Does it ever seem like we’re losing the real virtues of living life passionately? Or losing the sense of taking responsibility for who we are; the ability to make something of ourselves and feeling good about life?
People often discuss Existentialism as if it’s a philosophy of despair. But I think the truth is just the opposite. Sartre once said, when interviewed, that he never really felt a day of despair in his life. One thing that comes out from the reading of these philosophers' works is not a sense of anguish about life, so much as it is a real kind of exuberance of feeling on top of it. What they're saying is that your life is yours to create.
I'd say that you'd have to read the Post-Modernists with some interest, even admiration. But in reading them, there's always a nagging feeling that something absolutely essential is being left out. The more that you talk about a person as a social construction, or as a confluence of forces, or as fragmented or marginalized, what you do is open up a world of excuses; a world where there's no accountability whatsoever.
When Sartre talks about responsibility, he’s not talking about something abstract. He’s not talking about the kind of self or soul that theologians would argue about. It’s something very concrete: It’s you and me talking. Making decisions. Doing things and accepting the consequences.
It's true that there are six billion people in the world and counting. Nevertheless, what you do makes a difference. It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms. It makes a difference to other people and it sets an example. In short, the message here is that we should never simply write ourselves off and see ourselves as the victims of various forces. It’s always our decision who we are.
