“According to some, the punishment of the rock had only one purpose: to keep Sisyphus occupied and prevent him from hatching new schemes. But at the least expected moment, Sisyphus will devise something and he’ll come back to Earth...” - 2666, Roberto Bolaño
Of all the punishments in Greek mythology, few are as iconic as that
imposed on Sisyphus. For ratting on Zeus, screwing around with Thanatos, and
tricking Persephone, he was condemned to forever roll a boulder up a hill in Tartarus and having it roll back down again. His fate of endless futility
earns him the sympathy of us moderns. But his tale also warns us of the hubris
and uselessness of intelligence against authority, a message which is anathema
to our revolutionary Zeitgeist. Is
intelligence always a force opposed to authority? If so, which would win in a
Hegelian slugfest? Or are they two sides of the same coin? And what of the
different forms of intelligence? Let us seek to answer these questions
intelligently.
