Plague Journal, Justice In A Silent World
I have two, maybe three pages left in the book written by Albert Camus, The Rebel. Camus’ generation in France and Europe survived the horror of WWII and the murderous Nazi occupation. The Rebel is a 
manifesto, of what was learned from that experience. Today I offer a longish excerpt of Camus words, and some lines of my own commentary. I plead guilty as charged for a “too long” post. I can think of no alternative, in light of the rioting of last night in many of our cities over the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Now the words written by Camus:
A revolutionary action
which wishes to be coherent in terms of its origins
should be embodied in an active consent to the relative.
It would express fidelity to the human condition.
Uncompromising as to its means,
it would accept an approximation as far as its ends are concerned and,
so that the approximation should become more and more accurately defined, it would allow absolute freedom of speech.
Thus it would preserve the common existence
that justifies its insurrection.
In particular, it would preserve as an absolute law
the permanent possibility of self-expression.
This defines a particular line of conduct in regard to justice and freedom.
There is no justice in society without natural or civil rights as its basis.
There are no rights without expression of those rights.
If the rights are expressed without hesitation
it is more than probable that, sooner or later,
the justice they postulate will come to the world.
To conquer existence,
we must start
from the small amount of existence
we find in ourselves and not deny it from the very beginning.
To silence the law
until justice is established is to silence it forever
since it will have no more occasion to speak if justice reigns forever.
Once more, we thus confide justice
into the keeping of those who alone
have the ability to make themselves heard—those in power.
For centuries, justice and existence as dispensed by those in power
have been considered a favor.
To kill freedom in order to establish the reign of justice
comes to the same as resuscitating the idea of grace
without divine intercession
and of restoring by a mystifying reaction
the mystic body in its basest elements.
Even when justice is not realized,
freedom preserves the power to protest
and guarantees human communication.
Justice in a silent world,
justice enslaved and mute,
destroys mutual complicity
and finally can no longer be justice.
The revolution of the twentieth century
has arbitrarily separated,….., two inseparable ideas.
Absolute freedom mocks at justice.
Absolute justice denies freedom.
To be fruitful, the two ideas must find their limits in each other.
No man considers that his condition is free
if it is not at the same time just, nor just unless it is free.
Freedom, precisely, cannot even be imagined without the power of saying clearly what is just and what is unjust, of claiming all existence in the name of a small part of existence which refuses to die. p. 291
There is no doubt, given the raw deal, the American Dream/Nightmare experienced by Black people, — years of chattel slavery, legal in the thirteen colonies up until the 13th amendment in 1865; then sharecropping during reconstruction in the old South; the early 20th century Jim Crow laws enforcing segregation until 1965; and now low-wage employment, inaccessable healthcare, degraded public education and finally the disproportionate fatalities due to coronavirus, — nothing less than revolution is called for.
A long sentence to say that systematic racism is practiced by our society. The words of Camus are a snapshot of the human condition, our common struggle to be accorded respect, honor, entré to a decent way of life. Our common existence justifies insurrection, – not only the existence of Black folk, but that of every human being.
The point of wisdom, is Camus’ assertion that the meaning of this is relative, a condition to be worked out, trial and error, which requires freedom of expression. In Camus’ words, “freedom of speech,” is the indispensable law.
Speech, freedom of expression, what does that involve? Kvetching, whining endlessly on facebook? How does that effect the social order? What difference could that make? But taking to the streets, burning a police substation…. Could that be an act that asserts the right to life, to not be murdered for being Black? What do you think?
Camus is right. If the rights are expressed without hesitation
it is more than probable that, sooner or later, the justice they postulate will come to the world.
Justice is a synonym for social order, a variety of ordered life providing for decency and fair opportunity for everyone, no one excluded. Justice: social order upheld by fair distribution of it’s cost. What this means, and especially how to work that out, is a process of experimentation, of figuring out what works. Thus Camus point that we start with the small amount of existence within ourselves. We affirm that, and push to expand that for everyone else. More/better education, improved wages and working conditions, etc.
