WAITING FOR GODOT

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“The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“Estragon: We always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist?

Vladimir: Yes, yes, we’re magicians.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“Vladimir: Did I ever leave you?
Estragon: You let me go.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It’s awful.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“Let’s go.” “We can’t.” “Why not?” “We’re waiting for Godot.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we personally are needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears!

But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not.

Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for one the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us! What do you say?

It is true that when with folded arms we weigh the pros and cons we are no less a credit to our species. The tiger bounds to the help of his congeners without the least reflexion, or else he slinks away into the depths of the thickets. But that is not the question. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in the immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to come — ”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time! It’s abominable! When! When! One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we’ll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Mereka memberikan kelahiran dari sebuah kematian.

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

― Mark Twain

“Estragon: People are bloody ignorant apes.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“Estragon: Nothing to be done.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“To every man his little cross. Till he dies. And is forgotten.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“Estragon: What about hanging ourselves?
Vladimir: Hmm. It’d give us an erection.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“There is man in his entirety, blaming his shoe when his foot is guilty.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“We always find something, eh Didi, to let us think we exist?”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“There’s no lack of void.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“The essential doesn’t change.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“We wait. We are bored. (He throws up his hand.) No, don’t protest, we are bored to death, there’s no denying it. Good. A diversion comes along and what do we do? We let it go to waste. Come, let’s get to work! (He advances towards the heap, stops in his stride.) In an instant all will vanish and we’ll be alone more, in the midst of nothingness!”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot?”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

“We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener.”
― Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Estragon: Well, shall we go?
Vladimir: Yes, let’s go.
(They do not move.).

The characters of Vladamir and Estragon are grim even in their casual conversation, even as Lucky entertains them with song and dance. At one point, Becket writes “Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the gravedigger puts on the forceps,”

Both characters and humankind in general is limited to the frontiers of the mind as well as time and space. Therefore, we can assume that because of that limitation we will never know for sure if we exist or not, we can only give ourselves the impression that we do exist. We wait for something to confirm the reality of our existence yet it never arrives. We wait for Godot.

As mentioned before, human beings will never break through the limitations of time and space and time plays a very significant role throughout the play. Pozzo, one of the minor characters in the play, describes the sky as bright and shiny throughout the day but with the passage of time, the sky becomes more and more pale. One can assume that he is talking about life in general. As we age, our skin grows paler just like the sky of any given day.

As mentioned before, human beings will never break through the limitations of time and space and time plays a very significant role throughout the play. Pozzo, one of the minor characters in the play, describes the sky as bright and shiny throughout the day but with the passage of time, the sky becomes more and more pale. One can assume that he is talking about life in general. As we age, our skin grows paler just like the sky of any given day. By the end of the play, or two acts or two days, the viewer/reader is given the impression that both main characters have aged. They forget certain aspects; their memory is not whole, just like people of old age. Yet, they still wait for something, anything to give meaning to their existence, or more importantly confirmation that they do indeed exist.

They always find something to give them the impression that they exist. What keeps them going is always “something” that gives them the illusion that they exist. Not just that but allowing ourselves to get distracted by everyday life and its activities helps us cope with this ignorance. Throughout the play, Estragon repeatedly tells Vladimir, “Let’s go.” To which Vladimir replies, “We can’t.” Why not, Estragon asks, “Because we’re waiting for Godot.” This happens after their encounter with Pozzo and Lucky. Their arrival always distracts them from, making the wait more willing. We all go through our daily lives doing our daily activities in a routine. This routine stays the same yet the content of each day varies from one day to the other.

The only way out is to hang ourselves and get it over with which Estragon suggests but we most often (hopefully) would rather choose to wait. The fact that they “always find something” means that they feed themselves with false hope that they will reach the true meaning of their existence. It is that spark of hope that keeps them going. This force locks them into waiting for Godot. One might as well express their need for an explanation, their waiting for that key to existentialism as “waiting for Godot.”

“One intriguing quality of any play is in the way it lives with its imperfections.”
“We always find something to give us the impression that we exist.”
While it is necessary for man to act upon reason rather than feeling, which in this case is the reason for their existence, the humor of it all is the paradox that eclipses everything. We are all limited by this rule of reason. There always has to be a reason for everything. Maybe the significance of the play and the fact that both acts end the same way is that there is no meaning and therefore no reason for our existence.

