Those Who Suffer History
“By definition he cannot put himself today in the service of those who make history; he is at the service of those who suffer it.” ALBERT CAMUS · NOBEL BANQUET SPEECH
Camus gives the clearest instruction of all. Accepting the Nobel Prize in December 1957, he spoke about what a writer is for, and the words reach far past writing.
There are, roughly, two kinds of people in any age. There are those who make history, the ones with power, the names in the headlines who decide and command. And there are those who suffer it, the vast majority, who endure the wars and the policies and the prices without ever being asked. Camus knew which side an honest person belongs on. Not with the powerful, who need no defender, but with the ones subject to power, who have almost no one.
This is where the whole month has been heading. Solidarity is no warm feeling spread evenly over everyone. It has a direction, and it leans deliberately toward the ones being crushed. To ask whose side am I on, and to answer with those who suffer, is the plainest test of the bond we have been tracing since the first of July.
We are only halfway. There is more to say about the limits and the costs of this loyalty. But the compass is set now, and it is worth carrying out of these two weeks.
In one decision, however small, choose the side of the ones being acted upon rather than the ones in charge. That is the direction.
