One: We’re all strangers on this planet Albert Camus was born in Algeria into a French
family. You could say he was born in the wrong country. Not just that, his father was French
and his mom had Spanish heritage. He later moved to Paris when it was occupied by the Germans. In
some way, he was a stranger in all these places. We humans cannot choose our family, country,
language and culture we are born into. For Camus, being a stranger also gave him the opportunity
to question his existence. Not just his own, but the entire human existence. What it means
to be human and what it means to seek meaning in life. His unique cultural background gave
him a unique perspective on life. It’s no surprise that he titled one of his novels, The Stranger. In
essence, we are all strangers on this little rock of a planet. We often get bogged down in cultural
differences or dividing people into nationalities, gender or something else, but fundamentally we are
all strangers trying to come to terms with our existence. We are the true aliens in the world.
We have no idea where we have come from. How life started and how it will end. Yet
we don’t lose sleep over it. It’s what it is. So nobody is at home here, everyone is a stranger.
Two: Be part of a team. The French Revolution had three
messages: liberty, equality and fraternity. While freedom and equality have become buzz words in
politics of socialism versus liberalism but it’s fraternity that is perhaps less understood. It’s
more psychological. Albert Camus played football as a teenager but aged 17, illness meant he had
to live in isolation. This solitude taught him an important lesson. He was happiest when he was part
of something bigger than himself. A team. A tribe. Or a group with a single aim working together to
achieve something big. Be it a football game or even winning a war. Quote: “Everything I know
about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football.” — Camus. The desire to belong is
incredibly strong among us. Despite trying to have a more free and solitary life in today’s world,
we seek comfort when we are part of the team. We want to be picked by others. To compensate
for the fact that Camus couldn’t play football after his illness, he joined the Communist Party,
which is a tribe in itself. Even after he became a famous writer, he continued to work in the theatre
to stage works by other writers like Dostoevsky and Faulkner. So for Camus being part of something
bigger than yourself, with a unified goal, gave him fulfillment. Nietzsche’s philosophy, set
forth in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, is that of a lone wolf in a mountain cave, but Camus’s philosophy is
communitarian. Throughout history men physically and psychologically survived in tribal settings,
and the sense of camaraderie brought them together, but in today’s world it’s lost,
as families and communities have fallen apart. In the workplace, loyalty and allegiance have become
more transactional and less spiritual, which has created loneliness resulting in an increase
in alcoholism, addiction and consumerism. So being part of something bigger than yourself
teaches you loyalty, responsibility and respect. In return you feel more fulfilled.
Three: Create art. Albert Camus studied philosophy
to become a teacher, but soon found writing to be his vocation. Just like for Franz Kafka,
writing allowed him to cope better with the absurdities of life. In the absence of meaning,
one has to create something. He created four major novels and many works of nonfiction.
Of course, there is debate whether he was a better philosopher than a novelist, but there is no doubt
that through writing fiction he made a dent in the literary universe which won him The Nobel
Prize in Literature. His novels are not the most artistic like Proust or thrilling like Dostoevsky,
but they make up with philosophical depth. I think Camus also understood storytelling and art are as
powerful as food. And I think this shifted his attitude towards Marxism and socialism. Marxists
have a more utilitarian view of work as a means to an end so there is no value in the work itself
but what it produces. The artist Camus saw profound meaning in the work, in the creation
and in the craft as well as the final product. Material success can feed your stomach but the
process of art creation can nourish your soul. Since the universe doesn’t care, it is incumbent
upon us to care and create something meaningful for ourselves. And art is perhaps the best way to
give life meaning. By art, I don’t mean painting but it can be any craft. The root of the word art
is skilled work or craft so we can find meaning in our work and craft. Camus even said living is
an art form. Quote: “It takes time to live. Like any work of art, life needs to be thought about.”
A Happy Death by Albert Camus.
Four: Life’s miseries are random. Albert Camus supposedly said that dying
in a car accident is the most absurd death. Yet, that is precisely how he died. This is not unique
in this case. A lot of famous novelists have died in ironic ways. Two of the most famous Russian
writers, Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov died in a duel which they had fictionalised in
their own novels. Nikolai Gogol went mad which he had written about in his short story, A Madman’s
Diary. But what is interesting in Camus’s case is that he understood that life is for the most part
pretty random. As a result, pain and suffering are also pretty random. Nobody signs up to be
sick. Yet, aged 17 he fell ill. As I said before, he had a train ticket in his pocket when he died,
yet he decided to go by car. When we face hardships, illnesses, tragedies, or accidents,
we often question the unfairness of it. Yet that’s what life is. It’s for the most part unfair. Camus
died at the height of his fame, only three years after winning the Nobel Prize. He was 46 years
old. Yet, it could have been worse. He could’ve died aged 17 with TB. His attitude was to embrace
life with its randomness and absurdities. Because the value of life is not in its happiness but the
life itself. Quote: “Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee? But in the end one needs more
courage to live than to kill himself.” A Happy Death by Albert Camus. Camus’s philosophy was
that one must accept the absurdities of life, but also its miseries not by closing your eyes but…
Five: Ignorance is not bliss Fyodor Dostoevsky and Albert
Camus have a lot in common. Both had to deal with the idea of meaninglessness and nihilism
that was spreading in Europe. However, Dostoevsky returned to faith and tradition on the one hand,
and innocence and naivety on the other. So fundamentally Dostoevsky was against questioning
traditions and religion, instead preferred blissful innocence and faith. Camus, however, was
an atheist. For him, religion or naivety was not the answer. You had to know the cold hard truth of
life. He didn’t believe in god. Unlike Dostoevsky, Camus thought knowledge was liberating.
