RE: [casi] A word from Camus...

["Suzy T. Kane" <suzytkane@DELETETHIStaosnet.com>]

Elga, thank you. Suzy


-----Original Message-----
From: casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk
[mailto:casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk] On Behalf Of H Sutter
Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2003 7:13 PM
To: casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk
Subject: [casi] A word from Camus...


Dear List,

Camus wrote an essay "Neither Victim nor Executioner".
It was published in Combat, the newspaper of the
French Resistance, in 1946.

The essay opens with "Yes, we must raise our voices."
But Camus did more than raise his voice. He fought
in the Resistance during WWII and yet he was averse
to killing. He believed that it is "fear and silence"
that must be fought.

Camus' words are as valid today as they were then -
perhaps more so.

The complacent - and hypocritical reaction - of the
so-called international community to the 'lifting
of the sanctions' has reminded me of Camus' call
for courage. And I believe too that "Yes, we must
raise our voices."

Here is an example:

"Fischer and Powell welcome the UN Resolution",
proclaimed a news item in the German press on
May 22. This was the one that legitimized USUK
as the occupying powers in Iraq. And to open the
doors for USUK's looting of Iraq, this resolution
also got rid of the sanctions. Well, there will
be some nice crumbs for the coalition of the
unwilling too.

So here's to selling the people of Iraq down
the Western exploitation river! And sweeping
under the carpet the fact that the sanctions
that devastated Iraqis had not even the
benefit of the pretext belaboured for
13 years - those WMDs. For 13 years Iraqis
have been collectively punished for a pretext.

Mr. Fischer avoided the phrase "lifting the
sanctions", he spoke instead of the "decision
by the UN Security Council". This "decision", he
said, was a good basis for improving the living
conditions of the Iraqi people and to stabilize
the political situation.

Mr. Powell was euphoric: This was a wonderful
day for the Iraqi people, he quipped. Differences
of opinion have now to be put aside. This was a
hint for France - Germany has already eaten crow.

Now Iraqi exports are free again, continued the
news item. ("Oil wells have been liberated for
democracy", as the Onion satirically put it.)

And the EU, as a whole, also welcomed the "lifting
of the Iraqi sanctions" by the Security Council.
They spoke of a "new spirit of cooperation".

Immoral, corrupt, and hypocritical politicians -
the whole bunch. But the disheartening part is
that the whole world acquiesces - and pretends
to see the emperor's fig leaves.

Camus' concluding words:

"But I have always held that, if he who bases his
hopes on human nature is a fool, he who gives up
in the face of circumstances is a coward. And
henceforth, the only honorable course will be to
stake everything on a formidable gamble: that
words are more powerful than munitions."

I understand that it is very, very hard for most
people to 'raise their voices' in the face of
injustice. In doing so, they set themselves
apart from the mainstream society - and people
need to feel accepted. Still, the injustice we
are facing is horrendous and will eventually
catch up with us all.

So let's not be cowards,

--Elga

<Fwd>
NEITHER VICTIMS NOR EXECUTIONERS

by Albert Camus

Yes, we must raise our voices. Up to this point, I have
refrained from appealing to emotion. We are being torn
apart by a logic of history which we have elaborated in
every detail--a net which threatens to strangle us. It
is not emotion which can cut through the web of a logic
which has gone to irrational lengths, but only reason
which can meet logic on its own ground. But I should not
want to leave the impression... that any program for the
future can get along without our powers of love and
indignation. I am well aware that it takes a powerful
prime mover to get men into motion and that it is hard
to throw one's self into a struggle whose objectives are
so modest and where hope has only a rational basis--and
hardly even that. But the problem is not how to carry
men away; it is essential, on the contrary, that they
not be carried away but rather that they be made to
understand clearly what they are doing.

To save what can be saved so as to open up some kind of
future--that is the prime mover, the passion and the
sacrifice that is required. It demands only that we
reflect and then decide, clearly, whether humanity's lot
must be made still more miserable in order to achieve
far-off and shadowy ends, whether we should accept a
world bristling with arms where brother kills brother;
or whether, on the contrary, we should avoid bloodshed
and misery as much as possible so that we give a chance
for survival to later generations better equipped than
we are.

For my part, I am fairly sure that I have made the
choice. And, having chosen, I think that I must speak
out, that I must state that I will never again be one of
those, whoever they be, who compromise with murder, and
that I must take the consequences of such a decision.
The thing is done, and that is as far as I can go at
present.... However, I want to make clear the spirit in
which this article is written.

We are asked to love or to hate such and such a country
and such and such a people. But some of us feel too
strongly our common humanity to make such a choice.
Those who really love the Russian people, in gratitude
for what they have never ceased to be--that world leaven
which Tolstoy and Gorky speak of--do not wish for them
success in power politics, but rather want to spare
them, after the ordeals of the past, a new and even more
terrible bloodletting. So, too, with the American
people, and with the peoples of unhappy Europe. This is
the kind of elementary truth we are likely to forget
amidst the furious passions of our time.

Yes, it is fear and silence and the spiritual isolation
they cause that must be fought today. And it is
sociability and the universal intercommunication of men
that must be defended. Slavery, injustice, and lies
destroy this intercourse and forbid this sociability;
and so we must reject them. But these evils are today
the very stuff of history, so that many consider them
necessary evils. It is true that we cannot "escape
history," since we are in it up to our necks. But one
may propose to fight within history to preserve from
history that part of man which is not its proper
province. That is all I have to say here. The "point" of
this article may be summed up as follows:

Modern nations are driven by powerful forces along the
roads of power and domination. I will not say that these
forces should be furthered or that they should be
obstructed. They hardly need our help and, for the
moment, they laugh at attempts to hinder them. They
will, then, continue. But I will ask only this simple
question: What if these forces wind up in a dead end,
what if that logic of history on which so many now rely
turns out to be a will o' the wisp? What if, despite two
or three world wars, despite the sacrifice of several
generations and a whole system of values, our
grandchildren--supposing they survive-- find themselves
no closer to a world society? It may well be that the
survivors of such an experience will be too weak to
understand their own sufferings. Since these forces are
working themselves out and since it is inevitable that
they continue to do so,there is no reason why some of us
should not take on the job of keeping alive, through the
apocalyptic historical vista that stretches before us, a
modest thoughtfulness which, without pretending to solve
everything, will constantly be prepared to give some
human meaning to everyday life. The essential thing is
that people should carefully weight the price they must
pay....

All I ask is that, in the midst of a murderous world, we
agree to reflect on murder and to make a choice. After
that, we can distinguish those who accept the
consequences of being murderers themselves or the
accomplices of murderers, and those who refuse to do so
with all their force and being. Since this terrible
dividing line does actually exist, it will be a gain if
it be clearly marked. Over the expanse of five
continents throughout the coming years an endless
struggle is going to be pursued between violence and
friendly persuasion, a struggle in which, granted, the
former has a thousand times the chances of success than
that of the latter. But I have always held that, if he
who bases his hopes on human nature is a fool, he who
gives up in the face of circumstances is a coward. And
henceforth, the only honorable course will be to stake
everything on a formidable gamble: that words are more
powerful than munitions.
<End>



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To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk
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