Existential crisis is a question everyone of us should deal with at some point of time. As Albert Camus wrote in the Myth of Sisyphus it strikes us randomly on any street corner and everything changes then. Fortunately or not, it had hit me soon and I’ve been trying to articulate it ever since. Fully knowing that there is no answer to it. Any supernatural answer we give to it basically “Bad Faith”. To further articulate this phenomenon better, I picked up Existentialism is a Humanism. It is a speech given by Jean Paul Sartre, one of the prominent thinkers of Existentialism. His quotes are often used (abused). “Existence precedes essence” is the most famous of them. I completed reading this speech this week. I feel I’m more articulate about Existentialism now but only time can test this. Here are a couple of lines that resonated with me:
“Existence precedes essence”
When you want to make a knife, you first decide on its essence. It should be sharp, long etc. Basically, you design it first and then make it. For the knife, essence precedes its existence. If you believe that you are also designed by the God for a particular function, you can believe the same that is applicable for the knife. But many terrorists also believe the same. In Existentialism, we believe the opposite. That there is no design. We exist first and then design our lives ourselves — with freedom.
“When we say that man is responsible for himself, we do not mean that he is responsible only for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men.”
Sartre says that humans are free and they should freely do things of his interest with ‘responsibility’. And he defines this responsibility in a very wide sense - by applying the logic of universality. i.e., if you are not happy if every one does the same action that you do, your action is an irresponsible action. Sartre says that “man is a legislator of the mankind” through his actions. If you cheat in an exam, then you are basically committing that cheating is responsible and universal. There is some nuance to it, but this is it, more or less.
“What would happen if everyone did what I am doing?” - Sartre suggests that we should ask this question ourselves.
“Man is nothing other than his own project. He exists only to the extent that he realizes himself, therefore he is nothing more than the sum of his actions, nothing more than his life.”
Sartre made this statement in the context of excuses we generally give for not doing what we want to do. We are what we do - not what we think we can do. There are many aspiring writer friends of mine who hesitate to write. Excuses abound. They think there is potential in them, but it remains there - as potential. “For existentialists there is no potential for love other than that which is manifested in loving” - See the focus on verbs instead of nouns. Sartre says to focus on action and action alone. Let others give you nouns based on your actions.
All these quotes are uploaded to my Gita
My project on creating a comprehensive flood risk score for revenue circles in Assam has more or less reached a final shape. It’s documented here: RiskScoreModel. I learnt a new algorithm called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) recently in this process. I’d already written on TOPSIS
Started another Telugu book called Amaravathi Kathalu. I’m liking these stories. They start innocently and at the end punch you with a small social commentary.
The illustrations are by Bapu and they are beautiful :)
Amaravathi Kathalu are a delight! :)