communard71
7th July 2011, 14:12
I was flipping through Camus’s The Rebel and found some old lines I had underlined years ago and was thinking more about them this time. Nihilism was attractive back then but I have long since moved on to Marxist belief. Still, I thought I’d pin up an interesting passage for discussion, Camus writes; “Any attempt to apply a standard of values to the world leads finally to a slander on life. Judgments are based on what is, with reference to what should be—the kingdom of heaven, eternal concepts, or moral imperatives. But what should be does not exist; and this world cannot be judged in the name of nothing.” I know he was discussing basic Nietzschein ideology but it’s poignant nonetheless. As leftists, are we pursuing a chimera? Or are we, as I really believe, trying to reach the best balance between what is natural and what is just?