Albert Camus

Ashley Nakedhead  

Beth Hammett 

Composition 2 

April 25th, 2025  

Cruise Ship Crimes 

      Albert Camus would view cruise ship criminal activities as a result of the moral conflicts in modern society, which stem from a social epidemic formed by the conflict between pleasure seeking freedom and responsible conduct, while also requiring personal accountability and institutional changes to confront the absurdity in life.   

According to The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus states that absurdity arises from human desires for meaning, facing the world's unreasonable silence (28). Using this philosophical perspective allows an illuminating perspective on the wave of shipboard offenses that confront the pleasure-oriented cruise spaces where violence, together with sexual crimes, and vanishing incidents, have become a growing issue. According to Camus, the writer of The Plague and The Stranger, he would see cruise ships as societal absurdities that present paradoxes between controlled, scheduled relaxation and uncontrolled criminal activity.   

This analysis asserts that Camus would evaluate cruise ship criminality by applying three fundamental concepts from his writing, which consist of the contradiction between offenders perpetrating violence in controlled zones intended for vacation, the restrictions on personal power when it endangers community members, and the societal duty to fix operational flaws that support crimes. This paper examines how the philosophy from Camus' mid-20th century works, The Rebel, The Plague, and The Myth of Sisyphus retain surprising relevance to current societal epidemics by conducting research on maritime crime in the present day.   

Camus's absurdism centres on life's irrational contradictions, and nowhere is this more visible than in crimes committed aboard cruise ships environments marketed as carefree utopias. In The Stranger, Meursault's senseless murder of an Arab on a sunlit beach mirrors the dissonance of violent acts in spaces designed for relaxation (Camus 59). Similarly, a 2023 FBI report documents a case where a passenger strangled his wife during a "romantic" Caribbean cruise after a trivial argument, an act Camus would deem absurd in its juxtaposition of violence and manufactured paradise (Berger 120). 

  According to Camus, people label this psycho-social process as "the seduction of the abyss," which describes human attraction to risky conduct after encountering a meaningless existence (64). The cruise industry exploits dangerous impulses through marketing that shows no bounds by using a promise of unrestricted possibilities. The "Get Out There" marketing campaign from Royal Caribbean suggests that impulsive behaviors toward their customers while onboard venues such as "The Blaze Ultra Lounge" contribute to a classification system of excessive behaviors. According to Camus, these settings expose the hidden nonsense within every person by removing ethical boundaries of conduct (p).  

Also, the cruise industry's structural hypocrisy amplifies this absurdity. Camus's, The Plague, depicts how institutions often prioritize self-interest over truth, much like cruise lines that systematically underreport crimes. A Journal of Maritime Law study found that only 12% of onboard incidents are disclosed to authorities (Berger 124), a practice that echos The Plague's bureaucrats who hide the epidemic's severity. Camus would argue that such deception transforms ships into "floating panopticons" where crimes are both facilitated and concealed, a concept he explores through the character Cottard, who thrives in chaos (Berger 125).   

While Camus championed individual freedom, The Rebel insists it must not "negate the freedom of others" (132). This principle is violated by crimes like sexual assaults, which account for 30% of reported cruise incidents (Panko 8). Camus's mesure (moderation) concept condemns the industry's promotion of excessive all-you-can-drink packages and 24-hour casinos, which researchers link to a 40% rise in onboard conflicts (Panko 9).  

Yet, Camus would reject nihilism. His interpretation of revolt, described in The Rebel, is that it is a means to unite people and fight injustice (Camus 301), and he presents a solution to the current situation. The 2023 Sail Safely Act drafted by U.S. legislators demonstrates the form of unified political engagement that Camus supported. Everyone from Cruise Law News supports Camus's concept of lucid defiance through their passenger documentation of cruise ship crimes beyond confidentiality agreements. Camus would support any action that strives to establish meaning, even if it brings modest change, because the world lacks intrinsic meaning. 

Also, Camus would particularly scorn the exploitation of vulnerable passengers. In Neither Victims Nor Executioners, he writes, "Freedom is nothing if not the chance to build fairness" (Camus 256), a standard the industry fails when crew members (often underpaid migrants) become both perpetrators and victims of crimes. A 2022 Guardian investigation reveals that cruise workers experience assault rates 50% higher than passengers yet lack legal recourse (Harding), a systemic injustice Camus would compare to the oppressed "natives" in The Plague (Berger 126).  

For Camus, absurdity demands revolt. The Plague's Dr Rieux embodies this ethos: "I refuse to love a scheme of things where children are tortured" (Camus 178). Similarly, Camus would endorse grassroots movements like "International Cruise Victims," which lobbies for stricter crime reporting laws, a real-world example of his "creation of justice" (Tuttle 61).  

  The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act (CVSSA) of 2010, though well-intentioned,  contains lax enforcement, a policy failure Camus would label "administrative absurdity" (61). Scholarly critiques note that loopholes allow companies like Royal Caribbean to avoid accountability (Tuttle 61), mirroring The Plague's indifferent officials. Camus would argue that only collective action, such as passenger unions or global maritime treaties, could counter this institutionalized neglect.    

Camus's philosophy reveals cruise ship crimes as both absurd and morally urgent. Like Sisyphus, condemned to eternal struggle, society must persistently confront this epidemic not despite its absurdity but because of it. Camus would demand individual responsibility (rejecting exploitative freedom) and systemic change (transparent crime reporting, fair labour practices). His call in The Rebel to "serve justice so that freedom might be founded" (Camus 301) remains a blueprint for addressing modern social crises. Tarrou expresses in The Plague that true freedom emerges through caring behaviors (Camus 207). This ethical principle drives one to consider cruise ship offenses as fundamental indicators of widespread organizational values that value financial gain over human respect. Camus's enduring heritage demonstrates how absurd circumstances demand active responses from people.  Camus claims, existing as a person grows from revolt, which serves as a motto for individuals fighting against moral indifference at sea. 

 

                                             Works Cited 

Berger, Arthur Asa. "Ocean Cruise-Line Wars or Selling the Seas." Brands and Cultural Analysis, 2019, pp. 119–126. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-24709-6_12 

Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. Vintage, 1991, pp. 1–308. 

Panko, Thomas R., and Tony L. Henthorne. "Crimes at Sea: A Review of Crime Onboard Cruise Ships." International Journal of Safety and Security in Tourism and Hospitality, vol. 20, 2019, pp. 1–24. 

Tuttle, Jon. "The Efficacy of Work: Arthur Miller and Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus." American Drama, vol. 6, no. 1, 1996, p. 61. https://search.proquest.com/openview/12353749912edcd55e3b72728c58a4f0/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2030446.