Sectarian Folly

“Justice and expediency command the law to protect the individual against a State given over to the follies of sectarianism or of pride.”

– Albert Camus “Reflections on the Guillotine” in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death, 1961.

As our current government shutdown here in the US reaches new records, I was looking for some quotes from where he was critical of government, of which there are many. One of which I found online I couldn’t source to him directly, so last minute I dropped it and went to an old essay of his that was amongst the first of his works I read after Myth of Sisyphus and his novels, “Reflections on the Guillotine.” I recognize that his essay is a passionate case based on statistics and reason for abolishing the death penalty, and not anything related to budgets or walls etc.. But as the debate rages on in America and people talk about institutions and how they’ll survive or that the law will eventually be upheld, or that the Supreme Court will remain a check on power, I think this fits in rather well.

It might be absurd (lower case “a”) to think the law or state will hold out in the face of sectarianism or pride, but let’s hope the rights of the individual remain protected through all of this. And if not, let’s remember to keep rolling our individual boulders in eternal resistance.

Reflections on the Guillotine <-Wikipedia page

Here’s an Amazon link to the collection: Resistance, Rebellion, and Death, Vintage, 1995