Given political and economic tensions, however, one wonders if these efforts, however commendable, face the same task as Sisyphus, the tragic figure of ancient Greek myth rolling an immense boulder up a hill, watching it fall down and repeating the action for eternity as punishment for his transgressions.

FORBES: Pumping Muscle into U.S. Manufacturing

In his Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus likens our absurd existence to the fate of the Greek mythological figure, whose task was to push a rock up a mountain, watch it roll down, only to begin again, fully aware of the futility of his condition.

NPR: Our Lives Are Ephemeral