Dostoevsky didn’t want Russians to get exposed to bad ideas coming from the west. For Camus, that
boat had already sailed. You cannot close your eyes and pretend life is all good and there is a
god that would protect you. For Camus, we are not only in the wilderness, but we are the wilderness,
and we have to come up with a solid solution in our pursuit of meaning, just as we have to build
shelter and find food. But Camus says, a cold shower is always better than no shower. So Camus,
just like Nietzsche, preferred painful truths than comforting lies or blissful naivety.
Six: Fearing death is like fearing life In his first major novel, A Happy Death,
Albert Camus talks about two deaths. The first death is the murder of a crippled man and the
second a natural death after an illness. In this novel, Camus tries to show that we are driven not
by our desire to live long as Schopenhauer said or dominate others as Nietzsche argued, but by our
desire to be happy. Quote: "The craving for happiness seemed to me the noblest thing in man's
heart. In my eyes, that justified everything.” Yet despite his best effort, even committing a murder,
he fails to find happiness. But when he faces his own death, he realises something deeper inside
him. Death is just part of life, just another phase of it. Death often means misery, pain
and struggle, yet it can be happy. Just as the Greek philosopher Epicurus said since we do not
and cannot know death, we should not fear it either. It’s what it is. The fear of death is
like having a monkey on your back which makes you fear life itself. In two of Camus’s novels, when
his protagonists face the real prospect of death, they finally realise they’re happy. So I guess
Camus says, to be really happy, one must fully and completely accept death. Quote: “He realized
now that to be afraid of this death he was staring at with animal terror meant to be afraid of life.”
Seven: One lives in here and now In the Stranger, Meursault thinks
he cannot change things in life. It makes no difference whether he loves his girlfriend
or not, move to Paris or not. He leaves all those things to other people to decide. Quote:
“Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure.” The Stranger—Albert Camus. Even the
most crucial act in the novel, the murder, he says happened because the sun was shining too bright.
He lives a dull, indifferent life, does a dull job and has a dull relationship. You could say,
Mersault is a typical human animal who lives in here and now just millions of us around the world.
A good example is Charles Bukowski who lived his life in somewhat similar fashion,
of course he didn’t murder anyone, but he did live his life as an outsider or stranger who
didn’t give an F to anything. He drank, gambled, had sex, worked dull jobs and wrote poetry
and fiction. He didn’t pretend he was a saint and often confessed at being a dirty bastard.
Albert Camus shows us the animalistic side of our human life. Despite years and centuries of
rational thinking being hammered in us through our education system, most of us just live our lives
on a daily basis. We don’t think about the future and try not to think about the past.
If the past or future makes us anxious, we use alcohol, drugs or social media
to bring us back to the present in order to numb the pain of the past or the anxiety of the future.
So in reality life happens in the here and now. For the most part. Quote: “Maman used to say that
you can always find something to be happy about. In my prison, when the sky turned red and a new
day slipped into my cell, I found out that she was right.” The Stranger—Albert Camus. We often
think of a glass as half empty. It could be much worse. Mersault in his prison cell, while facing
death penalty, finds joy in the shifting sunlight on the prison wall. So happiness is not out there,
it is in here and now. It only depends on if you can see it or how you see the world.
Eight: Crises give us the opportunity to become greater than ourselves
In his novel, the Plague, Camus pits an individual's desire to be free against
society’s goal to continue. In other words, an individual animal’s desire to live his best life
versus the survival of the species as a whole. When the plague hits the town, people want to
save themselves and their loved ones. But as the plague persists and more people die, there is a
switch—you could call it an evolutionary switch— that is turned on among the people. More people
put their own lives on the line to save others. People say tragedies bring people together,
wars unite, and plagues sharpen our instinct for survival. In this novel, Camus highlights one of
the most important aspects of human life: courage. As we are becoming more rational, we become less
and less courageous. We put our own survival or interest before everyone else’s. However,
the history of humanity has been nothing but a series of calamities confronted by courageous
deeds of those who came before us. When a society faces a disaster, it takes a little while for us
to show our courage. Just like the plague virus that sits deep inside the human species or nature,
and needs a trigger strong enough to bring it out, human courage is also present deep
inside us and when it’s triggered we rise up to the challenge to become greater than ourselves.
