ThirstyFish

A friend of mine remarked that I was getting a bit too philosophical on my posts. He is probably right, but I'm on a mission... Quoting one of the key philosophers of the 20th century, Albert Camus: "The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself". It is an interesting quote from Camus given that he wrote about the notion of The Absurd.

Suspension of Disbelief is a formula for justifying the use of fantastic or non-realistic elements in literature; The reader or viewer willingly suspends his/her disbelief and accepts the premises of the story so that it is coherent for its duration. Think Superman!

Although it might piss off some of my statistician friends (Ralph?), I am one of those who think that Opinion Polls serve more to skew public opinion than to sample it. Suspending my own disbelief, a 2005 poll showed that more than 50 percent of Americans believe in ghosts and 22 percent say that they have seen or have felt the presence of one; or, in better words, half of us have suspended our disbelief. Maybe we should all call, Ghost-Busters!

Time to tie all of this together. If you have suspended your disbelief for the duration of your life, in the "story of your life", then you have given a "fictitious meaning" to your life and you are a Zombie! But, according to Albert Camus and Absurdism, you might eventually become conscious of the conflict between your tendency to seek an "inherent meaning" in life and your inability to find any. If that happens, you will be looking for some sort of Philosophy to help you resolve it. And maybe you'll remember this post and not destroy yourself.

This is another photograph from the Philly Zombie Crawl. I'll try to back off from philosophy for a while :-)