The Standardized Ways of Responding to Circumstances - Essay Example

The search for authenti The concept of authenti according to Martin Heidegger, refers to the aspect of presenting one’s own self, without being influenced by the society or the immediate environment under which an individual exists. Therefore, an individual is said to be authentic, if the individual is able to act practically even under different circumstances that are causing a lot of anxiety, without being swayed by the anxiety to engage in the standardized manner of responding to such circumstances, as has been established by the social norms (Polt, 27). The concept of being and time as presented by Martin Heidegger defines the aspect of making sense of the human capacity to make sense of things (Heidegger, 12). In this respect, humans have the capacity to make sense out of the world and out of situations, and through making such sense, they are able to act on their own in different circumstances and situations, if they refuse to be drawn to the usual cultural and social standards and norms that the society has established as the standardized ways of responding to circumstances. Authenticity presents the sense of being practical in addressing matters that are likely to arouse great anxiety, within the abilities of humans, and without having to depend on the spirituality or on the help that might come from outside of the man (Heidegger, 3). The social norms and cultural standards that have been established by the society have made everything in life like just a cycle of regurgitating what others have done in the past. In this sense, there lacks the difference between the current man and the ancient men, because the current man just follows some standardized norms that the society established culturally centuries ago, a concept that Martin Heidegger refers to as unauthenticity (Heidegger, 7). This has been the essence of the reference of human beings as ‘Dasein’, which has just to do with being there (Heidegger, 14). According to Martin Heidegger, humans have existed in the world more or less as a matter of being there, without doing things differently according to their own human capacities, and without depending on external forces (Polt, 54). Humans are born in the world of conformity, where everything that we say, think, believe or act has been done before by the generations that were before us (Heidegger, 22). Human beings pursue the issues they perceive to be worth of their time and effort in a manner that has already been done before, such that the life of one human can be likened to that of the other, since the past cultures have already defined how we make meanings of things and circumstances. Therefore, the concept of ‘being’ as defined by Martin Heidegger is simply a concept of man being done things for, through their own capacities, time and effort, also known as unauthenticity (Heidegger, 7). This can be explained to mean that the society and the cultures that have been established by the society lives within us, and control every aspect of our lives, starting with the way we think and ending with the way we talk and act. Therefore, unless individual humans can find ways to wrestle control of their personal lives from the grip and control of the socio-cultural norms, decisions will continue to be made for such individuals by the society, and all human beings will never amount to anything more than ‘Dasein’ (Heidegger, 13). The novel The Plague by Albert Camus is such a fictional novel that can be applied towards the presentation of the concept of authenticity, as has been defined by Martin Heidegger, most especially with reference to the actions of different characters in the novel. The search for authenticity in the novel The Plague is an involving task, because most of the characters in the novel seem to be prone to the socio-cultural norms, and as such they do not seem to be capable of standing for themselves when it comes to making certain decisions that are related to the anxiety caused by the occurrences in the novel. The novel, The Plague presents the story of medical workers in a struggle to find the unity of purpose in addressing the problem of plague that has befell the town of Oran in Algeria (Camus, 9). When the problem is first noticed, there are just few deaths, and there is no reason for the Oran people to be concerned about the deaths, since deaths are normal occurrences and they must be expected in any society. However, within weeks, the problem aggravated and the death toll rose to reach the death of 30 people daily. The plague had completely swept the town, and at this point the Oran society realizes that there is a major problem. Nevertheless, from the very beginning of the occurrence of the problem, one of the leading doctors in a health facility within the town of Oran had already sensed that the manner in which the first victim of the plague died was a pointer to a serious problem. Therefore, Dr. Bernard Rieux, the lead doctor in the town notified his colleagues, and took a further step to warn the local authorities that a major epidemic had befallen the town, and immediate measures needed to be taken to ensure that the problem was arrested before it turned