{"id":3104,"date":"2013-05-29T23:32:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T23:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/?p=3104"},"modified":"2022-09-30T22:04:25","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T22:04:25","slug":"albert-camus-myth-of-sisyphus-and-your-sedona-az-irs-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/albert-camus-myth-of-sisyphus-and-your-sedona-az-irs-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Albert Camus\u2019 Myth of Sisyphus and your Sedona AZ IRS Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sedona AZ IRS Problem<\/h1>\n
Read our thoughts on this and how philosophy can help you through your Sedona Arizona IRS problem. \u00a0We all have “rocks” in our life whether its the IRS, a bad divorce, or eating too much candy. \u00a0Hopefully these thoughts we have written down here for you can be of some help or some inspiration.<\/div>\n

Albert Camus (1913-1960)<\/p>\n

Finding Meaning in Life through Engagement not Reflection.<\/p>\n

The Myth of Sisyphus<\/div>\n

Sisyphus was a character in Greek Mythology. \u00a0He was condemned by the gods to a truly pointless task. \u00a0He had to roll a rock up a mountain and when he got it to the top it would roll down from its own weight, and Sisyphus would have to do it over again and again and again. \u00a0This condemnation of the gods was for all eternity. \u00a0Camus refers to this as \u201cthe absurd.\u201d \u00a0The task assigned to Sisyphus has reference to what we do in our lives. \u00a0Don\u2019t we all at some time look at our lives and ask, \u201cWhat does this all add up to?\u201d \u00a0In the case of Sisyphus, I cannot think of anything more absurd than a lifetime filled with futile labor.<\/p>\n

The absurd to Camus is a confrontation between the rational human mind and the mind that deserves and demands justice and expects the universe to be comprehensible. \u00a0Camus says that the conflict comes when we realize that we live in \u201cuniverse of benign indifference.\u201d<\/div>\n
We are all born with a sense of justice and fairness. \u00a0Even young children know how they want to be treated. \u00a0We project this longing for justice and fairness onto the universe, and we expect the universe to fulfill our demands. \u00a0We think, for example that evil should be punished and goodness rewarded.<\/div>\n
Sisyphus is immortal. \u00a0What makes his life absurd is the fact that he is condemned to an eternity of futility. \u00a0 \u00a0To be condemned to a life with eternal futility is even more absurd than the life we live. \u00a0I remember learning about our city and state and country and being amazed by the size of the world. \u00a0Then I learned about our solar system and the Milky Way galaxy and that there are billons of stars larger than our earth in our galaxy. \u00a0And then I learned that there were billions and billions of galaxies. \u00a0I started to feel very insignificant especially when I realized that the universe was over 15 billion years old and that my life time was so infinitesimally short compared to the age of the universe.<\/div>\n

I am always intrigued when my children would come to me with something they don\u2019t understand and they ask, \u201cWhy?\u201d And that is followed by another and another \u201cWhy?\u201d \u00a0Eventually I have to say to the child that I don\u2019t know. \u00a0Eventually we run out of answers for all of their whys and have to eventually accept that we just don\u2019t know. \u00a0There is a limit to what our reason can justify in life. \u00a0Eventually we will always be back into the corner of the absurd.<\/p>\n

One must eventually ask, \u201cHow does Sisyphus cope with the absurd?\u201d \u00a0Camus makes it very clear, in telling this story that he refers to Sisyphus as \u201cthe absurd hero.\u201d \u00a0While we might readily agree that the situation is absurd, but what makes him a hero?\u201d<\/div>\n

Camus says that \u201cSisyphus makes his rock, his thing.\u201d \u00a0He puts his whole self into his labor, and one can imagine Sisyphus as he rolls the rock up the mountain coming to notice, appreciate, and even love the various contours and markings on the rock itself. \u00a0He comes to study and appreciate, and even become very fond of, the various bumps and levels that the rock has to proceed along. \u00a0There is a sense, in which, what he does, is throw himself into his labor. \u00a0The consequence of this, Camus tells us, is that Sisyphus must be considered happy. \u00a0He can be content and satisfied with his situation through engagement.<\/p>\n

