WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.759 Imagine being handed a literal death sentence 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:06.200 at 17. Which is, I mean, unimaginable. Right. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:09.019 And then surviving a world war by publishing 00:00:09.019 --> 00:00:11.460 illegal newspapers right under the noses of the 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:13.939 Gestapo. Just incredible risk. Yeah. And then 00:00:13.939 --> 00:00:16.300 you go on to win a Nobel Prize only to die at 00:00:16.300 --> 00:00:19.719 the absolute peak of your career because of Well, 00:00:20.140 --> 00:00:21.699 a last minute decision to get into a friend's 00:00:21.699 --> 00:00:23.280 car instead of taking the train. A completely 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:27.079 random twist of fate. Exactly. Today, we're diving 00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:29.719 into the mind of Albert Camus. So welcome to 00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:32.000 the deep dive. Glad to be here. Our mission for 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:35.439 you today is to unpack how a kid born into just 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:39.539 absolute grinding poverty in French Algeria grew 00:00:39.539 --> 00:00:43.200 up to become basically the literal voice of the 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:45.600 French resistance and, of course, the father 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:48.140 of a philosophical concept known as absurdism. 00:00:48.500 --> 00:00:50.880 Yeah. And we've got a massive stack of historical 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:53.140 and biographical research to go through today. 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:54.740 We really do. And we're going to distill all 00:00:54.740 --> 00:00:57.340 that down to figure out how his philosophy isn't 00:00:57.340 --> 00:00:59.759 just, you know, some dense academic theory that 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:02.320 you read in a dusty classroom. Far from it. Right. 00:01:02.579 --> 00:01:05.599 It's actually a highly practical toolkit for 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:08.379 finding meaning in a world that is completely 00:01:08.379 --> 00:01:11.109 and sometimes violently Unpredictable. Yeah, 00:01:11.250 --> 00:01:13.269 and to really understand that toolkit, you have 00:01:13.269 --> 00:01:16.450 to look at a man who lived his philosophy in 00:01:16.450 --> 00:01:18.530 real time. Like he didn't just sit in an ivory 00:01:18.530 --> 00:01:21.189 tower writing about these concepts. He really 00:01:21.189 --> 00:01:24.329 didn't. No, he was constantly navigating this 00:01:24.329 --> 00:01:27.909 agonizing tension between morality, politics, 00:01:28.510 --> 00:01:31.730 and just the raw human condition. He forged these 00:01:31.730 --> 00:01:34.370 ideas in the middle of absolute chaos, poverty, 00:01:34.469 --> 00:01:36.680 and war. Well, let's start with that poverty, 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:39.219 actually, because his origin story really sets 00:01:39.219 --> 00:01:41.379 the baseline for everything he believed about 00:01:41.379 --> 00:01:43.359 human suffering later on. It's the foundation 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:46.400 of everything. Yeah. So he was born in 1913 in 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:48.299 a working class neighborhood in French Algeria 00:01:48.299 --> 00:01:50.819 called Belcourt, and his home life was, well, 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.299 It was tough. His mother, Catherine, was deaf. 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:55.680 She had a speech impediment, and she was entirely 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:58.180 illiterate. And his father, Lucien, was a poor 00:01:58.180 --> 00:02:00.280 agricultural worker. Right. And he was killed 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:02.379 in action in World War I when Camus was barely 00:02:02.379 --> 00:02:04.680 an infant. So you have this incredibly silent, 00:02:05.019 --> 00:02:07.340 deeply impoverished household. Exactly. They 00:02:07.340 --> 00:02:10.800 didn't have basic material possessions. No electricity, 00:02:10.979 --> 00:02:13.300 no running water. And that background is really 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:16.139 the lens through which he viewed the entire world. 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:18.539 I mean, Camus was what was historically called 00:02:18.539 --> 00:02:21.780 a pied -moir. What does that mean exactly? So 00:02:21.780 --> 00:02:24.680 it's a slang term for people of French and European 00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:27.800 descent who were born in Algeria. And often, 00:02:27.819 --> 00:02:30.460 you know, history paints the European settlers 00:02:30.460 --> 00:02:34.960 in Algeria as this wealthy colonial elite holding 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:37.199 all the power. Right. Like they're all aristocrats 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:40.400 or something. Exactly. But Camus was intimately 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:42.620 familiar with the struggles of the working class. 