Some 30 years ago, I read the Stranger, in French, for a language class.  I thought it was the most depressing thing I ever read.  Fast forward 30 years:  Camus is optimistic compared to what Bush has done to our Constitution, our freedoms, world freedoms by condoning torture, etc. in less that 6 years.  Is there some kind of anti-Nobel prize we can give to Bush?  Just getting him out of office just doesn’t seem to be enough.

This is too funny, I do not know if you have read this book, but I am sure you have heard of it.  What Irony,

Andy

To be fair, Bush is a bit of a “Stranger” himself.  To the truth; to the ideals of decency and justice; to accurate bookkeeping; to human rights; to science; to the English language; to accountability for his actions; to combat; to the working-class; (maybe) to sobriety; to sanity…..........

If we’re lucky, maybe all those references to the sun and blinding light in “The Stranger” will awaken the dormant, human, part of his brain.  Assuming, that is, that he actually read it, and didn’t just have a copy of “The Pet Goat” tucked between it’s pages.

In his early twenties, Camus was expelled from the Algerian Communist Party because he supported the nationalist aspirations of down-trodden native Algerians. At the same age, George W. Bush was busy going AWOL from the National Guard.

In his early thirties, Camus wrote and edited Combat, the underground newspaper of the French Resistance in WWII. By this time, Camus was already becoming famous beyond the intellectual classes. At the same age, George W. Bush was busy snorting cocaine and being arrested for DUI.

In his early forties, during the Algerian War of Independence, Camus argued for peaceful coexistence and called for a truce to spare civilians, which both warring sides regarded as foolish. He worked clandestinely for imprisoned Algerians facing the death penalty.

  ”There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed.” – Camus

At the same age, George W. Bush was just embarking on his political career, helping his father win the US Presidency before successfully running for Governor of Texas. As governor, Bush sent a record 150 prison inmates to their deaths. As President, he has blithely overseen the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghans and (more recently) Lebanese.

Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. Three years later, he died in a car accident.

Bush is still alive and dangerous, with a further two years to run on his Presidency. He remains surrounded by people with no more intellectual capacity or moral clarity than himself.