The Plague, despite being a despairing novel, is also a hopeful one about human nature.
The courage to help others is closely tied to our survival instinct as well as our desire to love
others. Quote: “To state quite simply what we learn in times of pestilence:
that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.” The Plague—Albert Camus. In
a way you could argue, Camus was responding to the highly individualistic philosophy of
Nietzsche that sometimes the happiness of others can be incredibly meaningful for an individual.
A lone wolf artist has his place in human history but so does a caring individual who
sacrifices his or her happiness to bring joy to others. Quote: “What’s true of all the evils in
the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves.” The Plague—Albert Camus
Nine: Life’s meaningless but we are happy. Albert Camus in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus
confronts the biggest absurdity or contradiction of human existence.
Humans seek meaning in life, yet the universe provides no answer.
Quote: “Man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing
for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the
human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.” The Myth of Sisyphus—Albert Camus.
As I discussed earlier, Sisyphus is condemned to endlessly push the boulder up a mountain.
We all wake up, go to work, come home, sleep and repeat the same things tomorrow. I read books,
synthesise the ideas, turn them into a video, upload, and start a new project and it goes on
and on. Parts of the process I enjoy, but parts of I dislike and even hate, but I have to do,
partly to earn a living and partly because of this primal human urge enjoying the struggle itself.
If Sisyphus were to look at me, he would think it as absurd as I see him pushing the boulder.
Albert Camus, perhaps understood that our religious past has made us a bit
soft. Religions offered neat little stories about life’s purpose which we got us very used
to clear paths and solid stories explaining human existence. So once the religious myth is destroyed
by science and rationality, we still crave for a new story that explains the meaning of life.
But Camus says, we should not seek comforting stories about life
but find meaning in its hardship. We enjoy life not because it is easy,
we enjoy it more because it is a struggle. People who stay home all day and do nothing, are not the
happiest people. The happiest people are those who accept life’s struggles. Life’s meant to be hard,
we are meant to struggle and get on with it. The more you cushion yourself from hardship, the
harder life becomes. Sisyphus doesn’t crave for a deeper meaning to his so-called futile existence.
He finds meaning in the struggle itself. In the work itself. But Camus doesn’t stop there.
Ten: Life’s not meant to be passive acceptance but an active rebellion.
Quote: "I revolt, therefore we exist.” The Rebel—Albert Camus.
Albert Camus was torn between two divergent philosophies, the socialist philosophy of Karl
Marx and the radical individualist philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.
One heavily group-oriented and the other heavily individual. But what both German
philosophers had in common was an active rebellion against the modern condition.
Marx wanted a revolution against capitalism’s inequality, while Nietzsche on the other hand,
wanted a rebellion against western philosophical tradition of rationality, religion and nihilism.
These two rather opposing philosophies find themselves reconciled in Camus
as he brings together the Nietzschean existentialist rebellion seeking purpose
with a Marxian social rebellion seeking justice. The young Camus was more drawn to Marxism but
later he rejected revolution in favour of reform and became more Nietzschean in his philosophy.
In his novel, the Stranger, Camus raises an important development in modern societies:
men’s spirit of rebellion is broken through psychological infliction of guilt. To be a human,
one must cry. Throughout history, whenever an army conquered a place, they often killed all the men.
Why? Because able-bodied men were dangerous to the new rulers. For the same reason most people
in jail are men. Because men risk more to rebel or break the law. So modernity needs men to conform,
which kills men’s creative energy as well as rebellious spirit.
For Camus our desire to be creative and find meaning in life goes hand-in-hand with our
deep desire to fight injustice, inequality and repression. He saw an overlap between fighting
for justice and being creative. Both demanded a rebellious spirit which is getting crushed
in the modern world. Camus says: "I draw from the Absurd three consequences: my revolt, my liberty,
my passion.” For Camus human courage or heroism is a form of artistic rebellion seeking clarity.
Life’s not meant to be passive so we must be active rebels who push
boundaries. That’s what he did through his writings.
Albert Camus dedicated his life to writing novels and essays in an attempt to find a non-religious
meaning. He finally settled on a simple idea. Life’s not about finding meaning but being
content or even happy that it has no meaning. It’s liberating to know that there is no grand purpose
we have to adhere to or be bound by. He found his purpose in playing football, writing stories
and essays, producing plays, inspiring others and pushing the boundaries of human intellect.
It doesn’t matter which destination you have in mind, it is the dedication that matters. The
process. The work itself. Sisyphus does the most futile job in the world, pushing a boulder up a
mountain knowing that it would fall back down, but he takes the job on the chin and keeps pushing.
A river water only turns into a bog or quagmire and starts stinking, when it stops moving. So
life is meant to be lived, to the fullest. Push as hard as you can and that should bring you
joy and contentment. Because life itself is the biggest gift. Nothing else matters.