00:02:43.099 --> 00:02:45.740 He saw firsthand that poverty didn't care about 00:02:45.740 --> 00:02:47.840 your heritage when you were scraping by in the 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:50.280 slums. Yeah. Because of that poverty, he was 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:53.020 actually on track to leave school early, to become 00:02:53.020 --> 00:02:54.939 a manual laborer, to bring in some money to keep 00:02:54.939 --> 00:02:57.099 the family fed. His grandmother was completely 00:02:57.099 --> 00:02:58.800 set on pulling him out of the classroom. She 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:01.560 was. But there was this one teacher, Louise Germain, 00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:04.139 who intervened. Such a crucial moment. It really 00:03:04.139 --> 00:03:07.099 was. Germain saw this massive intellectual spark 00:03:07.099 --> 00:03:09.000 in the young Camus and just started giving him 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.060 free, private lessons. He actually coached him 00:03:12.060 --> 00:03:14.560 to win a scholarship to a prestigious secondary 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:17.439 school. Which is amazing. That single act of 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:19.259 intervention basically changed the trajectory 00:03:19.259 --> 00:03:22.360 of his entire life. And I love this detail. When 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:25.280 King Luce won the Nobel Prize in Literature decades 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:29.580 later in 1957, he actually dedicated his acceptance 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:32.500 speech to Louis Germain. Yeah, he read a letter 00:03:32.500 --> 00:03:34.699 to him shortly after winning, basically saying 00:03:34.699 --> 00:03:36.740 that without that affectionate hand extended 00:03:36.740 --> 00:03:39.479 to a poor child, None of his life's work would 00:03:39.479 --> 00:03:41.860 have happened. Wow. It just shows how deeply 00:03:41.860 --> 00:03:45.360 he valued human connection and mentorship. He 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:48.180 never lost that sense of profound gratitude. 00:03:48.340 --> 00:03:50.979 OK, let's unpack this a bit because before he 00:03:50.979 --> 00:03:52.819 was a Nobel winning intellectual, Kimoos was 00:03:52.819 --> 00:03:55.039 actually a really passionate football goalkeeper. 00:03:55.180 --> 00:03:57.860 He was. He played for a junior university team 00:03:57.860 --> 00:04:00.360 in Algiers. Yeah. And he famously stated later 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:03.139 in life that the simplistic morality of football 00:04:03.139 --> 00:04:05.939 actually contradicted the complicated hypocritical 00:04:05.939 --> 00:04:08.560 morality imposed by the state and the church. 00:04:08.939 --> 00:04:11.039 Which is such a fascinating perspective. I mean, 00:04:11.159 --> 00:04:12.919 think about the mechanics of being a goalkeeper. 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:15.659 You operate within a very defined space, the 00:04:15.659 --> 00:04:19.480 penalty box, and inside that box, the rules apply 00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:22.220 equally to absolutely everyone. The objective 00:04:22.220 --> 00:04:24.800 is pure. You know, just keep the ball out of 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:26.939 the net. Yeah, your teammates rely on you and 00:04:26.939 --> 00:04:29.939 you rely on them. Exactly. It is a pure, uncorrupted 00:04:29.939 --> 00:04:32.720 sense of fraternity. So the penalty box is basically 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:35.600 a moral sanctuary for him. Completely. You know 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:37.839 exactly what is right and wrong on the field. 00:04:38.360 --> 00:04:41.139 And then Kamas is looking out at colonial Algeria, 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:44.519 which is a society with a deeply unjust, two 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:48.149 -tiered system. the rules change depending on 00:04:48.149 --> 00:04:50.209 your class or your race. Right, the state and 00:04:50.209 --> 00:04:51.889 the church were just full of contradictions. 00:04:51.990 --> 00:04:53.769 So football was really the only place where he 00:04:53.769 --> 00:04:56.910 saw true uncorrupted justice and clear boundaries. 00:04:57.009 --> 00:04:59.670 But then that sanctuary was violently taken from 00:04:59.670 --> 00:05:02.189 him. Yeah. When he was just 17 years old, Kamis 00:05:02.189 --> 00:05:04.889 was diagnosed with severe tuberculosis. And in 00:05:04.889 --> 00:05:07.889 1930, Before modern antibiotics, that was a big 00:05:07.889 --> 00:05:10.569 deal. Oh, it was devastating. It was highly transmissible 00:05:10.569 --> 00:05:14.069 and often fatal. His football ambitions just 00:05:14.069 --> 00:05:16.689 vanished overnight. Just gone. And because of 00:05:16.689 --> 00:05:18.790 the risk of infecting his family, he actually 00:05:18.790 --> 00:05:21.069 had to move out of his home and go stay with 00:05:21.069 --> 00:05:23.029 his uncle, who was a local butcher. Which is 00:05:23.029 --> 00:05:25.790 so tragic. I mean, this is a kid who defined 00:05:25.790 --> 00:05:28.389 himself by his physical vitality. He was an athlete. 00:05:28.610 --> 00:05:31.230 He spent his days swimming in the Mediterranean 00:05:31.230 --> 00:05:34.449 sun, diving for the ball on the pitch. And suddenly, 00:05:34.790 --> 00:05:37.189 his own body is betraying him. Right. He's coughing 00:05:37.189 --> 00:05:39.709 up blood. The rules of the game have just been 00:05:39.709 --> 00:05:43.430 ripped away. And that physical betrayal completely 00:05:43.430 --> 00:05:46.730 altered his mindset. That terrifying, very early 00:05:46.730 --> 00:05:49.410 confrontation with his own mortality was the 00:05:49.410 --> 00:05:52.149 exact catalyst that drove him into philosophy. 