Pessimism by Dienstag Joshua Foa

Author:Dienstag, Joshua Foa [Dienstag, Joshua Foa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2006-03-17T23:00:00+00:00

The Pessimistic Rebel

Camus in his later writing also changed the direction, if not the foundations, of his pessimism. But from an initial position that was similar to Cioran’s, Camus moved in the opposite direction. In The Rebel, Camus returned to the problem of absurdity that he explored in The Myth of Sisyphus, but it is clear from the start that he views it differently. Whereas in his earlier essay he had stressed the isolation of the individual within a meaningless universe, The Rebel takes pains to emphasize that this condition is one that is the common lot of humanity: “In absurdist experience, suffering is individual,” he writes, “But from the moment when a movement of rebellion begins, suffering is seen as a collective experience. Therefore the first progressive step for a mind overwhelmed by the strangeness of things is to realize that this feeling of strangeness is shared with all men. . . . The malady experienced by a single man becomes a collective plague” (R 22).

This last phrase, of course, is a reference to Camus’ highly successful novel The Plague, published immediately after the war. In that book, the “plague” (la peste) is an allegory for the pernicious spread of fascism, which the characters in the book respond to in a variety of ways, from servile acceptance to heroic resistance. By linking the problem of the absurd to the plague of fascism, Camus signals that his question is no longer simply the personal one of whether an individual can find a reason to avoid suicide. The dangers of absurdity he now considers to be importantly social and political—l’esquive is not just a personal failing, but, he now maintains, one that can lead to compliance with monstrous evil: “The longing for rest and peace must itself be thrust aside; it coincides with the acceptance of iniquity” (R 248). While Camus’ novel was criticized for seeming to depoliticize fascism by using the metaphor of an anonymous, biological force, Camus’ intention was, in a sense, precisely the opposite. His desire (successful or not) was to represent political danger as a species of the absurd condition, which perpetually confronts us not just as individuals but as a population and a community. For the eminently personal question of suicide in The Myth of Sisyphus, The Rebel now substitutes the very political question of murder.

As we have seen, however, there is also a great deal of philosophical continuity between the early and late Camus. In both periods, he continues to reject historical optimism and to deny the existence of natural or permanent moral structures to guide our behavior. Indeed, as I described above, a large portion of The Rebel is given over to repeating and deepening these claims: “Thought that is derived from history alone, like thought that rejects history completely, deprives man of the means and the reason for living” (R 249). How, then, will Camus reformulate his pessimism so that it can address the political questions he now considers pressing? The answer, I

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