The effio-absurdity paradox (EAP) is a term I coined while thinking about how some people consider enjoying watching football games as being absurd because it’s just a bunch of guys running around tackling each other and blah blah blah. EAP refers to the reduction of enjoyment derived from certain things due to realizing their absurdity and/or due to being unable to explain why we enjoy them. For example, one may be enjoying a game of golf only to realize that swinging a tiny ball with a stick into holes is absurd, which leads to a reduction of enjoyment of playing golf. Cynical and analytical people seem to be prone to experience EAP.
Anything can be considered absurd. People often complain about how most TV shows are shallow and mindless. Do all shows have to be full of deep meaning and be highly intellectually stimulating? Actually, so called mindless shows can lead to great intellectual stimulation if one analyzes the show in a way that leads to great insights about human behavior. But that’s beside the point. The point is we all enjoy certain activities mostly because the chemicals in our brains compel us to do pursue certain activities and humans have a tendency to defend their absurd preferences while declaring others’ preferences as absurd. EAP constricts one’s world and can lead to depression because it’s a buzz kill mindset that seeks reasons for not liking things on the basis of it being absurd, but what in life isn’t absurd?
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