00:05:52.300 --> 00:05:54.399 You had to figure out what it all meant. Exactly. 00:05:54.620 --> 00:05:56.939 He started being mentored by his teacher, Jean 00:05:56.939 --> 00:05:59.540 Grenier, reading the ancient Greeks, absorbing 00:05:59.540 --> 00:06:02.420 Nietzsche, and he had to take on this bizarre 00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:05.540 string of odd jobs just to survive. Like what 00:06:05.540 --> 00:06:07.839 kind of jobs? Well, he worked as a private tutor, 00:06:08.220 --> 00:06:11.319 a car parts clerk, even an assistant at a meteorological 00:06:11.319 --> 00:06:14.060 institute. Wow, quite the resume. Yeah. And all 00:06:14.060 --> 00:06:16.079 of this while grappling with the realization 00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:18.560 that life is incredibly fragile and can just 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:20.860 be snatched away without any logical reason. 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:24.529 So. Camus had just learned how to face the absurdity 00:06:24.529 --> 00:06:28.430 of his own failing body with the TB. But then, 00:06:28.750 --> 00:06:31.810 the universe was about to scale that absurdity 00:06:31.810 --> 00:06:35.350 up to a global level. Right. The 1930s were rolling 00:06:35.350 --> 00:06:37.610 into the 1940s. Yeah. He wasn't just fighting 00:06:37.610 --> 00:06:40.050 his own mortality anymore. He was about to face 00:06:40.050 --> 00:06:42.889 the mortality of all of Europe as World War II 00:06:42.889 --> 00:06:44.970 broke out. And he actually tries to volunteer 00:06:44.970 --> 00:06:47.939 for the army. He does. But the military rejects 00:06:47.939 --> 00:06:50.199 him immediately because of his history of tuberculosis. 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:52.139 Which forces him down a completely different 00:06:52.139 --> 00:06:54.839 path. Exactly. So instead of fighting on the 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:57.519 front lines, he essentially takes his philosophy 00:06:57.519 --> 00:06:59.779 out of the classroom and straight into the underground. 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:02.680 Right. He eventually makes his way to Paris and 00:07:02.680 --> 00:07:06.100 he takes an active, highly dangerous role in 00:07:06.100 --> 00:07:08.220 the French resistance against the Nazi occupation. 00:07:08.459 --> 00:07:10.740 He becomes the editor in chief of combat. which 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:13.459 was an outlawed underground newspaper. What's 00:07:13.459 --> 00:07:16.220 fascinating here is that he's using fake IDs. 00:07:16.420 --> 00:07:19.199 He's writing under a pseudonym. Yeah, he is organizing 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:22.180 covert drops of illegal newspapers while the 00:07:22.180 --> 00:07:24.959 Gestapo is actively hunting down resistance members. 00:07:25.220 --> 00:07:27.699 I mean, if he gets caught, it's a trip to a concentration 00:07:27.699 --> 00:07:30.959 camp or a firing squad. And during this exact 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:35.480 period of extreme daily terror, Kios was finishing 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:38.399 what he called his first cycle. of writing. Right, 00:07:38.519 --> 00:07:40.680 the cycle of the absurd. Yeah, which includes 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:42.899 his massive breakthrough novel, The Stranger, 00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:45.959 and his defining philosophical essay, The Myth 00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:48.180 of Sisyphus. But wait, I'm struggling to square 00:07:48.180 --> 00:07:51.420 these two things though. How so? Well, if Camus 00:07:51.420 --> 00:07:53.660 believes the universe is entirely meaningless, 00:07:53.819 --> 00:07:56.500 which is sort of the popular pop culture takeaway 00:07:56.500 --> 00:08:00.639 of absurdism, why is he risking his life every 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.180 single day in the underground resistance? That's 00:08:03.180 --> 00:08:05.540 a great question. Right. If there is no grand 00:08:05.540 --> 00:08:07.360 meaning to life, why not just keep your head 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:10.060 down and try to survive the war? Why bother fighting 00:08:10.060 --> 00:08:12.540 the Nazis at all? And you've hit on the exact 00:08:12.540 --> 00:08:14.420 paradox that most people misunderstand about 00:08:14.420 --> 00:08:16.620 his work. Camus didn't believe that because the 00:08:16.620 --> 00:08:18.639 world lacks inherent meaning, we should just 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:20.759 throw our hands up and surrender. So he wasn't 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:23.259 a nihilist? No, not at all. He believed that 00:08:23.259 --> 00:08:25.339 the universe is indifferent, absolutely. But 00:08:25.339 --> 00:08:28.019 because it lacks inherent meaning, human dignity, 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:30.779 rebellion, and courage are literally the only 00:08:30.779 --> 00:08:33.659 moral values we have left to cling to. So we 00:08:33.659 --> 00:08:35.919 have to create the meaning ourselves. Exactly. 00:08:36.620 --> 00:08:39.620 But so what does this all mean in practice? Let's 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:41.340 bring this down to earth and define the absurd. 