Latest news with #Camus
The Age
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
This is fine: An existential guide to Australian politics
Albert Camus would have been a lousy goalkeeper. Think about it. The French-Algerian standing between the posts, his head in the clouds. Reports say the writer excelled for Algiers Racing Uni's First XI, but I have my doubts. Imagine relying on Albert as your last line of defence, the bloke spouting stuff like, 'The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone'. Or: 'An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself'. Wake up, Albie! The ball is coming! Tuberculosis intervened, sadly, the goalie trading gloves for philosophy, plus those olive-green novels – The Stranger, The Fall – that ask the big questions. Each title has been a staple of high school and Existentialism 101. Not that Camus used the term. Indeed he rejected the e-word, preferring instead to forge fables around the incomprehensibility of existence. As that's the central plank, that irksome query about why we're here, and what we should do about it. 'Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is,' as Camus said. Which makes you wonder what we're meant to be. Precisely the conundrum heard in Canberra this month. Is it any wonder? How can a power bloc of two parties implode into a rabble, losing seats like musical chairs, going from Coalition to Noalition? Cartoonist Cathy Wilcox depicted a bisected couch, one parent per half, both insisting 'Mummy and Daddy still love you very much'. Question being, are Mama Ley and Papa Littleproud going through a break-up, or merely a break? Either way, whether this new reunion lasts, the existentialism burns deep, fanned by those pesky Camus questions. 'I can't go on, I'll go on,' as Samuel Beckett said, a handy left-hand opener for Trinity College, and another writer besotted by existentialism. Macquarie Dictionary defines the ideology as 'a group of doctrines – some theistic, some atheistic – deriving from Kierkegaard, which stress the importance of existence, and of the freedom and responsibility of the finite mind.' Existential first emerged about 1693 as an adjective for existence. A century on, Soren Kierkegaard co-opted the ism to refute the divine logic that Georg Hegel fancied, where the rational is actual, and vice versa. Lort, thought Soren: Danish for bullshit. In his milestone work Either/Or, the philosopher writes, 'There are two possible situations – one can either do this or do that. My honest opinion, and my friendly advice is this: do it, or do not do it. You will regret both.' Loading Remind you of anyone – federally, I mean? Hence the e-word's rise. Existential now applies to politics, the arts, deconstruction cuisine, eco-anxiety, and anywhere you look. Last year Flinders University revealed how doomscrolling – surfing online between Gaza and La Nina – breeds existentialism. Reza Shebahang, the study's lead, claimed the custom has 'dire consequences on our mental health, leaving us feeling stress, anxiety, despair and questioning the meaning of life'. Smart machines and AI inroads only deepen the abyss. Pushed to existential extremes, we feel like adjuncts to this thing called life. Avatars. Daydreamers in the goalmouth. Or characters living life forwards so that we might understand what we're doing in hindsight, to paraphrase Kierkegaard. If it's any comfort to party leaders, doomscrollers and general AI alarmists, remember that 'the key to being happy isn't a search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead'. Camus? Beckett? Try Mr Peanutbutter, the easygoing labrador from BoJack Horseman.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
This is fine: An existential guide to Australian politics
Albert Camus would have been a lousy goalkeeper. Think about it. The French-Algerian standing between the posts, his head in the clouds. Reports say the writer excelled for Algiers Racing Uni's First XI, but I have my doubts. Imagine relying on Albert as your last line of defence, the bloke spouting stuff like, 'The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone'. Or: 'An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself'. Wake up, Albie! The ball is coming! Tuberculosis intervened, sadly, the goalie trading gloves for philosophy, plus those olive-green novels – The Stranger, The Fall – that ask the big questions. Each title has been a staple of high school and Existentialism 101. Not that Camus used the term. Indeed he rejected the e-word, preferring instead to forge fables around the incomprehensibility of existence. As that's the central plank, that irksome query about why we're here, and what we should do about it. 'Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is,' as Camus said. Which makes you wonder what we're meant to be. Precisely the conundrum heard in Canberra this month. Is it any wonder? How can a power bloc of two parties implode into a rabble, losing seats like musical chairs, going from Coalition to Noalition? Cartoonist Cathy Wilcox depicted a bisected couch, one parent per half, both insisting 'Mummy and Daddy still love you very much'. Question being, are Mama Ley and Papa Littleproud going through a break-up, or merely a break? Either way, whether this new reunion lasts, the existentialism burns deep, fanned by those pesky Camus questions. 