Suicide and the 2024 US Presidential Election
Albert Camus opened his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” without pretense, stating matter-of-factly, “There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” Throughout the course of his essay, he argues that life has no inherent, intrinsic meaning, and that any attempt to create a meaning in what is ultimately an absurdly indifferent universe is doomed to failure.
So what? Where does this leave us mere mortals, doomed to live our lives in an inherently absurd, cold and indifferent universe? And how does this relate to the fateful outcome of the 2024 US Presidential Election?
As of this writing it has been less than 24 hours since Donald Trump was declared victor in the 2024 Presidential Race. The absolute tidal wave of despair, grief, hurt, fear, anger and disbelief from my friends has threatened to overwhelm me, feelings I share, but somehow I’m still standing. Somehow I’m still here, writing what I hope will bring solace to myself and to everyone else in my position. Because when you’re staring down the barrel of the gun of the death of democracy, and life seems inherently absurd and meaningless in the face of what seems to be an inevitable outcome, the question of How do you respond to the impossible, inevitable and absurd requires the intervention of philosophers like Camus. And that’s where I think there is value to be had.
As punishment for his hubris, Sisyphus was doomed by the gods to roll a boulder up a hill, for eternity, watching it fall to the bottom and starting his inevitable journey again and again. A true exercise in futility. A true exercise in absurdity. What meaning is there to be found in rolling a boulder up a hill, only to watch all your progress be undone, again and again? What good is there to be found? Why continue the fight?
As a metaphor, this serves our purposes well, seeing progress push forward year after year under the Biden administration, with the looming threat of Project 2025 and the second Trump administration hanging over our heads, we may well ask ourselves the same question as Sisyphus: “Why am I fighting? Why am I voting? Why am I committing financial resources to causes I believe in only to watch all my work be dashed to pieces?”
Because it’s not JUST about seeing the work completed. It’s about doing the work itself, for ourselves, for those watching us, and for those who come after us. What happens to the hero at the end of the story once they save the world? “Now what?” What happens to Sisyphus when the boulder reaches the peak… and stays there?
When we ascribe meaning to the completion of a task, we are inevitably left with the question “What comes next?” once our labor is complete, and that itself is it’s own measure of the absurd: If our life’s meaning is tied up in what we seek to accomplish, then when or if we accomplish what we set out to do, we have no more meaning. Even worse, if our designs are frustrated, and the outcome we want is impossibly barred from us, then we fall into despair and despondency, because the fight is over. There is nothing left to fight for. There is nothing left to do. Everything has been done, and we have failed.
Then we wake up the next morning and we’re still here. There are still fights to be fought, battles to be won, mountains to be overcome. And the work that needs to be done to see these grand designs brought to fruition remains to us to do.
No person is an island, and no person fights alone. The people watching you fight, the people you help on your way forward, the lives you change, and the change you bring about in your own life as you find joy in the fight bring meaning to the struggle that a defined “end-point” can never bring. Can you choose to exit the fight, to commit suicide, to quit? Yes. But even that will have impacts on everyone in your life, especially in this globally-connected world in which we live, and that itself is a step backwards for the causes you strive for and for the lives you seek to touch with your kindness, your presence, your struggle, your strength. It is a choice, but ultimately, it is as meaningless to kill yourself as it is to give up the fight just because the boulder is rolling back down the hill.
A boulder crushes everything in it’s path, and more people will die because of Republican policies and Trumpian politics before his term is over and for many years after. But we will be there to pick up the pieces, to get involved in local politics, to bring our voices to government, local, state, federal, to bring about the changes we want to see in the world, the changes we believe in, the fights we fight, and the dreams we dream. Because we can be the change we want to see in the world. We can create the change we want to see in the world. And there is no end to this journey, this fight, no “finish line” where progress needs to stop, nothing to say “You’re done.”
Finding joy in the journey and the struggle of progress is meaningful enough. It is reason enough to live. In the face of all aridity and disenchantment, in the presence of an indifferent, cold and absurd universe, our own willingness to get up again and again and say to the specter of death “Not today” gives our lives meaning and hope, and with that, the strength to herald the birth of a better tomorrow.
One foot in front of the other, shoulder to the boulder, like Sisyphus, I must imagine us happy.
