Not so Crazy as That
“People like myself want not a world in which murder no longer exists (we are not so crazy as that!) but rather one in which murder is not legitimate.” ALBERT CAMUS · NEITHER VICTIMS NOR EXECUTIONERS
In 1946 Camus published a series of articles about what his murderous century owed itself. The obvious objection, then and now, is that he is describing a utopia. He answers the charge inside a parenthesis, and that parenthesis carries the whole argument. The aim was never a world without murder, only one where murder has lost its license.
That distinction is the art of asking for something you can actually get. Abolishing murder is a fantasy, and fantasies are dangerous, because failing them teaches people that nothing can be done. Removing murder’s license is a different project, unglamorous and partial and possible. It means no doctrine, no state, no cause gets to file a killing under some other heading. The crime stays a crime even when it is useful.
Camus called this a relative utopia, and thought the modesty was the point. People who demand that an evil end completely tend to excuse evils along the way, since nothing short of everything counts as progress. People who demand only that an evil lose its excuse can win slowly, and keep what they win.
Take something you want to fix and cut the demand to a size you could actually hold. Not an end to conflict in your family, but an end to the one move that makes it cruel. Not a perfect workplace, but no more cover for the behavior everyone quietly excuses. Take away one excuse. That is a win small enough to keep.