There is a way of guaranteeing that you will hate any routine task at home or work. \u00a0By always looking at the clock and seeing how much more time you have to go\u2014or looking at the task itself and saying, \u201cI am only half way through,\u201d as you reflect on what you are doing, you in fact undermine it. \u00a0Reflection poisons the experience.<\/div>\n
Insofar as we get into what we do\u2014make ourselves simply love every moment of it; we love the process, even though it might be painful or tedious at times\u2014to the extent we live our lives to the fullest we are happy. \u00a0What is interesting here is that the role of reflection\u2014reason\u2014is a problem insofar that reflections has to do with asking ourselves the question, \u201cWhat does this amount to?\u201d \u00a0The answer is going to be deeply unsatisfying. \u00a0You read in Ecclesiastes in the Bible that our lives amount to essentially nothing.<\/div>\n
One of the themes of Camus\u2019s philosophy is rebellion. \u00a0Sisyphus rebels, but what is interesting is he does not do what we would expect him to do; to drop the rock and refuse to push it any further. \u00a0He continues to push the rock. \u00a0That is his fate. \u00a0As he does it, he rebels in the sense that he refuses to accept the absurdity that has been imposed upon him by the gods. \u00a0Nietzsche calls this \u201camor fati\u201d\u2014love of fate.<\/div>\n
Sisyphus must say, \u201cThis is what I do, and I am not going to think about the fact that for eternity it will add up to nothing.\u201d \u00a0To Dostoevsky consciousness is not a blessing. \u00a0Consciousness is not our aim. \u00a0Consciousness is the problem. \u00a0Camus says of Sisyphus: \u201cIf his story is tragic, it is tragic because the hero is conscious.\u201d \u00a0Conscious means self-conscious or reflective. \u00a0The universe is absurd and does not satisfy our moral demands or our demands for understanding it as well.<\/div>\n

To Camus, we either find the meaning of life, in our lives, or we are not going to find it at all. \u00a0The message of The Myth of Sisyphus is that insofar as you are wholly engaged in your life and you taste the experience that you have, that is what gives it \u00a0meaning. \u00a0Once you elevate yourself to a philosophical level and start reflecting, and start asking yourself the questions, \u201cWhat does it all amount to? \u00a0What is its meaning?\u2019\u2014then suddenly you don\u2019t have any answers.<\/p>\n

What we get in Camus is a very interesting perspective on our lives in which the idea is not to look at our lives objectively from a distance. \u00a0When we do that \u2013detach ourselves from our own experience and engagements\u2014the result is something that is utterly unsatisfactory. \u00a0If you watch a couple kissing, there is a sense in which it looks ridiculous. \u00a0It is only when you are the one that is engaged in that activity that it becomes meaningful. \u00a0Camus wants to see that it is only when we are fully engaged in our lives that life makes sense.<\/div>\n

So what is your rock in life? \u00a0Each of us has at least one rock and most of us have a \u00a0bagful. \u00a0The admonition of Jesus to \u201ctake up your cross, daily\u201d is a directive to get engaged in positive activity and to do it to the point that we become unaware or even concerned what your activity adds up to. \u00a0 Sisyphus\u2019 rock is the equivalent to taking up our cross.<\/p>\n

I have read stories of ordinary citizens in Germany, after their city was devastated by Allied bombers during World War II, would be stacking bricks, putting the rubble into piles, sweeping the sidewalks and streets and cleaning up the debris the very next morning. \u00a0Those who could play a musical instrument would accompany the work being done with Mozart and Beethoven.<\/div>\n

The German people did this even though they knew their city would be bombed the very next day and the day after that. \u00a0Is it any wonder that Germany, despite the terrible devastation brought against them by the American and Russian armies was the first country to successfully restore its economy after the war?<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/span><\/div>\n

I guess it is pretty easy to guess if you are reading this blog that your IRS problem in Sedona AZ is your rock. \u00a0The only difference is that it is a temporary event, not one for eternity. \u00a0However Albert Camus shares with us in his great story, The Myth of Sisyphus the importance of getting engaged in resolving your IRS matter and not just sitting around reflecting on it. \u00a0May I suggest that you contact Scott Allen E.A. and schedule a free consultation to determine the best way to take action to resolve your Sedona AZ IRS problem. \u00a0Scott can be reached at 480-926-9300. \u00a0It will be the best engagement action you can take and he will make sure that your \u201crock\u201d (IRS) goes away.<\/p>\n

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Sedona AZ IRS Problem Read our thoughts on this and how philosophy can help you through your Sedona Arizona IRS problem. \u00a0We all have “rocks” in our life whether its the IRS, a bad divorce, or eating too much candy. \u00a0Hopefully these thoughts we have written down here for you can be of some help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,26,39,29],"tags":[86,55],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7571,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3104\/revisions\/7571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taxdebtadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}