Camus notes that we cannot expect those who have unlimited freedom of expression/speech due to their social position/wealth/power to promise us freedom of expression when their notion of social order is restored. That is the mistake the oppressed have always made. MAGA, Make America Great Again…that day will never come for people of color. (Or for anyone else.) That’s like waiting for Godot.
Absent the power to protest justice is precluded in a silent world, an enslaved and mute justice, — to paraphrase Camus.
The final point made by Camus is that freedom and justice are related as two individuals on a dance floor, each being a limit to the other, in a joint synchronous movement together. Neither can be absolute, as each needs the other. Much food for thought.
If you’ve the patience to read all of this, I salute you. Let me know what you think. I do welcome disagreement.
Burning a police precinct is not out of bounds, when burning the South from Atlanta to the Atlantic ocean was required to put an end to slavery…..
To conclude, what better anthem of resistance than Ben E. King’s, Stand By Me. I won’t be afraid as long as you stand by me.
8 thoughts on “Plague Journal, Justice In A Silent World”
Well put! I would only add that we must not allow ourselves to react in kind, in order to not become those we despise. As in any war, the ideals of war are lost on the survivors.
Yes, the temptation is to get into an eye-for-an-eye mode of response: vengeance for what one, or one’s people have suffered. Thus everyone is blind. Your observation goes to Camus point that justice and freedom are reciprocally limiting of each other. Each finds their limit in the other. Martin Luther King Jr. well understood this.
I’d like to respond with a long quote myself. Written by one of the best speech writers of the last fifty years, (even though his speeches are written for fictional characters), Aaron Sorkin is a master at making a succinct and extraordinarily salient point. The following is from his screenplay for An American President, written 20 years ago. The setting is the White House Briefing Room and the name of the character is President Andrew Shepard. The person he is referring to, Bob Rumson, is a Republican Senator and vocal critic of his administration:
“For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being President of this country was, to a certain extent, about character. And although I’ve not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I have been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being President of this country is entirely about character.
For the record, yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is “Why aren’t you, Bob?” Now this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question, why would a senator, his party’s most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the constitution? Now if you can answer that question, folks, then you’re smarter than I am, because I didn’t understand it until a few hours ago.
America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.” You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.
Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.
I’ve known Bob Rumson for years. And I’ve been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn’t get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t get it. Bob’s problem is that he can’t sell it!
We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, and you wave an old photo of the President’s girlfriend and you scream about patriotism. You tell them she’s to blame for their lot in life. And you go on television and you call her a whore.
Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, ’cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.
A transparent indictment indeed of our way of conducting our business as a society, something that we have put up with concluding that nothing is to be done. There is precedent. And is it not human nature that everything has a price? I disagree with both of those assumptions. Everything is not reducible to monetary values, and some are priceless. All human relationships are based upon that principle. As to precedent, because the house has always been a mess, does not mean it cannot be cleaned up.
We must resist corruption in all of it’s forms, otherwise we will no longer be a free country. The measured, intentioned practice of freedom is the labor which each generation must own, recognizing that it can never be finished.
Good piece Jerry. I must ask, besides this dead-on, inspiring and thought provoking post and I give you these words of praise with utmost sincerity ; what else how you actively done to spread these truths? I realize in ‘lockdown’ our options are limited, but suppose for a moment we were not in this stifling condition; if, sitting at your favorite café in the morning enjoying your coffee, would your thoughts remain silent, fearful of how you were being perceived?
I became amazed at our group when I would hear remarks of support for the man representing the biggest threat to our democracy in contemporary times (and in the open, for all to see, not hiding in the shadows as the Dulles brothers, the result of whose activities are still playing out in the Middle East and South America). I soon became aware of the fact that I seldom heard an insightful comment of anything of ‘substance’ we may have been discussing spill forth.