'I can't go on, I'll go on,' as Samuel Beckett said, a handy left-hand opener for Trinity College, and another writer besotted by existentialism. Macquarie Dictionary defines the ideology as 'a group of doctrines – some theistic, some atheistic – deriving from Kierkegaard, which stress the importance of existence, and of the freedom and responsibility of the finite mind.' Existential first emerged about 1693 as an adjective for existence. A century on, Soren Kierkegaard co-opted the ism to refute the divine logic that Georg Hegel fancied, where the rational is actual, and vice versa. Lort, thought Soren: Danish for bullshit. In his milestone work Either/Or, the philosopher writes, 'There are two possible situations – one can either do this or do that. My honest opinion, and my friendly advice is this: do it, or do not do it. You will regret both.' Loading Remind you of anyone – federally, I mean? Hence the e-word's rise. Existential now applies to politics, the arts, deconstruction cuisine, eco-anxiety, and anywhere you look. Last year Flinders University revealed how doomscrolling – surfing online between Gaza and La Nina – breeds existentialism. Reza Shebahang, the study's lead, claimed the custom has 'dire consequences on our mental health, leaving us feeling stress, anxiety, despair and questioning the meaning of life'. Smart machines and AI inroads only deepen the abyss. Pushed to existential extremes, we feel like adjuncts to this thing called life. Avatars. Daydreamers in the goalmouth. Or characters living life forwards so that we might understand what we're doing in hindsight, to paraphrase Kierkegaard. If it's any comfort to party leaders, doomscrollers and general AI alarmists, remember that 'the key to being happy isn't a search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead'. Camus? Beckett? Try Mr Peanutbutter, the easygoing labrador from BoJack Horseman.
The National
04-05-2025
- Business
- The National
Financial firm urged to ban far-right Homeland Party
Stripe, which allows organisations to take money through its websites, has been warned that allowing the Homeland Party – which calls for non-white people to be removed from Britain – the services helps them 'finance fascism'. The activist group Red Flare has written to Stripe, headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin, urging the firm to block the far-right group from using its systems. In an email to company bosses, seen by the Sunday National, spokesperson Allan Jones said: 'Stripe is helping the Homeland Party process membership payments, donations, event tickets and merchandise sales via its website.' They pointed out that this included tickets for the party's 2025 'remigration conference' in April, which featured far-right French author Renaud Camus, the originator of the 'great replacement' conspiracy theory. Camus is notorious for his 2011 work Le Grand Remplacement, which argues that European rulers are systematically replacing white people with Muslims from the Middle East and Africa. Homeland revealed on their Facebook page last month that Camus had been 'shamefully banned from entering the United Kingdom by the Home Office, on the grounds that his views on mass migration were deemed politically inconvenient', though he delivered a speech through a video link. Jones, of Red Flare, said: 'Stripe is helping Britain's largest fascist party build its infrastructure – processing payments for membership, merchandise and events where speakers push racist conspiracy theories. 'Homeland's leadership includes Holocaust deniers, Hitler admirers and men with deep roots in Britain's neo-Nazi scene. This is a party that wants to deport millions of people based on the colour of their skin. 'Stripe has policies against hate and harmful political fundraising. If those mean anything, Homeland should be dropped immediately. Tech platforms shouldn't be neutral when it comes to fascism, they should draw a line.' (Image: Newsquest) The company was sent a dossier on the Homeland Party showing how they had formed as a breakaway sect from far-right group Patriotic Alternative. Party chair Kenny Smith was a member of Patriotic Alternative's leadership team in 2022, when the organisation hosted Andreas Johansson, of the Nordic Resistance Movement, at its conference. The Nordic Resistance Movement, a neo-Nazi group from Sweden, was designated a terrorist organisation by the US State Department in 2024. A Homeland spokesperson said: 'This is guilt by association at its most dishonest. Red Flare is recycling old headlines and smearing the Homeland Party with individuals and events that have no connection to us. 'We are a lawful political party. We reject these lies and this ideological blackmail, and we will not lie down and accept it. Enough is enough.' Stripe was approached for comment.
Wall Street Journal
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Who's Afraid of Renaud Camus?
