The Absurd Achievement: Individual Excellence in the Face of Cosmic Indifference

The Mountain Does Not Care

The mountain stands, indifferent to human ambition. Laura Dahlmeier, with her Olympic medals and her indomitable spirit, climbed toward a summit that did not know her name. And now, in death, she remains on that mountain—a final defiance against the meaningless void, her family honoring her wishes to become one with the nature she so cherished. “Leave her body undisturbed,” they said, as if understanding that in this final act, she had found the authenticity that we all seek.

Is this not the perfect metaphor for our condition? We strive for greatness, for achievement that will outlast our brief existence, knowing all the while that the universe remains utterly indifferent to our struggles. Yet we persist. The German President spoke of her as an “ambassador,” but perhaps she was something more profound: a reminder that meaning is found not in the summit but in the climb itself.

The Artist’s Revolt

In Bavaria, we see another form of resistance against absurdity. The “Kulturschaffende”—those who create culture—fight not against mountains but against the meaninglessness that threatens to engulf them during a pandemic that has rendered their purpose seemingly obsolete. The state offers them money—1,180 euros monthly, 5,000 euro stipends—as if material sustenance could replace the essential need to create, to communicate, to revolt against silence.

Yet is this not a recognition that art itself is a form of revolt? When Minister Sibler speaks of “supporting local artists,” he acknowledges, perhaps unwittingly, that society cannot exist without its storytellers, its image-makers, its musicians who give voice to our collective yearning. The Ukrainian artists in Leipzig, fleeing war and destruction, continue to create, to engage in “feminist dialogue,” proving that the human spirit insists on expression even—or especially—in the face of annihilation.

The Banquet at the Edge of the Abyss

And then there is “das perfekte dinner”—the perfect dinner—where former contestants of “Shopping Queen” compete to create the ideal meal. How delightfully absurd! In a world where mountains claim lives and artists struggle for survival, five individuals dedicate themselves to the perfect presentation of a three-course meal. Uschi, at 72, brings her experience to the table, while Marta offers the flavors of her Polish heritage.

Is this not the most human response to the absurd? To create beauty and pleasure in the face of inevitable decay? To celebrate the sensual, the immediate, the shared experience of taste and conversation? Camus would recognize in this competition not mere frivolity but a profound assertion of life’s value in the moment.

The Berlin Paradox: Communal Individualism

Berlin itself emerges as the silent character in these trends—a city that has witnessed the rise and fall of ideologies, that has been divided and reunified, that understands both collective identity and individual expression. The trends reveal a city that values both achievement and community, both excellence and inclusivity.

This paradoxical embrace of what we might call “communal individualism” suggests a political and cultural future that transcends traditional dichotomies. Neither purely collectivist nor blindly individualistic, it recognizes that human meaning is created in the space between personal excellence and shared experience.

The 72-year-old cook competing alongside the 37-year-old Polish immigrant; the state supporting individual artists; the nation honoring the solitary mountaineer—these are not contradictions but complementary expressions of an emerging ethos that might guide us beyond the failed political experiments of the past century.

The Lucid Embrace

What binds these disparate trends together is a lucid embrace of life’s fundamental absurdity. The mountain climber knows she may fall. The artist creates despite the knowledge that cultures fade. The cook prepares a meal that will be consumed and forgotten. Yet all proceed with passion and commitment.

This is not the naïve optimism of those who have not faced the void, nor is it the nihilism of those who have stared too long. It is, rather, the clear-eyed acceptance of life’s conditions coupled with the defiant insistence on creating meaning within those conditions.

Berlin’s trending topics reveal a city—perhaps a culture—that has moved beyond both despair and delusion. In the face of nature’s indifference, humanity’s cruelty, and time’s erosion, these trends assert the value of achievement, expression, and connection.

And is this not the only honest response to our condition? To recognize the mountain’s indifference yet climb anyway? To acknowledge art’s impermanence yet create beauty? To know that the perfect dinner lasts only an evening yet cook with passion? This is not resignation but rebellion—the rebellion of the fully conscious human who chooses life despite everything.

In Berlin’s trending topics, we glimpse not just current interests but the outline of a political and cultural sensibility suited to our age of uncertainty—one that might allow us to move forward without the false promises of ultimate meaning or the despair of meaninglessness. It is, perhaps, the beginning of a new sincerity: the sincerity of those who have abandoned hope yet continue to act as if hope mattered.