I have no interest in politics. None at all. Honestly, I don't really even know what separates republicans from democrats other than one is liberal and one is conservative. However, in the case of Voltaire and Camus, they probably would do the same as me and not vote at all.
Why? Because they don't care. The characters in Candide go through all these adventures and exposure to different types of philosophies and worlds, but in the end, they never stick to one particular one. They would draw their own conclusions based on all their experiences put together, and as they had experienced pretty much everything a person can in a lifetime, those conclusions tended to be pretty vague. Voltaire made fun of pretty much every one distinct philosophy that a character came across, which to me is a sign that he most likely would not care who the candidate was, because in the end, what does it matter? Life is what you make of it.
In the case of Camus though, the choice is much more obvious. His philosophy IS that life has a purpose. In The Stranger, Meursault stays away from choices and just goes with the flow. Even when his mother dies, which is usually a very hard ttime in someone's life, he even says that nothing has changed. So why would voting for a presidential candidate change anything? There is no meaning to it, and so it is better to stay away from making that choice.
Interesting point! I didn't consider Voltaire as someon who wouldn't care about political philosophies but I see what you mean. He does ridicule many different ways of thinking.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that when I first began to write mine but for some reason I had a change of thought and truly believed that Camus would vote but that Voltaire wouldn't. The reason being that Voltaire learned from experience what certain people in power can do. But, and maybe my own personal beliefs are clouding my judgement but I think Camus would vote and that he would vote for Barack. The reason being that Meursault was created with the intention of getting his own philosophies across.
ReplyDeleteYour opinion on Voltaire's stance is very interesting. While the characters in Candide didn't stick to a single philosophy, take a look at Candide as a whole: the novel is a commentary on society. If Voltaire has such outspoken opinions on the negative aspects of humanity, don't you think he would want to have a say in who runs things?
ReplyDeletethat is a very interesting point right there. I never thought about that way.
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