Nala the cat is worth more than you. More than me. More than most people alive. With more than 4 million followers and a net worth north of $100 million, this grey-furred feline makes more money than most professors, doctors, engineers, hell, probably your entire extended family combined. Hearing that, most people would usually respond with something like: “That’s capitalism for you.” Or “How’s that fair?” And they’re right. It’s not. It’s absurd.
This economic oxymoron is part of a bigger philosophical issue. The French-Algerian philosopher Albert Camus famously called this clash between our desire for meaning and the meaningless, chaotic reality “the absurd”. According to Camus, we search for fairness, logic, and justice, but the universe offers none. Instead, we’re met with randomness, inequality, and cats making more money than you and I.
In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus imagines a man condemned to push a boulder up a hill for eternity, only to watch it roll back down each time he nears the top. Since then, this endless, futile labor has become a powerful metaphor for the absurdity of human existence. And within the context of capitalism, Sisyphus can be seen as a stand-in for the modern worker: performing the same repetitive tasks day after day, only at the end, to remain stuck in the same financial spot.
So what do we do when confronted with such absurdity? Camus’ answer is to embrace it. Not to pretend it’s fair, or to lie to ourselves with false hope but to accept that the world is chaotic and irrational, and to live fully despite it. In the end of the myth Sisyphus finds happiness not in the futility, but in the struggle itself.
Of course, Camus’ call to embrace the absurd and reject despair isn’t without its critics. Some argue this philosophy risks encouraging passivity in the face of injustice and accepting the status quo instead of challenging it. Others say that focusing on personal meaning overlooks the need for collective action to change unfair systems. And for many, overwhelmed by real material struggles, the idea of “embracing absurdity” can feel like a luxury they simply can’t afford. These are all valid concerns. But it’s important to understand that Camus wasn’t preaching surrender. And that’s where the beauty of his philosophy lies. That embracing the absurd doesn’t mean blindly accepting the world as it is but rather seeing it clearly and then choosing how to engage with it.
Similarly, you can spiral into frustration, tally every way the system is rigged or fume at the injustice of a cat earning more than you. Or, you can look the absurdity in the eyes and accept it. Not because it’s okay, but because you’ve stopped expecting it to make sense. And now that you’re free from that expectation, you can choose: resist it, change it, laugh at it, live in spite of it, or some mix of all four. Ultimately, the power lies in choosing your fights, understanding their toll on you, as well as the effect they have on the world around you.
“THE REVITA TEAM”
Σημείωση: Τα άρθρα και τα δημοσιεύματα της εταιρείας μας, σκοπό έχουν να παραθέσουν στοιχεία για συγκεκριμένα θέματα καθώς και απόψεις που βασίζονται σε εμπειρία και γνώση που έχει αποκτηθεί. Απώτερος σκοπός μας είναι η επιμόρφωση των αναγνωστών στο σύνολο τους και όχι η παροχή συμβουλών για συγκεκριμένες περιπτώσεις. Για όλα τα προηγούμενα Newsletters της εταιρείας μας, μπορείτε να επισκεφτείτε την σελίδα μας στο Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/revitaconsult.