I have neighbors who I recently discovered support this vermin, this leech sucking the life blood of people whose only desire is to live their lives at peace and sincerely working hard, hoping to enjoy the rewards of their efforts freely, as we were all promised in our Constitution. I heard the litany; the ‘economy, jobs’ again and again, as if and I believe, they have no other retort. This I hear mostly from the wife, but what truly puzzles me is the husband has a degree in ‘history’. It’s baffling, especially since they are blessed with three beautiful boys, all under ten. I think; “What of them?” – as this stain on our country’s history opens up 80 million acres of protected land, pulls out of the Paris Accords, most recently pulls out of the WHO, and on, and on, and on, until one can become physically ill. We are good neighbors though, each acting in a courteous manner in accordance with our zip code and I naturally and gracefully back out of these conversations but I think the next time I hear ‘economy, job, economy, jobs….. I will merely ask a couple of innocuous questions; “What do the terms M1, M2 and M3 mean to you? What is the Fed Discount Window?” – simple stuff like that. Darn ! I can’t do that, I will have to add them to my Buddhist prayers, trying to maintain a consciousness of ‘loving kindness and compassion”. Phooey! I’ve such a long way to go, and a short time to get there.
I enjoyed your piece greatly, Jerry.
Blessings kids
Al good to hear from you. I miss our Tuesday evening gatherings. Maybe we can resume soon, as the weather is getting warmer and the lawn is spacious enough for a big circle.
There is much material out there detailing the incompetency of Trump and the danger this man poses to all of us. His supporters support him for reasons which remain hidden to them, the irrational, which drives the deepest motivations within all of us. Something in them resonates with this bully, and they “like” him and will follow him. I suspect this has to do with a father-memory, that is familiar, and feels “right” to them. I’ve never made any headway by rational discussion with a Trump supporter as to why a bully as President is a bad idea.
Your policy of being a good neighbor to those who hold appalling political allegiances is commendable if difficult. We are all Americans, and must live together as long as we can. It is short sighted to unnecessarily make enemies. And I think the Buddhist tradition helps in these circumstances. There are many things that we cannot control.
Always good to hear from you. Let’s continue to take care of ourselves. The road is long.
Al – Good reply. For those of us who can see that the wannabe emperor truly has no clothes (and no ethics or morality) it does seem like a mystery to us why anyone, much less an educated person, would support the nightmare currently occupying the White House. But we are looking at it with a rational mind, seeing the destruction and noting the incredibly damage being done to our country and our democracy. But a Trump supporter may justify their support by spouting “Economy & Jobs” yet that has little or nothing to do with their actual support. The vast majority of his minions are mesmerized by his “telling it like it is” and cannot truly articulate why they adore this beast, because it is visceral, emotional and gut wrenching. These are not things that most folks can verbalize, they just know he’s doing the right thing.
Most of us have felt disenfranchised at some point during our life, but there are others who have felt that way for most of their lives. To them, Trump is the second coming. They view him as a martyr who has sacrificed himself for their betterment (however they interpret that) by suffering the slings and arrows of an unfair “lamestream media” that is out to get him for no other reason than he represents the inner machinations of the displaced white people of America.
So we can talk to them civilly, present indisputable and irrefutable facts, carefully explain to them how much worse off our planet has become over the past three years, how the economic standards we are experiencing were put in place by Obama, and yet none of that matters, simple because facts don’t matter. Nothing will dissuade them from their adoration, nothing, zero, zip, nada. Trump was right in that he can not do anything that would turn his base away from him.
So what do we do?
#1 – Vote.
#2 – Talk to young people and Bernie supporters to help them understand the gravity of this election and vote a straight democratic ticket.
#3 – Volunteer with ANY organization that will help turn the tide, be it political or community.
#4 – Donate whatever funds you can afford to campaigns that are too close to call. Every dime (plus some extra) of my stimulus money went to a half dozen candidates.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Make no mistake, the devotion of the those who not that long ago, called themselves “conservatives” now aligned with Trump are as dedicated as were the thousands who paraded and filled the stands at Nuremberg, Germany in 1933 -1938. Trump and his sycophants in the Senate, and in many other positions must be forced from power, as they are adverse to compromise of any kind. The fight will have only begun IF the Democrats are able to sweep the November election. And it is yet unclear to me that we can rely upon the established institutions of the electoral process to remain intact when pressured with the unprincipled onslaught that is sure to come.