The absurdity of the world — A letter to Sartre

Dear Jean-Paul Sartre,

In my existentialism courses, your writing was one of the hardest for me to grasp and internalize, but once I was able to understand it fully — it became simple to me.

As an existentialist, I value your thoughts on freedom, and the meaning of life. While some of your thoughts were a bit too eccentric for my personal taste in philosophy, one of your quotes has defined much of how I feel towards the world and my own existence.

Hell is other people.

— Sartre

I know this has been misinterpreted as other people are just awful to be around (and let’s be honest, that is definitely true in some cases), but I know it to be deeper from your theory on how you describe the “others”.

A lot of it is how when we exist, we exist in others mind as something different than ourselves. When other people are around, who we are is skewed by their perception. We are always subject to how other people view us, which can put us in a hell in our own minds; an internal battle of who we really are, compared to how the world sees us.

As Sartre described it, we become a “being for others” when we interact with the world. Other people can shape us, or break us. This makes human communication extremely difficult with many different people, because we are all wired differently. What can be “good” to others, might be “bad” for some. What can be desirable traits for others, might not be how I perceive them.

I feel that due to these perceptions, it has been ingrained our human consciousness to look out for ‘First Impressions’, because how other people see you at first glance, might be how they will look at you going forward, even if you are not that person you presented yourself as.

When people want us to make a good impression on someone, we are showing them our best sides. We don’t want people to see our flaws at first, because if we show that, we will then be judged and condemned to being those flaws, instead of being a person.

That is why “Hell Is Other People”. It’s so outlandish to me that we have to wear masks (illusions) of who we are, just to conceal the fact that we’re all human. None of us are perfect, but we have to show the world some aspect of perfection to be “influencers” or just to simply exist. No one wants to be around those who show constant negativity. People are drawn to the “positive” traits of success, happiness, and those who are thriving, even if it’s just a façade for some.

The fact that people have to live up to outrageous standards is beyond me.

Though, the philosophies of existentialism are freeing because we don’t always have to choose to live by those standards.

We can make the choice to live as we are, authentically, even if the ‘others’ judge us for how we live.

We are condemned to be free as you once said. And to be fair, that’s a blessing, but also a curse.

Sincerely,

Cecilia