fatal to the whole Oran society (Camus, 33). It is Dr. Bernard Rieux who first discovered and named the epidemic that was killing the Oran townspeople as Plague. However, in a characteristic human nature, the authorities choose to ignore the warning given by Dr. Bernard Rieux, perceiving the epidemic as a mere health problem that would be tackled normally. However, after a few months, the authorities discovered that the condition had gone out of hand. At this point, a quarantine and curfew was issued, preventing the Oran townspeople from either entering or leaving the town (Camus, 42). The people of Oran entered a period of suffering both physically and psychologically, because they were restricted in the town, and they could not move out to see their relatives and their loved ones, and neither could their relatives visit them in the town. Thus, most of the town fraternity were imprisoned in this condition for several months, and the fear and the anxiety that was caused by the existence of the plague epidemic, coupled with the existence of a quarantine and curfew that prevented the people from moving in and out of the town took a huge toll on the residents of the town, making some start looking for ways to run out of the town, even enlisting the services of smugglers to smuggle them out of the town (Camus, 36). However, after the few months struggle with the epidemic, and through the efforts of the medical personalities and the assistance of some volunteers, the epidemic was finally controlled, and life once again went back to normal in the town of Oran. According to Martin Heidegger, amongst all the states of mind and mental conditions that may face a man, “angst is of particular significance, because it is a state of mind that reveals clearly the fundamental nature of human existence” (Heidegger, 1). In this respect, angst is applied to refer to the feeling of anxiety, or simply put, the disturbed moods that are elicited by the thought process during a certain situation that creates some form of a crisis. Heidegger observes that through the analysis of the human character during a moment of angst, it is possible to actually understand “what we are as human beings” (Heidegger, 7). This observation can be depicted very well in the persons of different characters from the novel, The Plague. This is because, the whole novel is build on the foundation of anxiety from the begging to the end, and there is not one time the people of Oran people are able to breathe a sigh of relief during the whole time that the town was under the plague epidemic, until finally the epidemic was managed and eliminated. Through the crisis that had befallen the town of Oran in Algeria as narrated in the novel, different personal characters have been manifested. However, the most important of these characters is the person of Dr. Bernard Rieux. He is the lead doctor in a medical facility in Oran, and is trying g to bring the medical staff within the health facility together to fight the plague epidemic. However, these efforts have proven to be unrewarded since his earlier warning that plague had visited the town and so the authorities needed to take urgent measures to address it, but the warning was not acted upon until it was too late, when many people within the town had already died out of the plague (Camus, 51). According to Martin Heidegger, "Angst reveals nothingness,” (Heidegger, 1). Nothingness in the definition of Martin Heidegger is the concept of everything drawing away from humans, and then leaving the humans alone with nothing around them, characteristic of a major crisis that may face people and leave them with no choices for example, other than to wait for death. Thus, the concept of “nothingness” is what the novel, The Plague, manifests, because the plague epidemic has befallen the Oran town society leaving them without any other choice other than to wait for death, since they have been prohibited from moving out of the town, and neither can their relatives or loved ones visit them or offer them any help within the town (Camus, 45). This is a perfect example of a situation where angst, as described by Martin Heidegger to refer to the extreme state of fear and mood disturbance by the disturbed and unsettled state of mind manifests itself. According to Martin Heidegger, under the conditions of angst, we are able to understand “what we are as human beings” (Heidegger, 7). In addition, under the conditions of angst, the concept of authenticity or unauthenticity is manifested, since angst causes people to act either in conformity with the social norms, or on their own practical terms, to confront the conditions that are causing the anxiety. Therefore, the anxiety condition created in the novel, The Plague, allows a suitable opportunity to evaluate the authenticity or the unauthenticity of the characters involved in this novel. The search for authenticity in the novel The Plague is a lengthy process, and the discovery of authenticity does not seem to come easy. However, regardless of this set back, Dr. Bernard Rieux has managed to come out as a character who displays authenticity in the novel. There are several factors that qualify Dr. Bernard Rieux as displaying authenticity, amidst