# Existing in the World By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-06-06 A quote attributed to Albert Camus captures a great deal about existing in the world: “the only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” As indicated, this quote is attributed to Albert Camus, but there is a degree of skepticism as to whether he said it. Whereas the veracity of the attribution is suspect, the point is certainly consistent with much of Camus’ writing. Attribution aside, the quote itself contains at least two points worth interrogation. The first is related to the status of the world. Is the world free or unfree? Is the world you face enabling personal freedom, exploration, and expression? Or is it a world that inhibits freedom through increasingly complex webs of consumption and fear? The second aspect is the human response to one’s stakes against the world. If the world is free, the human response is one of finding harmonious symbiosis with it. If the world is unfree, the human response is one of rebellion against it. Complicating matters is that the world is not our understanding of it. Further complicating matters is that the world as it is made manifest through generation upon generation of human action and subjugation is not the world without that influence. The world constraining human freedom is not so much the world itself but the world of human creation. The world we have made and perpetuated. Human freedom is a virtue. Existing in the world is seldom easy and never without consequence. What we do, individually and collectively, matters. Existing in the world is different from thriving in the world. We can dedicate our freedom to work towards the betterment of existence now and in the future. Will we? #### Related Items [[Freedom]] [[Philosophy]] [[Existential]] [[Virtue]] [[Society]] [[The Human Condition]] [[Progress]]