The Bluestocking 2022-23

Albert Camus, an eminent existentialist, expressed essential opinions about freedom in his book The Rebel. Originally published in 1951, he describes the meta physical development of rebellions and its indispensable character throughout the shaping of history. An interesting fact is that most acts of rebellion started with either the denial of history or transcendent values imposed upon citizens by materialists, or people with a great possession of wealth and an unmeasurable desire to control. “[The materialists’] reign is cruel, but they excuse their cruelty, like the Satan of the roman tics, by claiming that it is hard for them to bear. ‘We reserve desire and suffering for ourselves, for the slaves there is Chigalevism’” (Camus 175-176). Chigalevism is the doctrine that people must be enslaved for positive out comes (Ramadan 60). The tyrants have believed, do believe, and will always believe that every harm in this world is legitimate since there will always be good things that come as a result of destructive events, even if they are the only ones reaping all the benefits. This is when a rebel comes into play. They do not need to suffer from the materialists’ influence, but can simply identify with another oppressed individual while asserting themselves for the sake of everyone involved (16). This feeling of compassion truly subjectivizes the idea of freedom, which is an argument that contradicts that of numerous past philosophers who debated about the subjectivity of freedom, the most prominent among which being Plato. In his work The Republic, he stated that “... human beings are invariably caught in a struggle between rationality and the wish to fulfil their desires” (Hansen 7). He sees humans as creatures with endless cravings, but there is a permanent boundary between what is acceptable and what is forbidden according to the law. Accordingly, the extent to which an individual is subjectively free truly depends on their political and social environment, and that one can never have absolute freedom. To sum up, Sartre, Camus, and Beauvoir all imply that freedom is a subjec tive matter. Since we cannot control what happens in the future, we shall savour the present to the fullest extent. In order to do this, we should take responsibility for our actions and associated consequences. Though some humans would always seek control over their life and others, so their quest for total freedom — driven by much ambition and greed — will never come to a stop. But as the Grand Inquisitors say, “... martyrdom consists of consenting to inflict suffering on others; they become the slaves of their own domination. For man to become god, the victim must bow down before the execu tioner. That is why both victim and executioner are equally despairing. Neither slavery nor power will any longer coincide with happiness. The masters will be morose and the slaves sullen” (Camus 175-176.

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