The plague, the truth and blindness
22
Oct
There comes a time when resigning oneself to the disease and
not setting new paths is also cowardly, says Camus in his chronicle The Plague: “But there comes a time in history when he who dares to say that two and two are four is punishable by death”, as it is “…an idea that might make you laugh, but the only way to fight the plague is honesty”.
Overcoming fear, and for many the pain, “I understood that all the misfortune of men came from not having a clear language. So I decided to speak and act clearly, to put myself on the right path.” This implies not only wisdom and courage, but also overcoming human blindness.
Thus: “From the beginning of history, the scourges of God have placed the proud and the blind at his feet. Meditate on this and fall to your knees”, and in the present case, a tiny virus brings all human wisdom and intelligence to its knees, so that they are not allowed to admit the infinite, the Love and the presence of a mystery in life.
Camus saw this not in a religious way, but in a true way: “The evil that exists in the world almost always comes from ignorance, and good will, if not enlightened, can cause as much harm as evil. Men are more good than bad, and that’s not really the point. But they are more or less ignorant, and this is what is called virtue or vice, the most desperate vice being that of ignorance, which thinks it knows everything and is then authorized to kill”, but hatred and war are waged.
The biblical figure of the blind Bartimaeus is very illustrative of human blindness, but this blind man was aware of his limitation, when he knew that Jesus approached him, he shouted for him to have pity on him, the apostles were bothered, but Jesus will ask, he shouted (Mk 10 :48-52): “Son of David, have mercy on me” Then Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” They called him and said: “Courage, get up, Jesus is calling you!” The blind man threw off his robe, jumped up and went to Jesus. So Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied: “Master, let me see! Jesus said, “Go, your faith has made you whole.” Instantly he regained his sight and followed Jesus along the way”.
The awareness of Bartimaeus’ blindness moved him, and the desire for cure bothered him even more, he who thinks he sees and sees everything in the shadows is blinder than Bartimaeus and as an excerpt from the chronicle The Plague says: “they denied, at last, that we had it was that people stunned that every day one share, piled up in the mouth of an oven, evaporated in greasy smoke, while the other, laden with the chains of impotence and fear, awaited its turn”.
