Tags for this video have been changed from 'dog, rock, roll, water, dive' to 'dog, rock, roll, water, dive, sisyphus' - edited by ponceleon

Sisyphus dog is sisyphusian.

My post-structuralist and Lacanian psychoanalysis is getting overclocked right now.

This vid= "the human revolt against the irremediable. (s)he refuses the reason its reasons and begins to advance with some decision only in the middle of that colorless desrt where all certainties have become stones."
-Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

The Modern British(?) equivalent of Sisyphus.

>> ^Opus_Moderandi:
nice animation, had to turn the sound off tho... was creeping me out.


Haha yes, in the way that they say yawning is infectious, I found myself almost gasping for air as I watched.

And thanks, Choggie

Tags for this video have been changed from 'bbc, toad, tarantula, amazing' to 'bbc, toad, tarantula, amazing, Sisyphus' - edited by sometimes

To modify the Constitution is extremely difficult and the Amendments must be ratified. You're talking about an incredibly difficult process that has very little to do with the democratic process. But, yes, there is a way to change the Constitution. I just wanted to stop you before we started going down the road of "the Constitution is a living document" shit that is a tired and laborious argument.

Hell, Jefferson wanted government, laws and debt to be generational and change every 19 years or so. Good thing he was in Paris at that time and Madison was his buffer to the Constitution.


"Nobody can deny that gun ownership is a right which can (and from time to time does) harm others - can you? One may argue the extent and potential of this, but I thought even libertarians (actually, especially libertarians) had the principle that the government can't intrude on an individual's rights UNLESS they are in violation of other people's right to live."

51% of the population cannot vote your right to bear arms away. The government cannot take this right away, either. But, if an individual takes his gun and shoots someone, he has used his right to encroached on another person's rights which makes him wrong. What is it that you're not getting? Sorry, that sounded harsh. Let me rephrase. What is it I'm not properly communicating.

Also, I have no idea where you live. And, yes, I wouldn't presume to know anything about your country, because I most likely do not know anything about it. Civil discourse is great. I welcome it. I apologize if I'm sounding snarky. I just feel like Sisyphus pushing a rock of Libertarianism up the mountain of Leftist Authoritarians and it gets very, very tiring.

To believe that we don't have free will is to suggest that your very mind's existence is an illusion. It also releases us from moral accountability and negates any purpose to our lives, which would really suck bigtime. Everything that is important to you doesn't matter. Your mom's mind doesn't actually exist. She's just a complex, pre-determined machine. Ick. If that's not counter-intuitive, I don't know what is.


Ummm but if it is true then the world doesn't change. The past still happened the same way it happened. The future still happens the way it was determined. Mum still buys you a gift on your birthday. Nothing changes regardless of your acceptance of it. If it comes into your awareness as a truth, it was already determined and life goes on? Makes me think about Sisyphus. Surely there is potential to find a greater freedom in knowing the predicted future than an uncertain one? Release from futile tasks and acceptance of reality?

"The struggle itself...is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." - Albert Camus


Personally I am still in contemplation on the issue so can't offer any decent argument. I do find it odd however that we look toward history in awe but if the future was written it is apparently a disaster. But then again I did always like to try to work out my pressies before Christmas Day

When contemplating the meaning of life I often go back to on of the great philosophers, Whedon, who wrote:

Life's not a song.
Life isn't bliss.
Life is just this.
It's living.

Like Sisyphus the work in itself is the meaning there is. In the grand scheme of things what we do does not matter very much, videos that show the scale of the universe seems to exemplify that. I would gather that there is no real meaning (as in purpose) of our existence. We can invent a bunch of them, which are of course temporally bound, like all things are, such as "we live to better ourselves and our species". We are but a short part in a very long chain of life, our purpose could be construed as just filling that role and making sure that our species evolves - the same "purpose" all other animals have.

The first and third question seems intertwined, so I'll just answer those two together.

Morals, ethics, personal relationships, social lives, these are all bound in a very finite time period and a very small amount of space. And yet they do matter, to me. The stars and quasars are pretty indifferent to who I meet at a party, but to me it can be pretty important. It's all about perspective.

Can I imagine myself not existing? Well, yes and no. I can look at relatives and friends who are not among us anymore and relate to the void they've left - I can imagine that I would leave a similar void in other people. This is of course only transient, and my memory would be replaced at some point, or at least diminished. We make a very small dent in the universe, but we still ought to enjoy it as much as we can.

It's much harder to reconcile the fact that when I'm dead I really don't exist anymore. That won't make it any less true though. I've argued earlier that we are essentially determined biological machines and that we in principle don't have free will, this is just as hard to reconcile myself with, but the fact that it's hard to imagine, won't make it any less true. (That on may actually be false, but I doubt it.)

>> ^gwiz665:
This is a prime example for talks.


Oops, still getting used your new channel.

Ron Paul may be a saint, but he's not going to be President.

I don't like it, but there's nothing anybody can do. Change in politics is akin to Sisyphus rolling the rock up a hill.

It's like a mechanical Sisyphus device!

Here's is the first paragraph from a Wikipedia article on "Absurdism":

"Absurdism is a philosophy stating that the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe will ultimately fail (and, hence, are absurd) because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to humanity. The word Absurd in this context does not mean "logically impossible", but rather "humanly impossible".[1] Absurdism is related to Existentialism, though should not be confused with it. Absurdism as a concept has its roots in the 19th century Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard. Absurdism as a belief system was born of the Existentialist movement when the French philosopher and writer Albert Camus broke from that philosophical line of thought and published his manuscript The Myth of Sisyphus. The aftermath of World War II provided the social environment that stimulated absurdist views and allowed for their popular development, especially in the devastated country of France."

1. ^Silentio, Johannes de. Fear and Trembling. Penguin Classics, p. 17


The rest is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism


Since it is a philosophy, I remembered a discussion about a Philosophy Collective. And guess who suggested that previously?

http://www.videosift.com/talk/Philosophy-collective-Do-we-have-one-Is-it-active


I'm amused that this has become circular.


It's been twenty-five years since I studied the Theater of the Absurd in a Playwrights and Poets course in high school. We read "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead."

About time is right.. I felt like Sisyphus trying to get those last few freaking videos in. I lost more than I gained for awhile. Now I can sit back and concentrate on making incendiary comments.

Thanks everyone.

By the way, anyone want my collective?
I really want to start an Election'08 collective. (don't go stealing that idea you hungry new goldies)

I think Election 2008 will be key online and very key to video sites like this one. Unless dag has bigger ideas on making it an ElectionSift website (which I think is a brilliant idea and have been pushing for it).