Albert Camus on How to Rebel
I rebel, therefore, we exist.
"When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken the light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of the winter, I finally learned within me there lay an invincible summer." — Albert Camus
Why Rebel
The simple answer is: human dignity ought to be preserved.
But life is complex.
I’d rather you feel the allure of being human than intellectualize it.
The sanctity of life avails itself to us when we make the conscious decision to slow down and notice an excited and oblivious child bumping into us when playing, concerned with nothing else but the present moment — being naughty, having fun and hoping no one asks about the homework.
It's seeing a young woman excited for the weekend for she gets to go home and spend time with her little sister after a week full of stressful school assignments.
Or an elderly lady closing up her shop early to go prepare her grandchild's favorite food as he has exams going on.
You might not get why your little brother is so excited to show you his drawing of you as it doesn’t fit your elevated taste in art. But you go with the flow as he’s thrilled to gift it to you. His effort and intention to make you smile is pure and that’s cool.
See the relief of a mother and her children after the doctor successfully manages the father’s heart condition that made him skip his job and gasp for air at night.
You don't need any more proof than that to appreciate that life's precious and beautiful.
By noticing these moments, you see that all the striving in life bears no other profound meaning than the provision of a comfortable space, quality time, and resources for our family and friends to flourish and express their uniqueness.
It's our moral duty to protect this state of being as much and as long as we can.
You first get the desire to secure the ideal for yourself. But as time goes by you expand consciousness to realize that other people would also want to experience the same.
You arrive at the realization that people other than you exist.
That's love and empathy for your fellow mankind — a high achievement for a mind whose natural tendency is self-interest.
Rebellion ensues when oppression infringes on this connection, unity and freedom.
And helping other people see this beautiful regality in themselves and everyone else mobilizes a majestic fealty that overcomes tyrants.
The End Doesn't Justify the Means
“Freedom to kill, is not compatible with the sense of rebellion…The rebel wants it to be recognized that freedom has its limits everywhere that a human being is to be found—the limit being precisely the human beings’ power to rebel…the freedom he claims, he claims for all; the freedom he refuses, he forbids everyone to enjoy. He is not only the slave against the master, but also man against the world of master and slave.” — Albert Camus
There must be limits to rebellion. Otherwise, it loses its meaning.
It's easy to think that the quality of actions approaching the utopia we want don't matter. That we only have to get to the other side and deal with the consequences of our interventions as they come.
But the sad reality is that however noble our dreams may be, there's no use getting there with a dirty conscience. People hurt. Or the ticking time bomb of resentment ready to blow up.
How we win bears significance. Much significance.
It's wise to focus on implementing the best strategies right now, with good character and good faith — even if we'd rather see our oppressors burn, instead of rationalizing any cruelty at this moment with some future ideal that’ll atone for our sins of commission and omission.
Some sacrifices are worth it, especially if they involve us. But it’s good to let other people decide their level of commitment.
Without law there's only destruction. Without law we can’t be of use to anyone else. Even ourselves. We become the same figures we’re fighting against.
"If we are not, then I am not." — Albert Camus
Beware Nihilism
“The procedure of beauty, which is to contest reality while endowing it with unity, is also the procedure of rebellion…In upholding beauty we prepare the way for the day of regeneration when civilization will give first place—far ahead of the formal principles and degraded values of history—to this living virtue on which is found the common dignity of man and the world he lives in, and which we now must define in the face of a world that insults it.” — Albert Camus
In a nihilist's mind, nothing matters because we all die.
Earth may become inhabitable after 1.3 billion years; everything you care about may extinguish with it.
What's the use of being good when it's so hard?
Isn't it easier to be evil?
There are no consequences anyway.
The nihilist's response to oppression becomes extreme measures: mass murder, because there’s no perception of beauty in the dignity of a human being.
This was evident with Hitler and his Nazi regime.
Nihilistic rebellion becomes another prison obstructing the expression of the same freedom we're fighting for.
Beware Blind Optimism
Things don't get better by themselves.
God doesn't just fix problems because you asked him passionately yesterday evening.
It's people, brave people, who initiate change and make the world work for the benefit of everyone.
This takes courage, hard work and discipline to help you keep your word, acquire power, speak up against madness, and become competent enough to drive the change you’d like to see.
Beware Secularity
In escapism, we opt to sedate our intellect with drugs and entertainment so we can be free to be slaves.
The fear of death eclipses sense and the awareness of one's worth as a human being.
In both blind optimism and secularity there’s no vigour. Only submission to evil and an eventual shameful death.
How to Rebel
"We are at the extremity now. At the end of this tunnel of darkness, however, there is inevitably a light…we only have to fight to ensure it's coming. All of us, among the ruins, are preparing a renaissance beyond the limits of nihilism. But few know of it." — Albert Camus
Death is but another tool to befriend on the road to emancipation.
Even if we’ll all die in the end, life is beautiful right now and it warrants going through the pains to rebel against what insults human dignity.
The rebel "does not ask for life, but for reasons, for living," Camus says.
Live in Tension
Living in tension is fighting for yourself while ensuring you don't cross a line to hurt the oppressor or their dependents. While maintaining the respect you have for another human being.
It’s knowing there’s no guarantee of a good future, yet we live and fight as best as we can to keep hope alive in the present moment — to the bitter end.
Both are paradoxes preventing you from collapsing in your own gravity and creating a black hole that sucks out life from your universe.
You don't descend into passivity or result to extreme measures that annihilate rather than reform.
You execute prudent plans that propagate regenerative groundwork for the civilization that’ll grow after the work is done.
"I rebel, therefore, we exist," Camus says.
With courage, wisdom, justice, and discipline, rebellion becomes an art requiring a craftsman’s care.
`Til next time
Antonius Veritas.
“To be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart,” Dostoyevsky wrote to his brother, “that’s what life is all about, that’s its task.”), Camus adds:
"What counts is to be human and simple. No, what counts is to be true, and then everything fits in, humanity and simplicity. When am I truer than when I am the world?… What I wish for now is no longer happiness but simply awareness… I hold onto the world with every gesture, to men with all my gratitude and pity. I do not want to choose between the right and wrong sides of the world, and I do not like a choice… The great courage is still to gaze as squarely at the light as at death. Besides, how can I define the link that leads from this all-consuming love of life to this secret despair?… In spite of much searching, this is all I know."
Nice AV. I love all the quotes from the Rebel and beyond. One of my all time fav books. One of my fav lines from it albeit a little dated in some of the terms he uses: '...man is still not recognizable to man." The world being what it is, your call to action is a breath of fresh air. Thx.