Life starts in chaos, it becomes progressively more organized, efficient, functionally evolved -- and then it reaches a point at the 'top of the arc of life' where it starts 'de-evolving' and slipping back towards chaos again. As energy becomes 'less available' in the organism (that's us in the 'Boomer Brigade'), it becomes, generally speaking, more 'conserved'.
Call this slow or fast downhill slide into 'de-evolution' -- 'entropy' or 'inertia'. (Yes, I know, it hurts to think about it.)
All else being equal, the older we get, the more predisposed we get towards developing entropic tendencies towards inertial unless or until we use stronger 'will-to-action power' to make our situation different.
A will-to-action vs. a will-to-non-action -- the louder 'will to power' will speak.
As the creator and primary author of Hegel's Hotel, some days I have to wonder whether or not I am engaged in 'The Myth of Sisyphus', or whether, one day, I will be able to actually look out over the 'top of my hotel' -- metaphorically speaking of course -- and say, "Dave, you built a great hotel. Hegel would have been proud of you. Maybe even Freud...nah...too many psychoanalytic theorists 'evicted' and/or 'ex-communicated' before you...why would you be any different?"
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The Myth of Sisyphus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sisyphus by Titian, 1549 The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 120 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin O'Brien followed in 1955.
In the essay, Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd: man's futile search for meaning, unity and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternal truths or values. Does the realization of the absurd require suicide? Camus answers: "No. It requires revolt." He then outlines several approaches to the absurd life. The final chapter compares the absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. The essay concludes, "The struggle itself...is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
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My personal opinion: Life doesn't have to be 'absurd'. You need more than a 'hopeless, endless struggle' to make your life meaningful. You need to perceive and feel an actual sense of accomplishment and achievement as well -- if only within yourself.
For a supreme mountain climber, it's not just the struggle to climb to the top of Mt. Everest that is the 'motivating drive' behind the monumental activity involved. It is the visualization -- the fantasy -- of standing on top of the mountain, planting your flag or whatever else you want to do up there -- and then actually going out and doing it -- without, of course, falling deep down into 'Nietzsche's Abyss' (and never getting out of it alive).
Everyone of us falls into greater or lesser examples of Nietzsche's Abyss at different times in our lives -- it is the last one that we never climb out of -- the one where they put the lid over our head -- that closes off all further 'life possibilities'.
The conclusion to this is obvious, and has become almost cliche: Do what you most need to do, or want to do, now -- or as fast as you possibly can -- because, one day, tomorrow will never come. We all must one day look over the precipace that is staring deep down into Nietzsche's Final Abyss...
-- dgb, March 1st, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain
