I recall the writing of Nobel Prize winning French writer , Albert Camus , speaking out against torture of the Algerian working class rising up in their post-war liberation movement. A bourgeois humanitarian ( and former communist party member ), Camus was torn between anxiety for the safety of his mother and the just revolt of the oppressed Algerians.
An updated book review of the Camus' " The Stranger " pointed out how faceless " The Arab " was in the novel - the man shot to death by the " innocent " existentialist pagan " hero "
How difficult it is even for relatively privileged " working class " individuals in advanced countries to understand third world oppression.
So " killing THE ARAB " was no big deal if you just conformed to respectable bourgeois appearances and rituals ( like crying when the Catholic crucifix was waved in your face by the state prosecutor ) .
But it seems that even DEATH does not make us all equal.
Nor will any future " Plague " . The bourgeois lawyer- named after John The Baptist -confesses all in Camus' " The Fall ".
Albert Camus was killed in an Absurd car accident in 1960. He was only 44.
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