The Guilt of All
“We cannot assert the innocence of anyone, whereas we can state with certainty the guilt of all. Every man testifies to the crime of all the others.” ALBERT CAMUS · THE FALL
Everything built so far has a shadow. In The Fall, Camus gives the microphone to Jean-Baptiste Clamence, a charming, ruined ex-lawyer who has turned self-accusation into a weapon.
At first his creed sounds almost like solidarity. Clamence too has discovered a we, and insists that no one stands alone. But look at what binds his we together. Not shared value, not mutual need. Only guilt. His bond is a courtroom in which everyone is accused and no one is spared. Where real solidarity says we exist, so let us defend one another, Clamence’s version says we are all guilty, so I am free to judge you.
Camus wrote The Fall as a warning aimed at people who think of themselves as good. It is fatally easy to slide from I stand with others into I see through others, from fellow feeling into contempt dressed up as honesty. Clamence is desperately alone, using the guilt of all to feel less small. His we saves no one. It only lowers everyone to his level.
The warning is worth taking personally. Solidarity that runs on shared blame, on the grim satisfaction of everyone being complicit, is counterfeit. It has the form of the bond and none of its warmth.
Watch for the Clamence move in yourself, the moment fellow feeling curdles into blame. It will come today. Refuse it. Choose the harder we, the one trying to save someone rather than the one that only accuses.
