stupidity, rather they seem to arise from our feeling of terror in a world that denies understanding and offers no context for our existence. The absurdities of racism, MAGA and Xenophobia gain traction among those who have a rage to believe in something and to belong with someone. Context. This is a lonely life without the comforts of certainty and belonging and we will suspend our judgment to secure both.
This week we were presented with a series of assertions – backed by massive evidence – that a certain individual committed crimes. Those that wished to prove the assertions went to tremendous lengths to illustrate and document the crimes but the mass of evidence – including first person accounts – achieved an absurd result: exoneration. This result is not simply a matter of Machiavellian strategy it indicates an embrace of absurdity that is truly malevolent. Ben Franklin could have been watching certain people who knew the truth of the crimes and chose the absurd arc: “The people heard it and approved the doctrine and immediately practiced the contrary.”
I am a big fan of absurdity but not this kind. Often, nonsense is hilarious and the masters of the absurdities are creative and heartwarming. This weeks encounter with absurdity was not of that ilk. It was willfully stupid and shortsighted. Frankly, it was offensive. Let’s leave the absurdity business to The Three stooges, SNL, Mark Twain…to those who can safely wield so sharp a weapon.
Absurdity is a privilege that needs to be conferred wisely.
Olio Folio 