Le plus étrange est que GW lisait L’Etranger

Dans son commentaire du 16 août dans le New York Times (accès payant, texte disponible sur le blog Free Democracy), Maureen Dowd révèle que l’une des lectures de l’été de GW Bush est L’Etranger, d’Albert Camus. Grand étonnement de la commentatrice, connue pour sa plume acerbe et sa position définitivement anti-Bush.

C’est le porte-parole Tony Snow qui a révélé la chose à Dowd. Il ajoute que GW a beaucoup aimé le roman de Camus. Dowd s’étonne aussitôt d’une telle lecture, qui lui semble inhabituelle pour GW. Snow dit ignorer les raisons d’un tel choix. Il ajoute que GW et lui ont eu “une brève conversation sur les origines de l’existentialisme, sur Sartre et sur Camus”. Contenu confidentiel, précise Snow. Il ajoute encore que la lecture de Camus ne signifie pas que GW s’interroge soudain à propos de l’absurdité de la vie.

Dowd philosophe.

« It takes a while to adjust to the idea of W., who has created chaos trying to impose moral order on the globe, perusing Camus, who wrote about the eternal frustration of moral order in human affairs. What does W., the archenemy of absurdity as a view of life, kindle to in C., the apostle of absurdity as a view of life? What can W., the born-again monogamist, spark to in C., the amorous atheist? In some ways, Mr. Bush is supremely not a Camus man. Camus hated the blindness caused by ideology, and Mr. Bush wallows in it. Camus celebrated lucidity while the president keeps seeing only what he wants to see.

» Mr. Bush’s life has been premised on his confidence that he will always be insulated from the consequences and the cruelties of existence, unlike Meursault. W. or his people always work to change fate, whether it’s an election or the Middle East.

» If you think about it long enough, though, it begins to make a sort of wacky sense.

» “The Stranger” is about the emotionally detached Meursault, who makes a lot of bad decisions and pre-emptively kills an Arab in the sand. Get it? Camus’s protagonist moves through an opaque, obscure and violent world that is indifferent to his beliefs and desires. Get it?

» If there was ever a moment when this president could regard the unanticipated consequences of his actions, behold the world littered with the very opposite of what he intended for it and appreciate the gritty stoicism of the philosophy of absurdism, this is it. Iraq in civil war. Al Qaeda metastasizing and plotting. Hezbollah, Iran and Syria knitting closer, celebrating a “victory” in standing up to Israel, the U.S. and Britain, and mocking W.’s plan for a “new Middle East.” The North Koreans luxuriating in their nuclear capability. Chávez becoming the new Castro on a global scale.

» Maybe next the president should pick up Camus’s other classic, “The Myth of Sisyphus.” Was there ever a national enterprise more Sisyphean than the war in Iraq?

» If there was ever a confirmation of Camus’s sense of the absurdity of life, it’s that the president is reading him. »

Mis en ligne le 17 août 2006 à 06H08