London Renaud Camus may be the most important living thinker no one has heard of. He's certainly the most misunderstood. Mr. Camus, 78, is author of 'Le Grand Remplacement' (2011), which describes how decades of mass migration have altered his native France. He warns that Europe's current trajectory will, within a couple of generations, lead to the eclipse of its native peoples, their cultures and even Christianity.
Telegraph
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Anti-migration philosopher to fight UK ban
An anti-migration philosopher barred from Britain for going against 'the public good' is planning to appeal the ban imposed by the Home Office. Renaud Camus, the French writer behind the 'great replacement' theory that Europe's indigenous populations are being displaced by migrants, was prevented from travelling to the UK, where he intended to speak later this month. The decision has sparked concerns over free speech, with the Government warned against sending the wrong message during trade negotiations with Donald Trump. The Telegraph understands Mr Camus is planning to appeal against the ban with the help of the Free Speech Union, led by Lord Young, a Tory peer. It is unclear exactly why the philosopher was barred from the UK, but the Home Office has said his presence 'was not considered to be conducive to the public good'. Lord Young said: 'We've reached out to him to see if he'd like any help in appealing this decision, and he said yes. So I anticipate that we are going to be getting an immigration lawyer on the case.' The Tory peer said it was 'wrong' for the Government to bar Mr Camus from entering the UK. He said: 'I don't think that the common good is endangered by inviting people to set out their contentious views in the public square, particularly not someone as distinguished as Mr Camus.' Lord Young said it seemed 'tin-eared' for the Home Office to impose the ban while Sir Keir Starmer is attempting to secure a trade deal with Mr Trump, given the US state department has recently expressed concerns about 'freedom of expression' in the UK. A US source told The Telegraph at the time that there should be 'no free trade without free speech'. Sir Keir said he 'made clear' in talks with JD Vance, the US vice-president, earlier this year that the UK guarded free speech 'preciously'. Lord Young said: 'We're trying to secure a trade deal with the United States, and the United States have flagged up that one of the conditions of the deal will be that we make a better fist of defending free speech.' He added: 'Keir Starmer said at a White House press conference that free speech was in robust good health in the UK, and didn't need to be given any lessons about how to uphold it from the United States. But if that's true, why is the Government no-platforming people?' It is understood that Mr Camus was due to deliver a speech at an event organised by the nationalist and anti-immigration Homeland Party. He said he was also set to debate at the Oxford Union later this year, with those plans now thrown into doubt. UK 'guiltiest' of illegal migration The 78-year-old has alleged that unchecked immigration will lead to demographic 'replacement' of Europe's indigenous populations. In an email seen by The Telegraph, the Home Office informed Mr Camus that he had been denied the electronic travel authorisation needed to enter Britain. The email said: 'Your presence in the UK is not considered to be conducive to the public good.' Mr Camus told The Telegraph that 'of all the European governments guilty' of allowing unchecked migration, 'the British Government is one of the guiltiest'. 'No wonder it does not want me to speak,' he added. Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, invited Labour MPs who were denied access to Israel earlier this month to condemn the Home Office's decision. He told The Telegraph: 'Will the Labour MPs who complained about being denied entry into Israel stand up for this gentleman? Or are they hypocrites?' Sir Keir condemned Benjamin Netanyahu's government after Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, two Labour backbenchers, were turned away from the country and deported two weeks ago. The Israeli immigration ministry justified its decision by claiming Ms Yang and Ms Mohamed, who have both previously backed a boycott of some Israeli goods, were planning to spread 'anti-Israel hatred'. Mr Camus has been branded a conspiracy theorist for his views that mass immigration will lead to the replacement of settled populations. It comes amid a growing debate over free speech in the UK, particularly on the issue of immigration. Some have argued that the 2024 summer riots in the wake of the Southport murders were fuelled by online misinformation. Rupert Lowe, the ex-Reform MP, has accused his former party of trying to silence him over his 'outspoken' views on migration. Sources close to Nigel Farage claimed Mr Lowe had drifted politically and been 'captured by the online radical Right', making myriad X posts about 'mass deportations' and other preoccupations. Lord Young said: 'If Mr Camus wants to be sure of being able to visit the United Kingdom, maybe he should come over in a dinghy in the middle of the night. That way, he's guaranteed entry.'
