In the vernacular of the Greeks, Camus was a Stoic. That philosophy argued that, in an absurd world, the acceptance of pain, if accompanied by the commitment to struggle, transforms even the most common men into heroes and provides the most tragic hero peace and contentment. The hero, Sisyphus, condemned by the gods to roll a rock uphill for eternity, only to see it tumble back down, was ultimately a happy man. Even recognizing and accepting the futility of his task, he could find nobility in his struggle. It is neither our position nor our circumstances that define us, according to the
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