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:43.559 Good idea. When Kamis talks about the absurd, 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:47.100 he's describing a very specific collision. It's 00:08:47.100 --> 00:08:49.539 the crash between our desperate human desire 00:08:49.539 --> 00:08:52.080 for things to make sense and what he beautifully 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:54.600 called the unreasonable silence of the world. 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:57.360 Right. Because we are creatures wired to seek 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:00.470 purpose. We deeply want to know why we are here, 00:09:00.570 --> 00:09:03.549 why we suffer, and why terrible things happen. 00:09:03.750 --> 00:09:06.110 We look up at the universe demanding an explanation, 00:09:06.429 --> 00:09:09.210 and the universe just stares back at us completely 00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:11.610 blank. It makes me think of an analogy. It's 00:09:11.610 --> 00:09:14.470 like, you are constantly sending these deep heartfelt 00:09:14.470 --> 00:09:16.929 text messages to the universe. Oh, I like this. 00:09:17.110 --> 00:09:19.250 Yeah, you're pouring your soul out, asking for 00:09:19.250 --> 00:09:22.169 advice, asking for just a tiny sign that you 00:09:22.169 --> 00:09:25.190 are on the right path. And the universe always, 00:09:25.269 --> 00:09:29.019 always leaves you on read. Yes. There are no 00:09:29.019 --> 00:09:32.039 reply bubbles. Nothing. Just the little read 00:09:32.039 --> 00:09:34.779 receipt. Exactly. And Camus essentially says 00:09:34.779 --> 00:09:36.860 you have three options when you realize you've 00:09:36.860 --> 00:09:39.340 been left on read. You can throw your phone away, 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:41.799 which he equates to physical suicide, just a 00:09:41.799 --> 00:09:44.000 total surrender to the meaninglessness. Right. 00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:46.980 Or you can delude yourself into thinking the 00:09:46.980 --> 00:09:49.740 universe did reply by inventing a comforting 00:09:49.740 --> 00:09:52.460 story, which he calls philosophical suicide. 00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:54.960 And what's the third option? The third option, 00:09:55.100 --> 00:09:57.679 which is the core of Cayma's philosophy, is to 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:00.919 accept that you are left on read. You look directly 00:10:00.919 --> 00:10:03.159 at the blank screen, you accept the silence, 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:05.759 and you find joy and defiance in the act of typing 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:08.379 the message anyway. You embrace the absurdity 00:10:08.379 --> 00:10:10.399 of the situation. And that is where the myth 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:12.960 of Sisyphus comes in. It perfectly illustrates 00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:15.419 the concept. Camus uses the ancient Greek myth 00:10:15.419 --> 00:10:18.019 of Sisyphus, a man who defied the gods and was 00:10:18.019 --> 00:10:20.220 punished for eternity. His punishment was to 00:10:20.220 --> 00:10:23.419 push a massive, heavy boulder up a steep mountain. 00:10:23.580 --> 00:10:25.360 Right, and every time he finally reaches the 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:27.460 top, the boulder rolls all the way back down 00:10:27.460 --> 00:10:29.899 to the bottom and Sisyphus has to walk down and 00:10:29.899 --> 00:10:33.139 start over forever. It is the ultimate symbol 00:10:33.139 --> 00:10:36.779 of meaningless, frustrating labor. I mean, most 00:10:36.779 --> 00:10:39.059 people would look at that and see pure hell. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:41.860 But Camus looks at it and sees a blueprint for 00:10:41.860 --> 00:10:44.820 human triumph. He focuses on the exact moment 00:10:44.820 --> 00:10:47.440 when Sisyphus reaches the top, watches the boulder 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:50.220 roll back down, and turns to walk back down the 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:53.080 mountain. That specific moment. Yes. In that 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:56.279 moment of walking down, Sisyphus is fully conscious 00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:59.220 of his wretched condition. He knows his labor 00:10:59.220 --> 00:11:02.100 is pointless. But by choosing to walk back down 00:11:02.100 --> 00:11:04.580 and push it again, he claims ownership of his 00:11:04.580 --> 00:11:08.000 fate. He rebels against the gods simply by continuing. 00:11:08.609 --> 00:11:11.029 Exactly. Camus concludes the essay with the famous 00:11:11.029 --> 00:11:14.750 line, one must imagine Sisyphus happy. The struggle 00:11:14.750 --> 00:11:16.750 itself toward the heights is enough to fill a 00:11:16.750 --> 00:11:18.850 man's heart. Wow. And when you apply that to 00:11:18.850 --> 00:11:21.049 his life during World War II, it suddenly makes 00:11:21.049 --> 00:11:23.789 perfect sense. It really does. Fighting the Gestapo 00:11:23.789 --> 00:11:25.629 might have felt like pushing a boulder up a mountain. 00:11:25.970 --> 00:11:28.789 The odds were impossible. But the act of fighting, 00:11:29.049 --> 00:11:31.190 the act of asserting human dignity in the face 00:11:31.190 --> 00:11:33.850 of a terrifying, indifferent machine, was the 00:11:33.850 --> 00:11:36.669 victory itself. He was forging his own meaning 00:11:36.669 --> 00:11:40.360 in the dark. And this brings us to a really crucial 00:11:40.360 --> 00:11:43.279 distinction in the history of philosophy. A lot 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:45.980 of people lump Camus in with Jean -Paul Sartre. 