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Humans lack a complete understanding of the universe leaving them vulnerable to many ‘pestilences.’ They are often startled and shaken by things that force mortality upon them including epidemics, war, etc. To cope with the unknown, it is measured by their own terms and sometimes discarded. They are free to do this, but consequences follow. Whether one ignores or acknowledges a war, they will be affected. What is affected most is their degree of freedom and fear.

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The phrase: "no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences" made me think about the current situation in the United States.  There are a lot of people who refuse to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines because they say that "it is a free country".  The part about people still doing business made me think about going to school.  I want to go to school in person, but every time I do I feel like I shouldn't because if I get Coronavirus I could spread it to my family, and anyone else I come into contact with.

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This passage is describing how the townsfolk were so caught up in their own lives and previous routines that they could not fathom they were experiencing pestilence. I found this pretty peculiar because we are able to better understand their situation with our current one. None of us expected this virus to last long or be as impactful as it has, just like the people from Oran. This is just strange to me because I don't think anyone would have expected to be able to relate to this novel, but I think it is important that we pay attention to the effects that the denial for pestilence had on them, and apply precautions in our lives so that we do not become a similar story.

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Camus takes a moment here to frame the plague as allegory. He describes pestilences as something that are quantifiable and mostly unqualifiable to humans and thus, people ignore them, pretend they aren't there. After these broad statements he contextualizes this purposeful ignorance by describing the people as simply continuing their daily lives, They fancied themselves free, easy to draw comparisons to our own situation. Camus is making a statement on the human capacity to ignore and disbelieve.

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i think that the first half of the passage brings to light how often we get caught up in "selfishness" and how how we often forget to take a step back and kind of look at the big picture rather than focusing on such minuscule details which we might think are very important but in reality they are not very important.

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The passage brings to light how everyone is caught up with themselves and really only worries about themselves until this foreign pestilence. You don't really see the damage until its already done. I think passage is particularly interesting due to the current situation with COVID, and how it seemed like everything was thrown upside down in such a short period of time. Its almost like now, many people are on the same team, fighting against the same thing for the same outcome.

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This passage really reminds me of our current situation. When COVID first hit the U.S. everyone kind of continued their lives for a couple of weeks before all of a sudden reality hit and the world shut down. For months. People were searching for toilet paper, food, basic necessities. No one lived a normal life anymore. The quote, "It's too stupid; it cant last long" stuck with me because I myself didn't know what to expect, and I also thought that this virus would just pass and everything would be fine in a few months.

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In a war you have someone to blame as well as an enemy that you can see and try and resin with. You can visually see the damage done to each side. But when it comes to a plague or pandemic, there is no enemy that you can resin with and there is no sign of that damage or danger. You can't see the damage or danger until it effects you personally or someone in your circle.

was der bauer nicht kennt frisst er nicht

What the farmer doesn't know/understand, he won't eat/consume.

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"In this respect, our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words they were humanists: They disbelieved the pestilence"- This directly correlates with the sentiment that many Americans, and people all across the world, feel about COVID. Embracing the severity of a situation can sometimes be more difficult than the situation itself. The denial of the pestilence in Oran can be applied to our lives right now. Today we are constantly contemplating what our futures will look like and when they can return, though the aspect of mortality/death may not as be as prevalent as the plague, we are still looking to the future.

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This same sentiment which the narrator/Rieux? describes is present in the approach which many  Americans have taken towards the Coronavirus today. the idea that "A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure; therefore we tell ourselves that [it's] a mere bogy of the mind"(Camus) is very common today, and I think it makes much more sense when looking at this modern predicament through the lens of this passage: people are scared and when we're scared we engage our fight/flight/freeze response, and this seems to be a product of the fight response. In other words the strange things which people do sometimes are really just misguided protective measures. Another area which I think we can observe this in is the  'out of sight, out of mind' phenomenon which many people unfortunately partake in with regards to global warming. Just as in the book, it seems that the people who "don't believe" in this natural occurrence won't until it hits them on the nose.

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In fact, like our fellow citizen, Rieux was caught off his guard, and we should understand his hesitations in the light of this fact; and similarly understand how he was torn between conflicting fears and confidence.  When a war breaks out, people say: “It’s too stupid: it can’t last long.”  But though a war may well be “too stupid,” that doesn’t prevent its lasting.  Stupidity has a knack of getting its way: as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves. In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences.  A pestilence isn’t a thing made to man’s measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away.  But it doesn’t always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away and the humanists first of all, because they haven’t taken their precautions.  Our townsfolk were not more to blame than others; they forgot to be modest, that was all, and thought that everything still was possible for them; which presupposed that pestilences were impossible.  They went on doing business, arranged for journeys, and formed views.  How should they have given a thought to anything like plague, which rules out any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views.  They fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences.  

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In fact, like our fellow citizen, Rieux was caught off his guard, and we should understand his hesitations in the light of this fact; and similarly understand how he was torn between conflicting fears and confidence.  When a war breaks out, people say: “It’s too stupid: it can’t last long.”  But though a war may well be “too stupid,” that doesn’t prevent its lasting.  Stupidity has a knack of getting its way: as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves. In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences.  A pestilence isn’t a thing made to man’s measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away.  But it doesn’t always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away and the humanists first of all, because they haven’t taken their precautions.  Our townsfolk were not more to blame than others; they forgot to be modest, that was all, and thought that everything still was possible for them; which presupposed that pestilences were impossible.  They went on doing business, arranged for journeys, and formed views.  How should they have given a thought to anything like plague, which rules out any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views.  They fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences.  