|
|
he reserved his greatest criticism for communism, Camus also leveled critiques at the United States for its perceived acceptance of unbridled capitalism.
The introduction to The Rebel meets the absurdity of his moment head-on: “The purpose of this essay is once again to face the reality of the present … it is an attempt to understand the times in which we live” (3). Camus, along with many others of his era, could have chosen to ignore “a period which, in a space of fifty years, uproots, enslaves, or kills seventy million human beings” (Rebel 3). But instead of ignoring the moment, Camus believed that he had to choose to engage the moment as it was manifest before him, although he lacked a clear understanding of what the long-term implications of his actions might be. Ronald C. Arnett and Pat Arneson wrote, “We are not saying that one must like or approve of a given historical moment. We are suggesting, however, that any historical moment must be taken seriously and responded to, rather than ignored” (37). The Rebel was one of Camus’s entrances into the ongoing conversation of his historical moment and represents his attempt to “face the reality of the present” by recognizing the atrocities committed during World War II and attempting to provide a vision for the future of mainland Europe.
With the publication of The Rebel, Camus’s criticism of Soviet communism brought him into direct conflict with his friend of over ten years, Jean Paul Sartre. By this point, Sartre had become one of many “apologists for Stalin” (Lottman 523), whereas Camus was growing more and more hostile toward communism. “The author’s [Camus’s] unambiguous stand against Stalinism was bound to receive sympathy and approval from conservatives, from anti-Communists of all types” (Lottman 522). Camus worked from a position in a larger context or narrative, and he came to embody the particular narrative that he represented. Camus’s commitment to living out his political and philosophical beliefs despite the absurdity of his historical moment, though it contributed to the eventual break in his relationship with Jean Paul Sartre, demonstrated his belief that words and actions should be consistent with each other. Aronson wrote, “In the end Camus and