Hope betrays life itself

Hope betrays life itself

According to Albert Camus, hope is a form of escapement from the personal responsibility of achieving the unachievable. This means that hope refrains one from the realization of realities of limitation and one’s capability to achieve those realities. Therefore according to Camus, for one to refrain from this mockery of hope, he/she must adhere to the absurdity of life and embrace life’s meaninglessness instead that strive to achieve anything beyond one capability.  In The Myth of Sisyphus, one must endure hardship throughout their life to achieve any milestone of success rather than float on the wonderland of hope where absurdities are limited. The Camus critique presents a strong analogy by identifying varying experiences that affect human existence in this world through different challenges in the strive for success. In such a context, this paper will interpret what Camus meant when he wrote that hope betrays life itself and critically evaluate the Camus arguments by taking a position on his case.

From the interpretation of The Myth of Sisyphus, people are always forced to seek the systematic perception of any situation they have no full understanding of “ typical act of eluding, the fatal evasion… is hope. The hope of another life one must ‘deserve’ or trickery of those who live not for life itself but for some great idea that will transcend it, refine it, give it a meaning, and betray it” (Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 8). Despite this, the perception to attain hope is usually marred with absurdity.  This means that ones sought for the meaning of any situation are generally objected by the desire to escape the search and be contended with something else beyond their horizon “hope.”  Camus’s perception of this analog is vague because people are always after setting their future purposes. This means that people are hoping for a world that is yet to be attained where their ultimate resolution is based on a better future  “living an illustrious life, [where] time carries us” (Camus  13).  According to Camus, hope betrays life since it keeps one in the state of approaching his death, thus existing to kill time a fact which is futile and absurd. He alludes that “…..on the other hand, in a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land…..” (Camus 6). By alluding to the teaching of salvation in the bible, Camus means that the feeling of hope makes to expect beyond earthly life to the land we cannot see.

As a human, we are able to see reality but live in the hope of something we are unable to witness or see. This comes to the connotation that hope betrays life; people have higher expectations after death life to an extent they deny themselves happiness with the expectation of a better life that cannot be witnessed.    To support this loss of life in many religious teaching has been bed credited to God’s will without consideration of the reality of losing the beloved one. The world is filled with harsh, irrational, and unfair realities that humanity has under looked due to the pretense of hope for a better future.  As a result, Camus objected to this human behavior since increased hope in people hinders them from enjoying life into reality but instead perceives life as an ungraspable fact beyond hope.

To refrain from the feeling of hope, Camus proposes the following alternatives. The human being should embrace life as it is, and it is guided by material things; thus, there is no need to perceive life as immaterial. Therefore people should not be limited in any way in the search for life fulfillment since people can only live in physical states, which enables them to experience the satisfaction and fruits of life. As opposed to the notion of hope, which limits people’s p enjoyment of life and limitation to access to material things, Camus eludes that people should dwell in the material world and dwell in this world rather than transcend in it. Through this people will be able to live in the modern world rather than the world of tomorrow. The elusion of tomorrow is filled with uncertainties that doe not guarantee the gratification, which is usually connected with hope. Therefore as the human body dictates, “tomorrow …..Whereas everything in him ought to reject it, that revolt of the flesh is the absurd” (Camus 14). One is endowed to conform to the uncertainties associated with this illusion of tomorrow, which might force human fresh to revolt.  People should always find meaning where there is no meaning and rationalize earthly irrationalities by being conscious of one’s limit and the reason associated with these limits.

Since people have specific knowledge on what they perceive to be beyond what they can see, Camus alludes that “…must sacrifice everything to these certainties, and I must see them squarely to be able to maintain them” (Camus 21). Thus the physical world always presents uncertainties while hope makes these uncertainties ambiguous rather than making people experience reality. To avoid this confusion, an aptitude thinker must at all times remain upright and within their limits to achieve these uncertainties.  This can be attained by reflecting beyond physical appearance, which brings one closer to a total understanding of what the illuminate means to the world. Camus calls for people to invoke the teaching of philosophers like Chestov which teaches that “whole family of minds related by their nostalgia but opposed by their methods or their aims, have persisted in blocking the royal road of reason and in recovering the direct paths of truth” (Camus 23).  The philosopher seeks to reach beyond their limit through faith, which can only be achieved through the rationalization of religious teaching.

From my own perfective, I believe that people should not live in the illusion of their life to avoid realities that are associated with the experience. This makes be agrees with Camus in all extend and perception of hope and realities of life.  The connotation of hope advocated by religious teaching should not limit people from enjoying their life to the fullest since with such notion in mind, there are limited chances of finger-pointing to other people but rather to the experience itself. According to Camus, “…..god is maintained only through the negation of human reason” (Camus 41).  Therefore it is unwise to connect irrational life uncertainties and attributes to God and at the sometimes confirm illogical absurdity of God in different certainties. The Myth of Sisyphus calls for people to be practical in all their undertakings and realistic in initiating actions rather than hope for the issue to happen.

The analogy presented by Camus is a true reflection on what I believe life should entail in the strive to achieve full life rather than live in the notion of hope, which can lead to poverty and pretense. As he stated, “…but it is just as natural that he should strive to escape the universe of which he is the creator” (Camus 32). I find it appealing that he proposed we are almost akin to our creator; therefore, people are in control of their destiny just like our creator. Although I completely agree with his analogy, our perception deviates from his void disregard of hope. In modern society, hope to keep people going and live longer to face the challenges associated with the strive to achieve better tomorrow. Hope keeps people in the track of making certain qualities that are desired in the world but should not blind people from enjoying life to the fullest and gaining materialistic prosperity.  Therefore, hope serves as a placebo whose outcome might be manifested in different forms and formats.

Therefore as humans, we should not deny ourselves from hope since it provides one with consideration for a better life in the future. Despite this, the endorsement of hope in people’s life should not hinder people from improving their lives with the hope of better tomorrow.  This is due to the fact that people are drivers of their life destiny; therefore, one needs to comply with absurdities that are subjected to change depending on people’s perception of hope. Hence, hope must, at all, cost intertwined with action by finding the true meaning of absurdities that surround their life.