Communique #9

From “The Plague” by Albert Camus, the last paragraph of the book when the city gates are opened, the plague is gone.

“Indeed, as he heard the cries of delight rising from the city, Rieux remembered that this delight was always threatened. For he knew what this joyous crowd did not, and what you can read in books — that the germ of the plague never dies or disappears, that it can lie dormant for decades in furniture and linens, that it waits patiently in rooms, in basements, in trunks, among handkerchiefs and paperwork, and that perhaps the day would come when, for the sorrow and education of men, the plague would revive its rats and dispatch them to die in a happy city.”

What Camus doesn’t say in this last paragraph, but which he makes clear in the book is that the plague, plague response, lives on in the human species.  While this response is varied, it can be found back in time to the earlier plagues in human history. 

Further, I would argue that one response can be seen in the people flouting the social distancing, clamoring for the opening and for their “Freedom” and “Liberation”.  This is that which lays dormant, that one day will revive the plague, revive the rats, “for the sorrow and education of men”.  

Slate editor Tom Scocca defined this dormant human plague recently as a political ideology where supporters are “conditioned to believe that thinking about other people’s needs or interests in any way is tyranny by definition.”  This I believe has historically followed our species' response to plague.

Further: A quote from Huffington Press, “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people.  Our disagreement is not merely political, but a fundamental divide on what it means to live in a society”.

Yes, those feelings, or lack thereof have always resided in human societies.  In these times of plague, they become visible and highlighted, “for the sorrow and education of men.