The New Sisyphus Is a Woman
We should all be familiar with Albert Camus’ philosophical essay, The Myth of Sisyphus. The famous and oft referenced essay details the absurdity of 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”.
A well-worn (or is it worn out?) cliché is that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result — frequently attributed to Albert Einstein, albeit incorrectly. So how then if that is to ring true can Sisyphus be happy with the “struggle itself” knowing the inevitable and predictable outcome?
The answer can be found in Camus belief in Absurdism, a theory positing that life itself is absurd. We only despair if our own life falls short of an ideal — but since life is absurd, there is no ideal. Therefore, Sisyphus can do what he wants with his life. He has no reason to be unhappy, so he may as well be happy because you know, he’s a big loser.
This can also be taken to mean that he is content because he has the freedom of being discontent and he finds happiness in discontent by entirely discounting the ideal. Certainly, if his happiness is due to the struggle and the freedom of doing what he does so routinely and arduously always concludes with a predictable (and losing) result that probably would be considered a bit insane by most.
This is especially true since success is often defined as “winning” and to not want to win, to be successful even short of the ideal, would be considered being a failure (and even desiring to fail). That certainly would be thought of by most as well, crazy. “I never won but I enjoyed the happiness and freedom of the struggle” would make a horrible epitaph for most of us. Welcome to Absurdism 101.
Taking that into consideration, I posit that there is a “new” Sisyphus tale that includes the same metaphorical task of pushing a boulder up a mountain. As with the old Sisyphus, there is happiness and difficulty in the task. However, there is a significant twist. The New Sisyphus is a woman - is women - and the tale is emblematic of the Women’s Movement.
The effort now results with varying degrees of incremental and permanent success. That is the underlying motivation to keep going despite the repetitiveness of the task. There clearly exist the ideals of victory and success, and that is what we strive for. It is not all about winning, it is also about how we get there and an appreciation of the struggle no matter how dismal the task.
The struggle of moving the rock up the mountain in this version of Sisyphus is continuous and most importantly truly and objectively rewarding. The boulder represents change and it never rolls all the way back down to the bottom again. Instead it rests against prior victories and is held steady, propped up by millions of hands. It is not just the struggle of one. It is the struggle of many.
This produces incremental, permanent and sustainable victories laced with freedom which provides not only a higher starting point for the next push upward but placing it all that much closer to the top of the mountain, closer to the ideal, closer to victory. It can be frustrating but ultimately, it is immensely rewarding.
This new Sisyphus tale does not only involve victories. Of course, there are setbacks, but those are greatly diminished by each victory. Each setback becomes smaller, dimmer, less powerful and more manageable and thus easier to defeat permanently under the glare of success.
The new Sisyphus is driven by the collective “she” fueled by a herstory of disenfranchisement. There is a growling persistence; a dedicated and vocal resistance that will not be shut out or shut down and a resolve not seen since the Civil Rights era in America.
Right here and right now in America, if not worldwide, that growl has become a roar and cannot be dismissed simply as a reaction to the misogynistic regime that currently occupies the White House or the sexual predators that once roamed unabated throughout all walks of life. There is much more to it than that. The centuries of the abuse and the oppression of women is at the very foundation.
The fight against the evil of misogyny and sexual abuse are being undertaken with the well sharpened spearheads of justice and righteousness along with unprecedented support, voice, agency and again, driven by a relentless and never resting persistence.
This new Sisyphus is the Women’s Movement of today. It is important to repeat that it is not just one person but many and thus many hands holding and pushing the rock up the mountain of change with an unrelenting, unparalleled and growing strength and an unequalled passion.
You are no longer alone. You revel in the cathartic high that comes from being in the presence of like-minded people. Your strength is found in the collective intelligence and passion of the movement and from within and being clearly on the right side of history. And you will not settle for second place any longer. The words “NEVER AGAIN!” have not rung louder or truer than they do now.
We must keep in mind that Sisyphus only had the steepness of the mountain and the weight of the rock to contend with in his quest whereas today we have not only those factors to consider but the extreme pressure from the fascist cult-like regime and its mass of followers trying their damnedest to push the rock back down the mountain and to make sure it stays put, to turn back time to the darkest of ages.
They have been given a voice and agency by a man so disgusting and void of morality and integrity that I won’t even mention his name. We all know who he is and what he has done and will continue to do unless he is stopped by indictment or impeachment — or both. We cannot count on this outcome so we fight back and we will not be stopped until justice is served.
It is the great unraveling and the social costs are enormous and potentially irrevocable as he and his henchmen try their hardest to circumvent the rule of law and pervert justice to take away the hard-fought victories of inalienable and natural rights. Rights that people died to achieve and others, died to protect.
Once inalienable rights are established either via government and/or society the rock should never roll down upon them to crush them, relegating them to die in the ash heap of history. If we find this happening at any place along the spectrum of the trek towards the top of the mountain we should be more than alarmed and immediately moved to action. That time is now. We must not hesitate in our urgency.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the women of today and those that came before them because they have kept doggedly pushing that damned rock up the mountain. They/you have fought hard as if your life depended upon it because it often did. Taking one victory at a time in the name of equality and towards the greater good for all people of all colors, all faiths, all genders and all sexual orientations.
On top of that gratitude we must act and we must act now. We all must join the fight in solidarity, side by side, to help push that metaphorical rock, to keep it always moving forward, to keep the momentum going until the opposition is crushed.
There is a new Sisyphus in town and she is changing the world. She is fighting against the condemnation into forced silence and apathy. She is resilient. She is persistent. She is roaring. She is the Women’s Movement and her task is anything but absurd.