a major crisis that is facing the town of Oran, which has left many people seeking for conformity to the socio-cultural norms, as a way of escaping the reality of the crisis. First, when everybody else is worried about the plague and the danger it poses to the Oran town society, Dr. Bernard Rieux does not display this fear. Instead, he takes up the challenge of acting practically by going ahead and starting treating the people who were affected by the plague, through all the possible methods that were available to him (Camus, 27). Most of the people in the town of Oran were suffering from stress and anxiety, because the plague epidemic had suddenly turned them into prisoners of their own town, where they could not leave or receive help from outside. This simply means they have to sit and wait for death. However, Dr. Bernard Rieux sees the epidemic as a practical problem that can be addressed through practical means. Therefore, while the rest turns into religion to seek for consolation, Dr. Bernard Rieux just goes ahead to visit the patients in the ward that had been created in the medical facility that he led, and continued to treat them (Camus, 41). Even when the situation seems to go out hand, where the death rate had risen into 30 deaths every day, making the 80-bed capacity ward they had created in the medical facility unable to meet the needs of all the patients who were visiting the health facility in large numbers after being affected by plague, Dr. Bernard Rieux turned into another practical solution. The solution entailed visiting the patients in their homes and treating them from there. This simply means that Dr. Bernard Rieux is manifesting authenticity, since as opposed to flowing with the wave of the Oran society which is defined by desperation and frustration resulting to flocking into the church seeking for God’s forgiveness for their sins, Dr. Bernard Rieux did not see the role of God in addressing the problem, but observed the plague as a human problem which must be addresses by human abilities, through applying their capacity and effort, as opposed to relying on any external help. Therefore, by seeking for the solution to the problem causing anxiety from within himself, as opposed to seeking the solution externally, Dr. Bernard Rieux is able to manifest authenticity, because authenticity entails the “application of the inner personal efforts and capabilities to overcome anxiety” (Heidegger, 7). According to Martin Heidegger, people can move from the state of unauthenticity to a state of authenticity through taking off the protective veil of evasion that humans have always won in times of great anxiety to “protect ourselves from the deepest truth of our being” (Heidegger, 22). Thus, by acknowledging that we are suffering from anxiety, and then taking the practical steps that can enable us to fight the anxiety, then we are able to manifest authenticity. Anxiety is a condition that makes people turn back to the social and cultural foundations as the basis of overcoming it, and people are in a position to do practically anything to escape suffering the effects of anxiety. In this respect, the novel, The Plague presents many characters that have turned to the social-cultural basis to escape the effect of anxiety, such as running away from the town or turning to the church so they can seek help from God. Amidst this confusion, the novel presents a character that is constantly shifting his personal character from manifesting authenticity at some point, to manifesting unauthenticity another point. Raymond Rambert is a visiting journalist who has been caught up in the tragedy that has befallen the Oran town, and as such he is forced to remain within the town, regardless of the fact that he misses his wife back in Paris and thus he would like to go back. According to Martin Heidegger anxiety is “vaguely threatening, but without revealing any danger in particular” (Heidegger, 3). Raymond Rambert is suffering from this exact kind of anxiety, since he does not have the plague that is killing others so he is out of danger but the situation is threatening, since he cannot access his loved one. Thus, he tries to apply various means to run away from the town, including talking to the authorities to release him out of the town. However, when the plan fails, he enlists the services of smugglers to smuggle him out of Oran, which also fails (Camus, 56). During all these attempts, Rambert is manifesting unauthenticity, since he fails to use the internal capacity and effort to practically solve the problem. Nevertheless, the failures force him to change his mind and stay within the town to continue assisting as a volunteer in the mission to help the patients suffering from the plague. Thus, when the plan to smuggle him out of the town eventually succeeds, he decides against it, and instead opts to stay and assist. In this respect, he manifests authenticity, because he chooses to apply his human capacity to solve the plague epidemic problem practically. Works Cited Camus, Albert. The Plague. Camberwell, Vic: Penguin, 2009. Print. Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010. Print. Polt, Richard. Heidegger: An Introduction. London: Routeledge. Print. Read More