The world is an absurd place. For example, it is absurd that good people die early while villains enjoy long lifespans. It is absurd that honest, hardworking people remain poor, while sly, dishonest charlatans make a fortune easily. It is also paradoxical that some people live miserably in underdeveloped countries, while others lead happy lives in affluent, advanced nations. Indeed, such inequities feel deeply absurd because life is short, and we have only one life to live.
For soldiers wounded or dying on the battlefield, or civilians turned starving, homeless refugees, war is absurd, too. Due to the disillusionment of World War II, absurdist literature flourished in the 1950s, primarily in France. The movement grew out of nihilism and existentialism and was shaped by Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett and Joseph Heller, among others. It mainly explores themes surrounding the irrationality of the human condition.
Representative absurdist works include "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett and "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller. Precursors to the absurdist movement include Franz Kafka — who wrote "The Trial" and "The Metamorphosis" — along with Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. They all deal with the conflict between humanity’s quest for inherent meaning and the irrationality and meaninglessness of a cold, indifferent reality.
The postwar era is over, and we are now living in the 21st century. Unfortunately, however, we still witness unreasonable, inexplicable absurdity everywhere. The dictionary defines “absurd” as “wildly illogical, unreasonable, ridiculous or completely lacking common sense and rational structure.” Indeed, we encounter these absurd phenomena in our contemporary world every day.
Absurdity in our reality is mostly caused by human follies, which is why we have witnessed numerous absurdities throughout history. One example is what happened to nations after colonial rule. Following liberation, formerly colonized countries expected to be happy and prosperous in a “paradise regained” with restored sovereignty. Strangely, however, liberated countries almost always descended into chaos due to power politics, religious conflicts or ideological clashes. Instead of becoming serene, unified nations with high hopes for a bright future, many suffered severe sociopolitical disruptions and turned into tyrannical states.
Likewise, when “people power” ousted dictators, we expected free, democratic nations to emerge. To our disappointment, civilian tyranny often replaced political or military dictatorships. People shed blood to gain freedom, only to end up facing a different type of oppression. Anti-government activists who fought dictators often became tyrannical rulers themselves; they became monsters while fighting monsters, just as Nietzsche warned in his seminal book, "Beyond Good and Evil."
Another example of historical absurdity is communism. In theory, communism was supposed to turn the world into a paradise by founding an egalitarian society and liberating workers from capitalist extortion. On the contrary, it created totalitarian, authoritarian regimes where the Communist Party held absolute power while ordinary people remained powerless and poor under the propaganda of “equality.” Citizens were deprived of information and kept under constant surveillance. To make matters worse, communism — much like an aggressive religion — adopted a sacred mission to spread its ideology globally through territorial expansion.
Communism largely collapsed in the early 1990s as communist states began adopting capitalist elements to survive. Still, the Communist Party remains in several nations, and privileged party members continue to rule under the name of socialism. As a result, people in these societies still struggle to survive, caught between their desperate search for meaning and the irrational, frightening realities they face every day.
Similarly, it is ironic that many self-proclaimed progressives act regressively by clinging to the past rather than moving toward the future. By becoming past-obsessed rather than future-oriented, they end up resembling the extreme conservatives they detest. It is also absurd how easily far-left ideologues can morph into the very fascists they loathe by exalting the state above the individual, worshipping a tyrannical leader and using surveillance and censorship to silence dissidents.
Indeed, we are living in an absurd world. Watching current events, we cannot help but mutter, “That’s absurd!” Domestically, we find heavy taxes, misguided education systems and petty political skirmishes absurd. Internationally, we find territorial disputes, religious or ideological clashes, and trade wars ignited by ultranationalism equally irrational. The world should be a serene place of peaceful coexistence — a vibrant global village of diverse cultures, religions and ethnic backgrounds. Yet reality falls far short of what we hope for and expect.
Oscar Wilde once said, “It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.” In fact, we witness rigid, reductive divisions everywhere — such as right and wrong, true and false or us and them. Perhaps living in an absurd world is the inevitable, existential condition of human beings. If we cannot alter the human nature that creates this absurdity, the best thing we can do is endure and overcome it as best we can.
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Kim Seong-kon
Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College. The views expressed here are the writer's own. — Ed
khnews@heraldcorp.com
