A series
Living in Absurdity
In this serialized adaptation of his essay, Living in the Absurd: Notes from the Modern World, Rodney King reflects on the silent dissonance of modern life and explores what it means to be human in a time that often feels anything but.
Read in order
- 1 Learning to live in the absurd In a world that is often beyond our comprehension, much less our control, what does it mean to find freedom?
- 2 The Unconsented Arrival In a life we didn't choose, what would allow us to make our own decisions?
- 3 Education as Conditioning First, we’re taught to comply. Then, to forget that we ever danced to our own rhythm.
- 4 The Illusion of Choice In the search for freedom, how can we learn to see beyond the choices that have been pre-approved for us?
- 5 Artificial Boundaries As we continue to carve the world into smaller pieces, it's easy to lose sight of our own power to put it back together.
- 6 The work imperative If we are the the sum of our actions, how much of ourselves are we willing to sell?
- 7 Surveillance and control It is often argued that privacy is a small price to pay for progress, but is this truly a necessary sacrifice or more of a Faustian bargain?
- 8 Systemic pathology: The unseen wound Distress is a perfectly healthy response to a distressing situation.
- 9 Seeing through the darkness It can feel deeply unsettling to confront our limitations, but if we dare to look closely, we may find new possibilities as well.
- 10 Between darkness and light Perhaps real freedom lies in the tension between reality and possibility.
- 11 Creative Defiance No matter how oppressive our circumstances, the simple act of caring can be transformative.
- 12 Authentic connection Could being present with each other be a blueprint for a better world?
- 13 Embodied presence Our bodies know more than words can say.
- 14 Conscious participation It can sometimes feel as if meaningful change only comes from sudden paradigm shifts, dramatic declarations, and overwhelming force. But just as wind whittles away stone, evolution often occurs through the accumulation of small changes.
- 15 Transcendent purpose Perhaps the only way to transcend our circumstances is to shape our own meaning within them.
- 16 The Light Darkness is never fully banished, but the light can help us find a meaningful life within it.