Tag Archives: Albert Camus

The Coronavirus Is Not the Plague: The Plague Is US, by Edward Curtin

Now for a more literary take on the coronavirus, from Edward Curtin at lewrockwell.com:

“Two categories of propaganda must be distinguished.  The first strives to create a permanent disposition in its objects and constantly needs to be reinforced.  Its goal is to make the masses ‘available,’ by working spells upon them and exercising a kind of fascination.  The second category involves the creation of a sort of temporary impulsiveness in its objects.  It operates by simple pressure and is often contradictory (since contradictory mass movement are sometimes necessary).”  – Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society

The French-Algerian writer Albert Camus’ great 1947 novel, The Plague, is a warning to us today, but a warning in disguise.  When he died sixty years ago at the young age of forty-six, he had already written The Stranger, The Fall, and The Plague, and had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The outward story of The Plague revolves around a malignant disease that breaks out in a town that is quarantined when the authorities issue a state of emergency.  After first denying that they have a problem, the people gradually panic and feel painfully isolated.  Death fear runs rampant, much like today with the coronavirus. The authorities declare martial law as they warn that the situation is dire, people must be careful of associating, especially in groups, and they better obey orders or very many will die.  So the town is cordoned off.

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He Said That? 6/10/18

From Albert Camus (1913–1960), French philosopher, author, and journalist, Notebooks, 1935-1942:

Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.

He Said That? 3/20/18

From Albert Camus (1913–1960), French philosopher, author, and journalist, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt (1951):

Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.

He Said That? 12/5/17

From Albert Camus (1913–1960), French philosopher, author, and journalist:

An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. “Can they be brought together?” This is a practical question. We must get down to it. “I despise intelligence” really means: “I cannot bear my doubts.