Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Albert Camus - Entitled Opinions

Over the last months I have grown very fond of the podcast Entitled Opinions. The last episode I reviewed is a perfect example of why: the podcast had the audacity to take on the ideas of the Unabomber and take us on a critical tour through his world. This is Entitled opinions: an exercise in culture that is not taking the easy roads and also courageous to dig deep.

And so, because I was thrilled by that issue, I went deep into the backlog and dug up another conversation with the same participants. This time about my favorite writer of all time: Albert Camus. And also with him, they took not the easy road and had the courage to dig deep. Camus, who is so frequently portrayed as an almost saintly visionary, doesn't come out as the great philosopher or the righteous figure. Yet, this tormented man, who died too early, still wrought some influential works that are still relevant today.

They also paid attention to my favorite quote of Camus: If I have to choose between justice and my mother, I choose my mother. This is not taken as the powerful stance, that I see in it, so I will happily turn you to listen to this wonderful episode of Entitled opinions. But let me say that Camus understood that justice was more of an emotion than a rational idea. And I would add, that justice is more of a bundle of principles that require a complex balancing act and that can always surprise in special circumstances - the mother.

More Entitled Opinions:
Unabomber world views,
Byzantine Culture,
Jimi Hendrix,
Nietzsche,
Romanticism.

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