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.
