On Albert Camus : ‘War Is What Is Normal’

Albert Camus has said that ‘war is what is normal’. What does he mean by that? Which war is he referring to?

Conflict, basic inner fragmentation, lack of total flow, indecision, our fractured movements. That is the war he is talking of. Basic duality, the presence of two-ness, the mind is split into two and two means twenty thousand. So, there is no smoothness in its functioning.

Twenty thousand parts, each part talking a different language and each part talking a language that is fake, alien, foreign, imported. Twenty thousand parts and no part a master of itself, all slaves to phony masters.

All slaves to slaves.

Twenty thousand slaves, each a slave to another slave and all these slaves are quarreling with each other.

That is war.

Each of us is the site of a civil war.

You know what a civil war is? When a nation doesn’t have to fight against the other. One part, one group within the country is fighting, that’s how our minds are. That is the war that Camus is referring to.

Are you ever able to proceed without decision? We require decisions, and decisions require thoughts. That is war.

To decide you require options, and each option has its own merit and demerit, right?

That is war.

Should I do this, should I do that, this says ‘come on’ be with me, this says no, proceed with me, that is war.

Those who have ever known spontaneity will know what it means to be warless, what it means to be peaceful.

Those who have known ‘Love’ will know what it means to be peaceful.

In ‘Love’ you are option-less. A thousand facts and difficulties present themselves to you, but you know that now you are sold out. You know that the decision has been made even without your consent, and that decision is irreversible because it is not your decision.

You can only reverse that which is yours. And in ‘Love,’ someone has possessed you, overpowered you and acted on your behalf. So, there is no decision and hence no conflict, that is a state of warlessness.