DISCUSSION: “Then I Prefer My Mother”

For Mother’s Day weekend. . . .

The French novelist and existentialist thinker Albert Camus was sympathetic to the independence movement in Algeria, then a French colony where he had grown up.  But he drew the line at terrorism.  He said this:

“People are now planting bombs in the tramways of Algiers. My mother might be on one of those tramways. If that is justice, then I prefer my mother.”   Albert Camus

This is not just a tribute to mothers, though it is that.  More broadly, it has to do with abstract principles, for which we sometimes will do terrible concrete things, vs. concrete reality, which we should deal with morally.  It’s the difference between love of humanity vs. love of neighbor.  It reminds me of J. G. Hamann’s warnings against living and acting according to abstractions, to the point of even turning God into an abstract idea, rather than knowing Him as a real person revealed in His Word who became a tangible human being in His incarnation.

What are some other applications of Camus’ distinctions?

HT:  Michael Jimenez at Anxious Bench, Choosing Mother:  Camus’ Advice for Today .