00:11:46.139 --> 00:11:47.659 Oh, yeah, they constantly get grouped together. 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:49.919 Right. They were contemporaries in Paris. They 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:52.480 ran in the same circles, and they were both constantly 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:56.559 labeled as existentialists. But Camus hated that 00:11:56.559 --> 00:11:59.299 term and actively rejected it. And to understand 00:11:59.299 --> 00:12:02.279 why they clashed so spectacularly, you really 00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:04.580 have to look at the massive differences in their 00:12:04.580 --> 00:12:07.559 lived experiences. I mean, Sartre was an ivory 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:10.539 tower Parisian intellectual. It was very easy 00:12:10.539 --> 00:12:12.440 for him to look at the world from a comfortable 00:12:12.440 --> 00:12:15.320 cafe and declare that humans are entirely blank 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:18.960 slates. Yeah, Sartre championed the core existentialist 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:22.620 idea that existence precedes essence, meaning 00:12:22.620 --> 00:12:25.700 you are born as nothing and you completely invent 00:12:25.700 --> 00:12:28.279 your own human nature through your choices. But 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:30.340 Camus looked at that and said, no, that's fundamentally 00:12:30.340 --> 00:12:33.500 wrong. Because of his background. Exactly, because 00:12:33.500 --> 00:12:36.460 Kemu grew up in grinding poverty in Algiers. 00:12:36.899 --> 00:12:39.779 He fought the physical deterioration of tuberculosis. 00:12:40.139 --> 00:12:42.240 He fought in the dirt and the paranoia of the 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:45.279 resistance. He saw firsthand that humans share 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:48.580 a fundamental, undeniable condition. We all bleed, 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.179 we all suffer. We all face mortality, and we 00:12:51.179 --> 00:12:54.700 all crave dignity. That shared suffering meant, 00:12:54.700 --> 00:12:57.299 to Kemus, that there is an inherent human nature. 00:12:57.480 --> 00:13:00.240 We aren't blank slates. And that philosophical 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:02.659 difference eventually exploded into a massive 00:13:02.659 --> 00:13:05.379 public feud when Camus shifted into his second 00:13:05.379 --> 00:13:07.440 major cycle of writing, which centered around 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:09.659 the concept of the rebel. Right, he basically 00:13:09.659 --> 00:13:12.360 updates Descartes' famous statement, I think, 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:16.120 therefore I am. Camus writes, I revolt, therefore 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:18.940 we exist. And notice the shift there from the 00:13:18.940 --> 00:13:21.879 singular I to the plural we. Yeah, that's really 00:13:21.879 --> 00:13:24.179 important. By rebelling against oppression, we 00:13:24.179 --> 00:13:26.120 affirm a shared human value that connects all 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:29.440 of us. But he issued a profound warning alongside 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:31.460 that concept. He looked at the history of the 00:13:31.460 --> 00:13:33.980 20th century and saw that revolutions, even those 00:13:33.980 --> 00:13:35.879 that start out fighting for justice and freedom, 00:13:36.419 --> 00:13:39.340 often curdle into new oppressive regimes. The 00:13:39.340 --> 00:13:41.940 rebel overthrows the tyrant. Only to become the 00:13:41.940 --> 00:13:44.679 new tyrant. Exactly. Therefore, Camus demanded 00:13:44.679 --> 00:13:46.940 that rebellion must have strict moral limits. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:50.240 You cannot sacrifice innocent lives today for 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:53.659 some promised utopian society tomorrow. And this 00:13:53.659 --> 00:13:55.899 stance made him incredibly controversial, especially 00:13:55.899 --> 00:13:59.259 on the political left in France. And just as 00:13:59.259 --> 00:14:01.340 a quick reminder for you listening, we are not 00:14:01.340 --> 00:14:04.519 taking a political side here. Our goal is strictly 00:14:04.519 --> 00:14:07.120 to explore the historical facts of Camus's life 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.519 and the mechanics of his philosophy. Absolutely. 00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:12.700 that Kamas applied this concept of moral limits 00:14:12.700 --> 00:14:15.659 to fiercely criticize Marxism, Leninism, and 00:14:15.659 --> 00:14:18.159 the Soviet Union under Stalin. He looked at the 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:20.700 Soviet model and recognized it as totalitarian. 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:23.720 He was deeply disturbed by intellectuals in Paris, 00:14:23.940 --> 00:14:26.080 like Sartre, who were sympathetic to the Soviets 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:28.519 and willing to overlook the gulags and the state 00:14:28.519 --> 00:14:31.120 violence in the name of a future communist utopia. 