Absurd Is Good

*originally published in the Idaho Springs CO Mountain Messenger June, 1996; revised 1-22-2008, and again 5-19-10*

In an email from a cyberacquaintance, she regaled me with her latest series of pet misadventures, concluding with how one of her dogs -- adorned in a medical 'lampshade', had pinned one of her precocious cats to the floor, resulting in a minor riot that barely avoided the calling out of her local National Guard.

She concluded the email with an almost anguished "my life is absurd".

My response to her: "and you should be different from the rest of us, how?"

To poorly paraphrase an old fast food restaurant commercial, "absurd is good". It must be.

Absurdity permeates society. We live it, breathe it, do it. We watch it on TV and in the news. We say, write, imagine and pass laws based on it. We celebrate and honor it. We go so far as to elect it.

Think my premise is absurd? Read on, and I'll show you how absurd your denial is, though that it's okay, 'cuz it's what we are, either way.

We humans are, apparently by Nature, absurd. We can think and reason. We can differentiate between right and wrong. We can invent, create, and improvise. We can take a dream from image to reality. We have, over the course of many thousands of years, gone from living in trees, caves and snake-infested gardens, to living in advanced, energy-efficient, controlled-climate, convenience-cluttered dwellings. We've evolved from fire to the microwave. We've gone from wall etchings and smoke signals to satellite cell phones, texting, 'tweeting' and email. We can see around the world on TV, instantly. We've explored the Marianas Trench, Mt. Everest, the moon, and sent our research probes far beyond our Solar System, and all without Ralph Kramden's help.

At the same time, we have evolved from killing one another with stone and spear over issues of self-defense and food, to killing one another with all sorts of simple and advanced weaponry, over issues of religion, land, possessions, sex, and even the color one wears in the wrong part of town, or over the failure to use a turn signal.

Some of us support no-limits abortion by the millions, and decry the death penalty for the most heinous of criminals, while others view abortion and murder, and seek to make Texas the final destination of all capital crime committers.

We enforce speed limits on automobiles built to go well above those limits. We consider 18 year olds eligible to vote or go overseas to fight and die in a war, but not old enough to drink alcohol. We make legal some addictive substances -- alcohol and nicotine -- and make others illegal.

We've advanced medical procedures and health care to allow people to live an average of 30 years longer than they averaged at the beginning of the previous century, yet have developed a series of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons systems designed to wipe out life on the planet a thousand times over. We preach religious values and principles, and sue it out of schools.

We are absurd. We are irresistably drawn to absurd. We admire it, admittedly or not.

We elect politicians who make the most absurd claims and promises. We decry their absurdity, while electing them, based on who makes the most appealingly absurd claims and promises. Even as the absurdity of our choice becomes apparent, we often re-elect them, as the lesser of two absurdities, even when they're moreso.

We watch the legal profession argue new and increasingly off-the-wall liabilities and damages. We hear criminals become the victims, and the original victims become responsible for what happened to them in the first place. We hear that personal choice and self-inflicted behaviors are really disabilities, deserving no self-accountability or responsibility. We hear that in school, God is heresy but Allah is worthy of study (but don't draw him, lest you be branded politically incorrect and an infidel), competition is bad, self-esteem trumps standards of excellence, and that standards are bad and should be "dumbed down". We spend more money per child now than in the 1960s, and have much less to show for it.

We hear 'love thine enemies' and they'll reciprocate, while throughout history, no 'Munich' has ever paved the road to Nirvana; it has only led to many a Pearl Harbor and September 11th.

Face it, folks: we're absurd.

But not all of this absurdity is bad. Why? Because absurd is good. Why? Because absurd is FUNNY. George "Dubya" Bush? Disagreed with Dubya, and it was patriotic; disagree with Obama, and it's racist and sedition (about as absurd as it gets). AlGore as an "expert" on the global warming/carbon-offsets scam? Barbara Walters swooning over Fidel Castro? Paris Hilton and Britany Spears having more than three working brain cells between them? Pat Robertson as the voice of God? John McCain as a presidential candidate? Scientology is a serious religion? Grits? Arizona doesn't have a right to enforce federal laws? A Treasury secretary who's a tax cheat? Guam's going to tip over? Robert Gibbs?

Absurd. Utterly.

But absurd is vital to the human experience. Absurd feeds our impassioned craving and need to laugh at ourselves and our respective lots in life. Absurd 'grounds' us, especially when we're getting too self-important, self-absorbed, self-righteous, pompous and arrogant. Absurd serves as a reality check and reminds us that, contrary to what a few absurd 'pundits' feel about presidential vocabulary and carbon offsets, we aren't the final say in this Solar System, let alone beyond it. Even if we, and not cows, chickens or Nancy Pelosi, can handle a DVD remote control or actually uttering the truth for once.

Agree or not, like it or not, absurd is here to stay, folks. Especially in a mid-term election year.

But this isn't all bad. Absurd is good. Especially for bloggers like moi.