Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Do you see life as being more tragic or absurd?

I just saw a brilliant recent Woody Allen movie "Melinda and Melinda." The film is told from the point of view of two people, one who sees life as absurd and one who sees life as tragic. The movie features two sets of actors, one for a romantic comedy and one for a drama, but it's the same story. The scenes keep going back and forth.

So, do you see life as being more tragic or absurd?

neither to be honest.

If I had to choose...........absurd.

absurd.

tragic for the loss of life, for the way people abuse themselves, tragic that people are so far past the stage of materialism. these tragedies are absurd!

Neither. I look at life as being a necessary test all of us have to go through.

Life IS absurd, we FEEL it is tragic :peace:

Oh come on guys, read the question.


Absurd. Because, for me at least, I feel that tragedy can fall under, in as far as it is in essence, part of the absurd, while the absurd cannot be defined as tragic, regardless of mood. There are times when I can look at tragedy, not with indifference, but from varying perspectives with a range of wonder and perplextion. I cannot place the absurd under the bracket of tragedy regardless of my mood because it doesn't, the connection between the two goes in only one direction.

But maybe it becomes easier for somebody like me, who is able to take a step back and consider tragedy with a view to the absurd; when you are viewing most of what comprises your idea of tragedy, outside of Shakespeare, through the media or the arts then you are not engaging with it in a way that you can fully relate or even understand, outside of personal tragedy of course. With regards to major tragedy it is as if you have become little more than a spectator, and I cannot yet work out whether that is a good thing or not, if it gives any more, or any less, validity to an opinion held on the subject.

... I need to see that movie.

Absurd.

Look at it this way...some people slave away at shit jobs and make minimum wage, while others make 1000 times that from stocks alone, doing nothing. If that's not absurd I don't know what is.

life is tragically absurd. its absurd that the human race thinks it is important when we're really just like insects infesting the earth. just like a disease or parasite destroying our home. haha i sound like a hippy ^.^ anyway, but absurd that we cant do anything abou it,its in our nature.

neither

i'd say it is complicated, absurd if you look at it one way only, tragic if you let yourself feel this way.

Agreed with Jessica it's tragic if you let yourself feel that way, Absurd perhaps but not in it's entire but between those 2 I stay with Absurd.

Some people choose to get an education and some people don't.

If you don't have an education, you probably won't be able to get a good job.

Never been to Ecuador have you?, Here if you know the Owner of the enterprise you're in even though you are a retarded. Sad but true  :-\

same everywhere dick p

It's easier to work if you know someone personally or if you know someone who knows someone who knows someone............................................................

Wznt the truth ?

I'm gonna have to ask mycousin if she can help me get work..and

I HAVE HAD AN EDUCATION AND HAVE YEARS OF GOOD WORK ON MY CURICULUM VITAE ..

everyone in develloped countried have an education ( almost) so why are there so many out of a job@MARKUS

Why are there so many out of a job?

Um, well I can't really answer that question with one single sentence but last I checked the unemployment rate wasn't that high. And, I'm talking about the u.s., not any other countries.

That's totally absurd. Most people who get an education still will not leave their SES. The top one percent, on the other hand, continue to make millions annually, doing virtually nothing.

No, it's not.

I know, very well, how people who don't have an education (common on my mom's side of the family) cannot get good jobs.

I think we can't put life in two categories, that's absurd ?;). And how should we say that life's tragic or absurd, we have nothing we can match with it.

Markus, you make it sound like a straight line choice. You have to take into consideration not only financial factors (especially in your country!) but also background encouragement and how ideas of education are instilled in the individual!, opinion of education is hugely dependant on background, not only of your family, but also of your peers and the part of society that is specific to YOU! It isn't a question of,

do you want to be educated? Not only do not all people have the same benefits as others, but not everybody is given equal perspective either.

That's such a middle class attitude.

I have a BA and it's worthless. Might as well have learned a trade.

... Maybe you would have been better off with a BS................................

Life is absurd. No matter what we do, we just die. Everything we accomplish will be forgotten with the passage of time. Someday the world as we know will cease to exist, and all our lives, the life of everyone, will have been for naught.

Not if your name is Achilles.

... Well, and you're the real Achilles.

Everyone.

Someday the earth as we know it will be gone, all memories gone. It will be as though "Chinese Democracy" were never released.

Yeah but it still happened.? People have done incredible things over the years and these people are remembered.? They may not be forever, but still the universe will remain and even when the Earth is gone life will thrive on other planets.? Things always change, the world never stays the same.? You experience something, you record it and you learn from it.

Life is not tragic, life is something incredible and special that should not be taken for granted.? It seems absurd at times but really it shouldn't - it's the only reality we have so you'd have thought we'd be used to it by now.

Some say that the brevity of life makes it all the more precious.

And they're right.

Me too - the paper its printed on is probably of more value to me

..and life is absurd, no question of that - everything that happens is gloriously stupid, like one big stage show

While some see life as being both tragic and absurd, I tend to see it as more of the latter than the former, although that may be a minority opinion.

To say life is absurd, is to diminish its worth. Absurdity would place it in the category of  meaningless and irrational.

So I'll go with tragic. It seems more tragic, because you become attached to a life that doesn't last.  But even though it doesn't last forever, it's still valuable and worthwhile, which makes it so hard to let go of.