MERSAULTWORLD

     We had a panel presentation on Thursday that brought up  the idea of a world full of Meursaults so I'm going to talk about it more because its interesting. The Stranger poses a fundamental question: can we really judge people. The courts problem with meursault is they don't understand him, and they pass judgment on him based on this misunderstanding. To pass judgment on meursault or a society seems to miss the point that the book tries to make. The book  makes you think about how your judgments of people are based on the terms of our society which is why meursault was put to death. That being said its still an interesting thought so I don't really care and i'm going to do it anyway.
     One question to think about first is "What do we judge as good" by are societies ideals its one where everyone is free, able to provide for basic needs, and pursue happiness. A society of cold blooded killers obviously doesn't fit this model. But would a society full of Meursaults all really have them all following in the footsteps of the stories Meursault? Probably not, if instead of eating dinner at Raymond's house where he takes the first steps to murder he ate at the house of another quiet detached person he likely wouldn't have committed murder.
     Just because people don't go around killing each other doesn't mean a society is good, although, it is a good start. Would, a society of Meursaults be able to truly be happy? Would Meursault's freeing epiphany at the end have happened if it weren't for the priest. Meursault has the existentialist ideas of no higher power, but he also seems like he doesn't really derive any meaning or purpose from life himself. Would a society of Meursaults have and purpose? I don't think it would, but tell me if u disagree. 

Comments

  1. Smita NairNovember 7, 2018 at 4:09 PM

    i think with a society of meursaults we all might as well go extinct. ambition and motivation stem from the primal desire for self-preservation, all of which meursault completely lacks. we pursue jobs so that our families may be secure, we pursue partners so that we may eventually pass our genes down safely, etc. I believe a society of meursaults, without any sort of catalyst characters, would purely stagnate until the whole human race died off.

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  2. UnknownNovember 10, 2018 at 2:10 PM

    The idea of a society full of Meursault's is intriguing. Off the top of my head, the benefits of such a society are limited. There wouldn't be as much crime, since nobody would have any motivation
    to commit crime. On the flip side, nobody would have any drive or passion to get anything positive done. Everybody would spend their free time just sitting on the porch and, if nobody's walking through the streets since everyone's sitting on the porch, everyone would end up just looking at each other. The world would never make any progress towards being better. It's an interesting idea to think about nonetheless. Good post!

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  3. Nicole SoutheyNovember 15, 2018 at 7:22 PM

    A society of Meursault would depend on which Meursault we are thinking of. Meausault in the beginning who technically doesn't commit any crimes but is heartless, Meursault who kills a man or enlightened Meursault who wants to live. I think a world of Meursaults who have no moral compass but are weirdly inclined to kill would be bad however an enlightened society of Meursaults could be peaceful and good.

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  4. Nic RamkumarNovember 17, 2018 at 3:33 PM

    I think there would be a lot of problems if you lived in a society like this. If everyone lives in a society where everyone is Meursault and all Meursaults are the same, then no one would have any ambition. There wouldn't really be any motivation on anyone's part to make things better so things would just largely stay the same and there wouldn't be any new innovations or anything.

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