He French philosopher, novelist, journalist and playwright Albert Camus (1913-1960), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature In 1957, he left in his work profound reflections about the meaning of life and human nature and an extensive legacy with phrases such as the one that will be analyzed in these lines: «Intolerance, stupidity and fanaticism can be fought separately, but when they come together there is no hope«
He was born in French Algeria and his life was brief but intense. He died at the age of 46 in a car accident in Burgundy, France, while traveling as co-pilot with his editor and friend. Michel Gallimardwho also died after that event.
Camus’s philosophy and thought focused on the absurd and the meaningless. The absurd understood as the search for an absolute and objective meaning of existence, understood that the meaninglessness of life, its gratuitousness, far from being a conclusive instance, was a starting point for reflection and creation.
He developed works such as The myth of Sisyphuswhere he described the clash between the human need for meaning and the world’s indifference. His thinking developed under the influence of authors such as Schopenhauer, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche, among others.
Despite his conscious distancing from nihilism, from that philosophical branch he rescued the idea of individual freedom, giving importance in his work to exploring the human condition and the meaning of life.
He lived through a century with two world wars and existential crises, offering a singular vision: he encouraged people to face the realities of life as they are, with his perspective on existence. centered on the idea of “absurdity”. He is credited with the phrase «Intolerance, stupidity and fanaticism can be fought separately, but when they come together there is no hope», which is not in his writings.
However, it is a flag for many people on social networks who quote it regularly. The phrase enters «like a glove» in the work of Camus, since he dedicated a large part of his life to writing about the absurd and combating ideological fanaticism. The power of these words lies in the fact that describes a destructive feedback ecosystem for the human being.
Both the stupidity, intolerance and fanaticism They may be cognitive/intellectual limitations, ethics or a blind passion, but when they come together in a person or society and converge, They become something much more dangerous that breaks mechanisms of social control. In his analysis tending toward the absurd, Camus would suggest that in the face of such a combination, dialogue is no longer an option and becomes an obsolete tool.
The person who combines fanaticism with the other twohe will no longer seek the truth, but rather confirm his thought at any cost. In the name of unquestionable truths or dogmas or atrocities have been done (and are still being committed) throughout the history of humanity.
At the time in which Camus lived, social sentiment many times it was hopeless due to the lack of tolerance. Author of other phrases such as “There is no happiness if the things we believe are different from what we do”, Camus is still valid in the postmodernity in which we live today.
