crowd behaviour

[Christoffer]

Why does the crowd feel so threatened by the fact that Meursault does not play the social game?

[Rebekah]

I think that your question is an example of the difference between the reading of the book as a example of the Camus philosophy of Externalism and the reading of the book that shows the true nature of european colonization.

Being in the French colony, but not actually born in France separates Mersault from his french government. So ultimately, I think that the crowd being threatened is more than just being threatened by someone who goes against humanity, I think its more someone going against French ideals which does not include the "savage" murder of an "Arab".

[Madhusudana]

The reason why crowd feel so threatened when meursault does not play social game is the same reason why in today's world, if you don't follow certain tradition or religion you are threatened by the fundamentalist. In a way camus state that the whole society is being fundamentalist, just that each individual will have his own set of "standards" to measure.

[Duane]

People feel threatened by anything unpredictable. The one thing that is guaranteed to terrify a human is the unknown.

So when they run across somebody who doesn't conform to social norms, whom they don't think they "understand", this unknown creature seems unpredictable and therefore untrustworthy. And then their basic reaction is to want to destroy him/her/it. It's a primal instinct of social animals.

[Christoffer]

I agree with the above. People are contending for prestige, which in the final analysis is mere vanity. The desire of others is the only thing that gives value to the things we ourself desire.

So, when the desire of others cool off, we too start finding the thing undesirable and move on to something else.

The one who has no desire is percieved as a threat. As one of the interrogators ask in the book: "do you want my life to be meaningless?". The outsider makes the vain struggles appear meaningless.

Then one might ask: does this outsider know something the others don't? Why is the recognition from others irrelevant to him? Their whole being is at stake.

Such a man must be destroyed.