00:14:31.419 --> 00:14:33.659 Right. Kamas accused them of making a decision 00:14:33.659 --> 00:14:37.019 to call total servitude freedom. He refused to 00:14:37.019 --> 00:14:39.440 tolerate political violence, arguing that revolutionaries 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:41.700 were sacrificing living, breathing, innocent 00:14:41.700 --> 00:14:43.960 humans on the altar of an abstract historical 00:14:43.960 --> 00:14:48.860 idea. So if he rejected the Soviet model and 00:14:48.860 --> 00:14:51.480 he rejected Western capitalism, where did he 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:53.659 actually land politically? Well, the sources 00:14:53.659 --> 00:14:56.179 note he was drawn to anarcho -syndicalism and 00:14:56.179 --> 00:14:58.360 libertarian socialism. OK, let's break those 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:00.740 terms down because they sound incredibly dense. 00:15:00.860 --> 00:15:03.799 They do, yeah. So. Anarcho -syndicalism is basically 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:07.100 the idea that everyday workers, not politicians 00:15:07.100 --> 00:15:09.600 or corporate bosses, should directly control 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:12.039 their own workplaces and communities through 00:15:12.039 --> 00:15:15.259 labor unions. He hated the idea of a centralized 00:15:15.259 --> 00:15:17.440 state controlling everything from the top down. 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:20.039 And libertarian socialism operates on a similar 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:22.690 wavelength. It advocates for a society based 00:15:22.690 --> 00:15:25.250 on community care, mutual aid, and shared resources, 00:15:25.690 --> 00:15:28.330 but absolutely rejects the authoritarian control 00:15:28.330 --> 00:15:31.549 of a massive government bureaucracy. So he basically 00:15:31.549 --> 00:15:33.750 wanted power decentralized. Yeah, he wanted people 00:15:33.750 --> 00:15:36.210 to govern themselves locally, ensuring that human 00:15:36.210 --> 00:15:38.610 dignity was always prioritized over state power. 00:15:38.730 --> 00:15:40.690 But you know, it is one thing to sit in Paris 00:15:40.690 --> 00:15:43.230 and write brilliant essays about the moral limits 00:15:43.230 --> 00:15:46.090 of rebellion and decentralized power. It's a 00:15:46.090 --> 00:15:49.000 lot easier in theory. Right. It is entirely another 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:52.120 thing when a real, visceral, bloody revolution 00:15:52.120 --> 00:15:54.240 breaks out in your own childhood home. And that's 00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:57.039 exactly what happens to Kamis. The Algerian war 00:15:57.039 --> 00:16:00.659 for independence begins in 1954. And it completely 00:16:00.659 --> 00:16:03.240 shatters his life. He is painfully caught in 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:06.220 the middle of a brutal conflict because as a 00:16:06.220 --> 00:16:09.129 Pied Noir, he was born in Algeria. And years 00:16:09.129 --> 00:16:11.090 before the war broke out, he had worked as a 00:16:11.090 --> 00:16:14.049 journalist, writing scathing, highly unpopular 00:16:14.049 --> 00:16:16.470 exposés about the atrocious living conditions, 00:16:16.690 --> 00:16:19.350 the starvation, and the institutional racism 00:16:19.350 --> 00:16:21.730 that the French colonial government imposed on 00:16:21.730 --> 00:16:24.149 the Arab and Berber populations. So he knew the 00:16:24.149 --> 00:16:26.250 colonial system was deeply unjust and needed 00:16:26.250 --> 00:16:29.149 to be dismantled. He did. But at the same time, 00:16:29.190 --> 00:16:31.529 he deeply identified with the working -class 00:16:31.529 --> 00:16:33.929 European settlers. Right. People like his deaf 00:16:33.929 --> 00:16:35.929 mother, who still lived in a poor neighborhood 00:16:35.929 --> 00:16:39.019 in Algiers. Do you view these everyday settlers 00:16:39.019 --> 00:16:42.860 as evil colonial mastermind oppressors? No, he 00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:45.000 viewed them as ordinary poor people who were 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:46.860 just trying to survive in the only home they 00:16:46.860 --> 00:16:49.279 had ever known. So he tries desperately to find 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:51.889 an impossible middle ground. He really does. 00:16:52.149 --> 00:16:54.789 He actually travels to Algeria at massive personal 00:16:54.789 --> 00:16:58.529 risk, trying to negotiate a civilian truce. He 00:16:58.529 --> 00:17:00.990 pleads with both the French military and the 00:17:00.990 --> 00:17:03.950 Algerian National Liberation Front, the FLN, 00:17:04.210 --> 00:17:07.029 to agree to spare innocent non -combatants. He 00:17:07.029 --> 00:17:09.609 advocates for a new Mediterranean culture, a 00:17:09.609 --> 00:17:12.970 pluralistic, multicultural Algeria, where Arabs, 00:17:13.190 --> 00:17:16.380 Berbers, and Europeans can coexist equally. But 00:17:16.380 --> 00:17:18.819 his efforts are completely rejected by almost 00:17:18.819 --> 00:17:20.720 everyone. Yeah, the French colonialists think 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:23.140 he's a traitor for exposing their abuses and 00:17:23.140 --> 00:17:25.359 demanding equal rights for Arabs. And the FLN 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:27.440 rejects him for not supporting their campaign 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:30.059 of full scale armed independence and guerrilla 00:17:30.059 --> 00:17:32.680 warfare. His calls for peace are viewed by radicals 00:17:32.680 --> 00:17:36.700 on both sides as foolish or worse as a cowardly 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:39.279 defense of the colonial status quo. Which leads 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:42.019 to perhaps his most famous and historically debated 00:17:42.019 --> 00:17:44.579 public moment. Oh, the Stockholm incident. Yeah. 00:17:44.809 --> 00:17:47.609 He's in Stockholm in 1957, answering questions 00:17:47.609 --> 00:17:49.910 from students after accepting his Nobel Prize. 