Editing Anomie (section)

== In culture ==
In [[Albert Camus]]'s [[existentialist novel]] ''[[The Stranger (Camus novel)|The Stranger]]'', Meursault—the [[Boredom|bored]], alienated protagonist—struggles to construct an individual system of values as he responds to the disappearance of the old. He exists largely in a state of anomie,<ref name="wilson1">{{cite book|title=The Study of Lives: Essays on Personality in Honor of Henry A. Murray|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/studyoflivesessa00whit|chapter-url-access=registration|date=1963|publisher=Atherton Prentice-Hall|pages=352–359|author=Robert N. Wilson|edition=First|editor=Robert W. White|chapter=15, Albert Camus: Personality as Creative Struggle}}</ref> as seen from the [[apathy]] evinced in the opening lines: "{{Langx|fr|Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas|label=none}}" ("Today mum died. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know").

[[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]] expresses a similar concern about anomie in his novel ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]''. [[The Grand Inquisitor]] remarks that in the absence of God and immortal life, everything would be lawful.<ref>{{cite web|title=Can Civilization Survive Without God? A Conversation with Christopher and Peter Hitchens|url=http://www.pewforum.org/Belief-in-God/Can-Civilization-Survive-Without-God-.aspx|work=Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life|publisher=Pew Research Center|access-date=7 July 2013|author=Michael Cromartie|author2=Christopher Hitchens|author3=Peter Hitchens|format=transcript|date=12 October 2010|quote=The Brothers Karamazov{{nbsp}}... says, if there's no God, then surely everything is possible—thinkable{{nbsp}}...  Unfortunately, these are problems of human society and the human psyche—you might say, soul—whatever attitude we take to the humanness or the transcendent.|archive-date=29 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130629151641/http://www.pewforum.org/Belief-in-God/Can-Civilization-Survive-Without-God-.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> In other words, that any act becomes thinkable, that there is no moral compass, which leads to apathy and detachment.