Responsibility

How much of our lives, existence and mental state are we responsible for? Sartre says that all of our emotions and every aspect of our lives are made by choice. This means there are no outside forces. As a sociology major I cannot accept this. Everything we do is sculpted by our surroundings. Even the most personal decisions can be made on a personal level but overall some aspects of society can deeply decide whether or not you go through with a choice such as suicide. As for choosing our mental state, things can make us sad without our permission. People can make us mad without us wanting to be mad. Then in terms of our lives, we can choose what we want to do with our lives, this is always a limited choice however due to social stratification, status and various labels and discrimination's our culture puts on different people. Then once we get over those hurdles, no one will choose to be poor. No one wants to choose to be poor no one wants to live paycheck to paycheck. So to say that we are in control of our lives and choose to do everything and everything that we feel is a large fallacy. Everyone starts with a high goal but sometimes without any fault of their own they are pushed back and forced to settle on a less than ideal life that they never wanted.

The nature of a nature

In class we said that the need to choose a nature is a nature. From this my question is is there anything that is not a nature? and what is a nature? Is a nature just something you do or is it something that all of humanity does. If it is something all of humanity does then that makes sense. Every civilization since the we evolved with the ability to communicate with one another has tried to define themselves. This means that every culture has other finer subgroups of natures but these are not natures in the sense we talk about in class. Therefore there are many things that are not natures. Any culture specific trait or even more specific, personal trait, is not a nature. The only things to be considered natures would be the things that are significant to every human being. Something that regardless of culture, race or ethnicity everyone does.

We are Condemned

Condemned, has such a negative connotation. Yet it seems to be the only appropriate term for Sartre's radical freedom. We have no choice, we are destined to always be free. This the context behind Sartre's 'condemned' freedom. The negative connotation is simply a coincidence. Condemned is not a bad thing always. We can be condemned not to lie, to be nice, not to steal. These are not usual ways of using condemned but they are still correct.

Back to freedom, the main question is what does it mean to be free? Everyone will answer differently. To some people freedom is the ability to speak, to say their mind. To some people freedom is being able to go shopping without fear of attack or ambush. To me, freedom is voting, being able to say and dress in what I want. I know that my choices are not all my own, they are shaped by many things in my environment but but my environment overall is not forced into existence. That is what is free to me.

Touchy Subjects

Freedom is a touchy subject. As Americans we think everyone should have freedom and with freedom you can choose your government. We think that everyone should choose democracy because democracy is the government of the free. Some people do not agree. They like their monarch, their parliament etc. Many would rather these kinds of government because they require less input from the citizens and the government is trusted to make the hard decisions. I'm not positive on the set ups of these other governmental setups but at least on the surface they designate more power to the government than the civilian population. Most of these set ups include free people but Americans see them as not the best kind of free since they give over any power.

This is why freedom is a touchy subject. Everyone sees it different. Sartre saw it as the radical freedom where you are free to do whatever you want. Someone who has never been able to make a choice for themselves may see freedom as being able to choose what to eat and what to wear. Everyone's perceptions are skewed by their backgrounds and their culture so discussing freedom can be difficult. There are so many varying degrees of freedom.