00:17:50.289 --> 00:17:52.869 And he is aggressively confronted by an Algerian 00:17:52.869 --> 00:17:55.289 critic about his refusal to fully support the 00:17:55.289 --> 00:17:58.990 FLN's armed struggle. And Kamis replies by rejecting 00:17:58.990 --> 00:18:02.450 the false equivalence of justice with revolutionary 00:18:02.450 --> 00:18:06.789 terrorism. He says, People are now planting bombs 00:18:06.789 --> 00:18:09.750 in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be 00:18:09.750 --> 00:18:12.670 on one of those tramways. If that is justice. 00:18:12.940 --> 00:18:15.559 then I prefer my mother. Which is such a powerful 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:17.759 statement. And that quote is still a lightning 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:20.940 rod for debate today. Post -colonial critics 00:18:20.940 --> 00:18:23.740 like Edward Said later argued that this was Camus 00:18:23.740 --> 00:18:27.039 showing a colonialist bias, failing his own political 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:29.359 ideals when the pressure was on. It's definitely 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:31.660 a point of heavy criticism. But if you look at 00:18:31.660 --> 00:18:34.140 the underlying mechanism of his philosophy, everything 00:18:34.140 --> 00:18:35.880 we just talked about regarding Sisyphus and the 00:18:35.880 --> 00:18:38.339 rebel, is this actually the ultimate expression 00:18:38.339 --> 00:18:40.660 of his beliefs? If we connect this to the bigger 00:18:40.660 --> 00:18:44.460 picture, it aligns perfectly. For Camus, no political 00:18:44.460 --> 00:18:46.700 cause, no matter how righteous or historically 00:18:46.700 --> 00:18:49.200 justified the grievance, was worth the blood 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:51.880 of innocent civilians. The moment a revolutionary 00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:54.480 group justifies bombing a public tramway full 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:56.519 of everyday people like his mother going to the 00:18:56.519 --> 00:18:59.039 market, they have crossed the line from rebellion 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:02.160 into tyranny. They have lost the moral high ground. 00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:05.799 Exactly. He refused to sanction murder in the 00:19:05.799 --> 00:19:09.200 name of an abstract political future. He chose 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:12.880 flesh and blood human life over ideology. It's 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:15.019 a tragic position to hold though because it left 00:19:15.019 --> 00:19:17.740 him entirely politically orphaned. He had no 00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:20.339 allies left. He once described the violence in 00:19:20.339 --> 00:19:24.119 Algeria as affecting him as others feel pain 00:19:24.119 --> 00:19:26.500 in their lungs. Which is an incredibly loaded 00:19:26.500 --> 00:19:28.759 heavy metaphor for a man who spent his entire 00:19:28.759 --> 00:19:31.680 adult life battling tuberculosis. Yeah. and the 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:33.839 mental burden just became too heavy to carry. 00:19:34.339 --> 00:19:36.200 He essentially withdrew from the public debate 00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:39.220 on Algeria after the Stockholm incident. He turned 00:19:39.220 --> 00:19:41.480 back to his roots in the theater, adapting works 00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:44.079 by Dostoevsky for the stage. And he began writing 00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:46.640 what he predicted would be his masterpiece, a 00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:49.039 heavily autobiographical novel called The First 00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:51.599 Man. Exploring his childhood in Algiers, his 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:54.000 father's death, and his connection to the land. 00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:56.799 But the universe, in its ultimate absurd indifference, 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:00.539 had other plans. Yeah. In January 1960, Camus 00:20:00.539 --> 00:20:02.039 had just spent the New Year's holiday in the 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:04.500 south of France. His wife and children took the 00:20:04.500 --> 00:20:07.000 train back to Paris, and Camus actually had a 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:09.420 train ticket in his pocket. He fully intended 00:20:09.420 --> 00:20:12.059 to take the train. He did. But at the very last 00:20:12.059 --> 00:20:14.380 minute, he decided to ride back with his friend 00:20:14.380 --> 00:20:17.220 and publisher, Michel Gallimard, in Gallimard's 00:20:17.220 --> 00:20:20.769 luxury car. A Facel Vega. And on a long, straight, 00:20:20.970 --> 00:20:24.029 unobstructed stretch of road, the car drifted 00:20:24.029 --> 00:20:26.490 and crashed violently into a massive plane tree. 00:20:26.849 --> 00:20:28.930 Camus was in the passenger seat. He was 46 years 00:20:28.930 --> 00:20:31.329 old. He died instantly. Gallimard died from his 00:20:31.329 --> 00:20:33.549 injuries a few days later. And in the mud and 00:20:33.549 --> 00:20:36.069 the wreckage of the car, investigators found 00:20:36.069 --> 00:20:40.730 his briefcase. Inside was the 144 -page, handwritten 00:20:40.730 --> 00:20:44.829 manuscript of the first man. The story of his 00:20:44.829 --> 00:20:48.200 life cut short mid -sentence by a random piece 00:20:48.200 --> 00:20:50.880 of bark and steel. It is the bleakest kind of 00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:53.599 irony imaginable, a man who wrote so extensively 00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:55.640 about the sudden meaningless nature of death 00:20:55.640 --> 00:20:58.220 taken out by a completely random, avoidable accident. 