Humans have a unique and crippling ability to understand not only that they can die, but that it is inevitable. Like wild animals we will struggle for survival until the bitter end due to instinct. Unlike animals though, humans understand that no matter how hard we fight we will eventually die. This creates somewhat of a problem in the human mind, our instinct is survival but we know it is hopeless.

I think of giving a kid an ice cream cone. He gets it and looks all sad. “What’s the point? I’m gonna finish this ice cream soon, and then I won’t be able to taste it anymore. And eventually I’m gonna grow up and completely forget I even ate it.”

And I’m just standing there like, “you want the fucking ice cream cone or not?”

The meaning of life is to give your life meaning.

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Diterbitkan oleh Skeptical Inquirer

• Central For Inquiry (CFI) • Skeptical Inquirer • Free Inquiry • Point of Inquiry ------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Yang nyata ialah manusia itu sendiri bukan tuhan, bukan manusia pikiran tuhan, tetapi tuhan adalah pikiran manusia, agama tidak merubah kenyataan dan mengukir sejarah, tetapi manusia itu sendiri yang merubah dan mengukirnya. Bukan tuhan yang menciptakan manusia tetapi tuhan adalah angan-angan manusia. Agama tidak merubah kenyataan tetapi menusia bisa merubah kenyataan. 2. Agama ialah proyeksi manusia : tuhan, neraka, surga, malaikat. Kenapa? Karena manusia butuh tempat untuk mencurahkan keluhan karena dunia tanpa hati, jadi penderitaan tempat lahirnya tuhan. Dengan demikian agama disebut keterasingan manusia dari kehidupan karena struktur masyarakat tidak mengizinkan secara penuh perealisasian diri sendiri, sehingga manusia membangun kerajaan angan-angan (agama). Dalam kenyataan manusia menderita lalu ia mengharapkan surga 3. kenapa agama khayalan, karena agama tidak inderawi, sedangkan manusia inderawi, manusia penuh dengan kepastian sedangkan agama berbau unsur spekulatif, unsur yang tidak bisa diterima secara ilmiah 4. Jadi agama dan tuhan ialah ciptaan manusia itu sendiri, tetapi manusia itu sendiri lupa dengan ciptaanya (seperti pada zaman jahiliyah dahulu sebelum nabi muhamad dating : orang-orang kafir zaman dahulu mengukir tuhan dari kayu dan batu, yang kemudian disembahnya, sama seperti kita kini yang memproyeksikan tuhan lalu menyembahnya). Agama penyembahan tuhan terhadap dirinya sendiri. Agama penyembahan manusia terhadap ciptaanya sendiri 5. Sehingga khayalan atau angan-angan itu mempunyai eksistensi realitas yang membuat manusia takut dan harus menyembahnya dan tuhan mempunyai hakikat lain yang manusia harus sembah. Sifat-sifat itu yang membuat manusia egois. 6. Penderitaan manusia ialah tempat lahirnya tuhan, penderitaan yang memaksa manusia mengasingkan diri ke dalam agama, itulah dasar yang menyebabkan manusia merasa butuh agama dan tuhan 7. Teologi harus diganti menjadi antropologi dan agama ialah candu rakyat. 8. Kritik agama hanya meruska bunga khayalan pada rantai, bukan bunganya yang harus dipatahkan tetapi rantai itu sendiri. Rantai (factor yang menyebabkan manusia mengasingkan diri ke dalam agama) 9. Kita seperti wayang dengan penuh kesadaran dan kemauan tetapi kita tidak bisa lepas dari tangan sang dalang. 10. Kalau semua ini benar, maka manusia bukan merealisasikan keinginanya tetapi mengharapkan berkah dariNYA (proyeksi manusia itu sendiri/perubahan pasif) 11. agama ialah keterbatasan: agama melarang kita bergaul dengan duniawi, sehingga kita hanya memikirkan surgawi Tanpa agama kita bisa hidup lebih baik, tanpa mengaharapkan hibah/welas asih dariNYA, hanya mengandalkan kenyataan dan diri sendiri. 12. Kepasrahan adalah kelemahan agama 13. Tuhan seperti halnya dengan setan, bila ia terus diyakini dengan adanya exsistensinya maka semakin berkuasalah ia, kita seperti member roh kepadanya dengan keyakinan kita. GROUP : https://www.facebook.com/groups/scientistsecularist