The society based on production is only productive, not creative.
Interpretation
Camus suggests that a society focused solely on production lacks true creativity.
In this quote, Albert Camus critiques a society that prioritizes production over creativity, indicating that while such a society may generate products and economic output, it fails to foster true innovation and artistic expression. He proposes that creativity is essential for a vibrant and dynamic culture, and without it, society's productivity becomes hollow and uninspired.
In practice
During a lecture on the value of creativity in the workplace.
The Poor Man whom everyone speaks of, the Poor Man whom everyone pities, one of the repulsive Poor from whom charitable souls keep their distance, he has still said nothing. Or, rather, he has spoken through the voice of Victor Hugo, Zola, Richepin. At least, they said so. And these shameful impostures fed their authors. Cruel irony, the Poor Man tormented with hunger feeds those who plead his case.
The certainty of a God giving meaning to life far surpasses in attractiveness the ability to behave badly with impunity. The choice would not be hard to make. But there is no choice and that is where the bitterness comes in. The absurd does not liberate; it binds.
Between history and the eternal I have chosen history because I like certainties. Of it, at least, I am certain, and how can I deny this force crushing me.
Don't wait for the last judgment - it takes place every day.
A single sentence will suffice for modern man. He fornicated and read the papers. After that vigorous definition, the subject will be, if I may say so, exhausted.
At times I feel myself overtaken by an immense tenderness for these people around me who live in the same century.
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.
I am a member of a fragile species, still new to the earth, the youngest creatures of any scale, here only a few moments as evolutionary time is measured, a juvenile species, a child of a species. We are only tentatively set in place, error prone, at risk of fumbling, in real danger at the moment of leaving behind only a thin layer of of our fossils, radioactive at that.
Do you remember you shot a seagull? A man came by chance, saw it and destroyed it, just to pass the time.
Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible influence, food does it more slowly but perhaps just as surely. Who knows if a well-prepared soup was not responsible for the pneumatic pump or a poor one for a war?
Ah, how many luxuries has the good God prepared for his Jewish children.
The formula of the argument is simple and familiar: to dispose of a problem all that is necessary is to deny that it exists.
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