A selection of writings by Renaud Camus titled The Deep Murmur is a very slim volume that is perfect for those who might be short on time but interested in finding out what makes Camus so controversial. The book offers an introduction to some of the crucial concepts that organize the philosopher’s thinking. It is also filled with observations regarding the rhetorical tricks deployed by the guardians of the Left’s ideological preeminence. To give an example, how often have we heard that neither biological sex nor race have any substance to them? And that they are only a social construct invented for nefarious purposes? Camus mocks this particular brand of intellectual dishonesty with the perfectly French elegance that is a hallmark of his very recognizable writing style:
One will have spotted the hackneyed and always extremely effective argument known as the argument from imprecise borders, according to which things, concepts, categories do not exist because they interpenetrate one another, their borders are porous and fuzzy, it is impossible to rigorously separate them. With this way of reasoning, and above all of preventing others from reasoning, and of speaking (because that is what is at issue), it is easy to establish the non-existence of anything and everything: colors, civilizations, artistic schools and movements, peoples, historical phenomena. Who would dare claim the color red exists when it very imperceptibly verges on yellow, on the one hand, and blue, on the other, passing through orangeness on this flank, mauve and purple on the other?
Renaud Camus, The Deep Murmur
In one of the essays in the volume, Camus bravely takes on the reasons why the concept of race has been rendered so explosive that we all prefer to pretend that it simply doesn’t exist. Until, of course, it needs to be summoned back to life in order to be used as a cudgel with the letters BLM branded into it. If you think you know what caused this extreme discomfort with the idea of race, you might find out that you are mistaken. Camus tells the story with a flair and a sense of humor but also with great urgency because our terror of this part of our shared story is causing us to hurt ourselves in truly strange ways.
The Great Replacement we are experiencing, says Camus, comes at the heels of the Little Replacement which taught us to see being well-read and having refined sensibilities as manifestations of the most despicable kind of snobbery:
I was roughly at this time, 1975, that culture no doubt irreversibly transitioned… from culture as patrimony, heritage, the voice of the dead to culture as leisure activity, entertainment, hobby, a way of passing the time, a way of killing it.
We accepted that reading the classics was unnecessary and decided to scrub Latin and Greek from the curricula to spare the vanity of those unable to learn them. Is it so surprising that further acts of self-immolation became unavoidable? The bastardization of the idea of culture was a prelude to worse things.
Not everything is equal to everything else. Some products of culture are better, more valuable, more refined than others. So are some cultures. It is urgently necessary to speak of that but in order to do so we need to become familiar with the best things our culture creates.
It takes a special brand of courage to publish Camus, a philosopher who is being silenced and persecuted like few others. He’s not an author who will make a publisher rich because high culture is always of interest only to the tiniest of minorities. This is why it’s remarkable how much work Camus’ American publisher, Vauban Books, puts into translating and annotating the philosopher’s writings. It is a labor of love and not only for Camus but for truth and freedom themselves.
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