00:20:58.359 --> 00:21:00.380 It's just absurd. It really is. And I should 00:21:00.380 --> 00:21:02.500 note that in 2011, an Italian author proposed 00:21:02.500 --> 00:21:05.180 a theory that the KGB actually orchestrated the 00:21:05.180 --> 00:21:07.759 crash by tampering with the car's tires. Wait, 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:10.900 really? The KGB? Yeah, the theory suggests it 00:21:10.900 --> 00:21:13.539 was retaliation for Kamius's heavy, relentless 00:21:13.539 --> 00:21:16.680 criticism of the Soviet Union. Wow. Whether it 00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:19.019 was a targeted assassination or just a horrific, 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:22.480 absurd accident, it abruptly ended the life of 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:24.700 one of the 20th century's greatest mimes. It 00:21:24.700 --> 00:21:27.539 really did. And when we pull all of these sources 00:21:27.539 --> 00:21:30.440 together, the takeaways from this deep dive are 00:21:30.440 --> 00:21:33.019 incredibly powerful. This was a man who stared 00:21:33.019 --> 00:21:36.910 directly into the void of an absurd silent universe. 00:21:37.069 --> 00:21:39.210 He suffered through the terrifying disease of 00:21:39.210 --> 00:21:42.309 his own body, the horrors of World War II, and 00:21:42.309 --> 00:21:45.049 the agonizing political exile of the Algerian 00:21:45.049 --> 00:21:47.369 War. And despite carrying all of that weight, 00:21:47.750 --> 00:21:50.400 his response was never nihilism. His response 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:53.359 was to fiercely love human life. He recognized 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:55.519 that we are all trapped in this absurd condition 00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:58.119 together and therefore the only logical, decent 00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:01.059 response is solidarity. He teaches us to resist 00:22:01.059 --> 00:22:02.940 oppression with everything we have but to maintain 00:22:02.940 --> 00:22:05.680 the strict moral discipline to never become an 00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:07.700 oppressor yourself. Yeah, if you've ever felt 00:22:07.700 --> 00:22:09.920 completely disillusioned by a political movement 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:12.019 you initially believed in because the rhetoric 00:22:12.019 --> 00:22:14.779 became too extreme or the tactics became too 00:22:14.779 --> 00:22:16.980 cruel, you are experiencing exactly what Kam 00:22:16.980 --> 00:22:19.960 has warned about. Absolutely. In an era like 00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:22.799 ours today, where political polarization is so 00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:25.279 intense, where the us -versus -them mentality 00:22:25.279 --> 00:22:28.779 is practically a global religion, chemuse offers 00:22:28.779 --> 00:22:31.619 a blueprint. A way to keep your moral compass 00:22:31.619 --> 00:22:34.660 intact. Yeah, and a way to find joy and sunlight 00:22:34.660 --> 00:22:37.920 even when the world feels entirely broken. He 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:39.859 proved that you can look at the darkest parts 00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:42.640 of the human experience and still conclude that 00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:45.140 there is an invincible summer inside of us. It's 00:22:45.140 --> 00:22:47.619 a beautiful way to live. It is. But here's where 00:22:47.619 --> 00:22:49.599 it gets really interesting and where I want to 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:52.059 leave you today, the listener. Camus defined 00:22:52.059 --> 00:22:55.160 the absurd as the human need for meeting the 00:22:55.160 --> 00:22:57.500 unreasonable silence of the world. Right. But 00:22:57.500 --> 00:23:00.200 you live in the digital age. You are constantly 00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:02.869 connected. What happens to absurdism when we 00:23:02.869 --> 00:23:04.890 aren't facing the unreasonable silence of the 00:23:04.890 --> 00:23:07.049 world, but the unreasonable noise of the internet? 00:23:07.269 --> 00:23:09.630 Oh, that's a great point. When every app, every 00:23:09.630 --> 00:23:11.950 headline, every algorithm is shouting at you, 00:23:12.089 --> 00:23:14.390 trying to hand you a pre -packaged meaning or 00:23:14.390 --> 00:23:17.430 a brand new reason to be outraged. How do you 00:23:17.430 --> 00:23:19.950 maintain your own moral limits, your own quiet 00:23:19.950 --> 00:23:22.450 rebellion, when the world won't stop screaming 00:23:22.450 --> 00:23:24.910 at you? It's a whole new kind of boulder to push. 00:23:25.170 --> 00:23:27.200 Exactly. Think about that as you go about your 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:30.160 day. Are you letting the noise dictate your essence 00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:32.420 or are you typing your own message into the void, 00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:34.680 finding your own meaning? Keep questioning, keep 00:23:34.680 --> 00:23:36.319 seeking. Until next time.